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…

Juxtaposing the two stories–the young male Nazi soldier and the young female Russian flier–might seem like a standard approach, but it produces some unexpected things. The German fears the Russians, who the reader sees most personified as this young woman. She’s cheerful, mostly chipper and very good at her job. Her comrades are similar, caring…

I don’t know if I appreciated Braun enough the first time I read this series. He can do the complex expressions (ranging from unsure Nazis to zealot ones, not to mention the Russian female fliers who feel alienated and overwhelmed) and all the action and all the equipment. He adds a sense of innocent to…