How hard could it be to pilot a German Stuka?
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Bob Q
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
“Rocket Sea” continues, by JEFF PARKER (Suicide Squad, Fantastic Four) and BOB Q (The Lone Ranger). Bond and his squad commander a German bomber plane, to sink a Nazi cruiser. And aside from not knowing how to fly the bomber, or how to drop bombs from it, all should go as planned…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though this particular section of the series with the submarine hasn’t been as engaging as the first two issues were, I’m not calling it a misstep on Jeff Parker’s part. He’s written a lot of things that worked well over the years and come from unexpected angles and I understand the importance of covering this kind of material for Bond. It’s an area that plays well enough but it lacks the kind of storytelling I’m hoping for it and it doesn’t let Bob Q really stretch his skills in a way that shows on the page in a big way. He’s doing great stuff in actually making a aircraft attack on a ship be tense and engaging but combine that with the darkened time of day and the minimal landscape around and it just feels a bit blander than it should.
With Bond and his group having taken out the Germans on the island and acquiring a prisoner in the process, Bond’s idea of taking the Stuka and using it to attack the German ship is audacious to say the least. They don’t have any real flight experience and even the one that trained with the RAF, Malcolm, ended up transferring into the Navy because he had issues with altitude. And that’s all without just how crazy it is to actually try and do this. But watching Bond’s enthusiasm seep out into the rest with the way he approaches it in a kind of rational way hits the sweet spot and Malcolm gets caught up enough in it, especially when they find a manual for the plane. Gotta love having that there as a backup in case the pilot dies and someone else has to step in.
The bulk of the book focuses on the attack mission itself and it’s definitely fun to watch play out since both Bond and Malcolm are doing their best to figure out how to fly the plane using the German instructions. The Stuka is not a normal plane either with its design as a dive-bomber that has some automatic elements to it as well, making it a good challenge. The plus side is that we do see them not being full on heroes from the outside, unbeatable and of great skill, but rather human in coming close but not quite and struggling to do some real damage, which they eventually do. That’s only going to up Bond’s reputation at this point and he earns himself some additional solidarity in making sure Malcolm stays alive as well. All of this wraps up nicely and we do get the shift to the next story that has him acting as an actual OSS field agent, which is what you expect to happen in a time of war and you have to use field elements you might not have otherwise.
In Summary:
While this is a fun installment overall, it’s the last page or so that sets Bond onto his next phase that has me the most excited. Seeing him surviving his submarine run is no surprise but the things he faced there has shaped his understanding of war a bit more while also highlighting the quick thinking on his feet side when it comes to using the Stuka. It’s a lot of things that any normal rule following commander would freak out about so it helps that he’s able to luckily sidestep that. Parker and Bob Q have a really solid book here with the story and growth and I’m excited to see the story shift to Lisbon next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: January 16th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
