When I said this story should have been two issues instead of three, I was wrong. Our Wild Geese Go should’ve been a one shot. I don’t even have the energy to talk about Aira’s artwork, which is simultaneously too fine and too rough for the story. It’s talking heads again, with a couple of the lads in Dutch with the Nazis.

They get away though. It’s not much of a spoiler because their captivity isn’t particularly dramatic. Nothing in the issue’s dramatic. Ennis is just trying to get to the conclusion, which is about the Irish soldiers coming into their own in a way. In a way he could have done much better in one issue without a mildly ludicrous subplot.

All War Stories has got is Ennis. The book isn’t a collaboration between him and Aira. It’s Ennis. Would it be better as a collaboration? Maybe. He might have been able to get away with this story arc if he’d had an artist who could emote through the art, who could sway the reader. It’s not Aira.

The issue–and this story arc–just shows how desperately editors are needed in indie books.