Here Ennis plays with having two protagonists, the expectations that arrangement has on the reader. Play might be the wrong word because play suggests it might be fun. Ennis doesn’t do it for fun, he does it to get a surprising ending.

See, the series has always had the two protagonists juxtaposed, but it’s only ever had one narrator. The reason for that inequality becomes clear this issue.

The issue opens an extended period after the first two and Ennis takes a few pages to establish the revised ground situation. It–and the snow of the Russian winter–make this issue feel fresh, like Ennis can do anything with it.

What he does–and I’ve read it and the first Battlefields series before–is create something rather special and rather important. Ennis has reached new ground as a writer with this series, singlehandedly showing the war comic to be a vibrant, important genre.

Magnificent.