Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Vol. 1 Uneasy Company by Ivan Brandon Brandon, I: Men Of War Vol. 1. As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics- event of September 2011, Men of War follows young, headstrong soldier Joe Rock (grandson of the legendary Sgt. Rock) as he assumes command of -a team of ex-military men turned contractors. Will they survive the battle-scarred landscape carved by the DCU's Super-Villains? Find out in this explosive new series from Ivan Brandon (Viking, Doc Savage) and Tom Derenick (Justice Society Of America)! This volume collects issues #1-6 of Men of War, part of the DC Comics-The New 52 event. Ivan Brandon is a writer arguably best known for his work in American comics, where he has written a number of works for every major publisher, including Viking, Men of War, The Cross Bronx, , Wolverine, Nemesis & Doc Savage. He is also the creator and producer of the Eisner-nominated series 24Seven and spends the majority of his time in and around New York City. Men of War Vol. 1: Uneasy Company. As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Men of War follows young, headstrong soldier Joe Rock (grandson of the legendary Sgt. Rock) as he assumes command of Easy Company-a team of ex-military men turned contractors. Will they survive the battle-scarred landscape carved by the DCU's Super-Villains? Find out in this explosive new series from Ivan Brandon (Viking, Doc Savage) and Tom Derenick (Justice Society Of America)!This volume collects issues #1-6 of MEN OF WAR, part of the DC Comics—The New 52 event. Men of War 1: Uneasy Company. Reprints Men of War (2) #1-8 (November 2011-June 2012). Corporal Joseph Rock finds himself in the heat of battle fighting a war that is about to get a lot stranger. With the rise of superheroes, a soldier’s classification as a “hero” is about to change and what makes a hero will become in question. Be it Frankenstein and a robot taking on Nazis in World War II or an agent on a secret mission in Afghanistan to take out an opioid smuggler, heroes come in all forms…war is hell! Men of War Volume 1: Uneasy Company features stories by Ivan Brandon, , , Jonathan Vankin, James Robinson, J.T. Krul, B. Clay Moore, and John Arcudi and art by various artists. The comic was one of the launch titles of DC Comics’ New 52 universe after the events of . It was cancelled after eight issues. Men of War was doomed. were a real niche, and like Westerns, the war comics’ time seems to have come and gone. When Men of War was announced as one of the titles being released, it was a really interesting choice in that sense…but the comic failed to fly. The series is primarily made up of the six issue “Uneasy Company” story that introduces Sergeant Rock into the New 52 (along with some other classic DC war characters like ). This story is all over the place and feels really under cooked. They introduce the idea that superheroes exist in this world where men are still fighting with guns and bombs, but it really doesn’t go deeper than that…who are the real heroes? Rock is also indicated to have something special about him that never gets developed due to the series cancellation. There are two stand-alone issues that represent two different types of war stories. You have “Remembering the Leopard” which is a bit of a “real world” war story with a soldier going on a solo mission to take down the terrorist. The last story “Dead Man Flying” is a “weird war” type of story with fantasy and horror elements featuring Frankenstein (who had his own title Frankenstein and the Agents of S.H.A.D.E. ) and the old G.I. Robot character from DC’s character graveyard…neither issue really worked because they were too quickly developed with one-issue stories. The primary stories of each issue have back-up stories and these stories feel like throwaways. They are slim and really do feel like filler instead of short stories that didn’t have enough meat to carry their own issue. They are a good example of why a comic like this struggles in today’s comic book market. I don’t know if Men of War failed because it was a war comic or if it failed because it wasn’t that good. The art was average and the story should really have been about exploring this real dichotomy of the everyman fighting a battle in a world where there are men can fly, aliens invade, and the heroes were spandex instead of fatigues. Men of War didn’t explore this enough…if it had, I might have kept reading. Men of War 1: Uneasy Company. Reprints Men of War (2) #1-8 (November 2011-June 2012). Corporal Joseph Rock finds himself in the heat of battle fighting a war that is about to get a lot stranger. With the rise of superheroes, a soldier’s classification as a “hero” is about to change and what makes a hero will become in question. Be it Frankenstein and a robot taking on Nazis in World War II or an agent on a secret mission in Afghanistan to take out an opioid smuggler, heroes come in all forms…war is hell! Men of War Volume 1: Uneasy Company features stories by Ivan Brandon, Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, Jonathan Vankin, James Robinson, J.T. Krul, B. Clay Moore, and John Arcudi and art by various artists. The comic was one of the launch titles of DC Comics’ New 52 universe after the events of Flashpoint . It was cancelled after eight issues. Men of War was doomed. War comics were a real niche, and like Westerns, the war comics’ time seems to have come and gone. When Men of War was announced as one of the titles being released, it was a really interesting choice in that sense…but the comic failed to fly. The series is primarily made up of the six issue “Uneasy Company” story that introduces Sergeant Rock into the New 52 (along with some other classic DC war characters like Gravedigger). This story is all over the place and feels really under cooked. They introduce the idea that superheroes exist in this world where men are still fighting with guns and bombs, but it really doesn’t go deeper than that…who are the real heroes? Rock is also indicated to have something special about him that never gets developed due to the series cancellation. There are two stand-alone issues that represent two different types of war stories. You have “Remembering the Leopard” which is a bit of a “real world” war story with a soldier going on a solo mission to take down the terrorist. The last story “Dead Man Flying” is a “weird war” type of story with fantasy and horror elements featuring Frankenstein (who had his own title Frankenstein and the Agents of S.H.A.D.E. ) and the old G.I. Robot character from DC’s character graveyard…neither issue really worked because they were too quickly developed with one-issue stories. The primary stories of each issue have back-up stories and these stories feel like throwaways. They are slim and really do feel like filler instead of short stories that didn’t have enough meat to carry their own issue. They are a good example of why a comic like this struggles in today’s comic book market. I don’t know if Men of War failed because it was a war comic or if it failed because it wasn’t that good. The art was average and the story should really have been about exploring this real dichotomy of the everyman fighting a battle in a world where there are men can fly, aliens invade, and the heroes were spandex instead of fatigues. Men of War didn’t explore this enough…if it had, I might have kept reading. Men of War Vol. 1: Uneasy Company by Ivan Brandon. Sgt Rock is DC’s primary war character, Easy Company his supporting cast, but they’re rooted in World War II, so it’s his grandson who features in modern era missions. He first seems to be far from a chip off the old block, resisting promotion and having problems with authority, yet as Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick’s lead story shows, place in him action and the timeless Rock reactions kick in. He’s decisive, and above all heroic. Where Rock and his troops are in action is never specified, but most of those they’re fighting have a vague Middle Eastern look about them. While that edges toward propaganda, beyond that there’s no ideology involved. As soldiers, Rock and company need someone to fight, and the USA’s official 21 st century wars have been with Arabic nations. These aren’t straightforward stories of army combat, however. Rock is placed in world of superhumans and has to deal with them. It’s an awkward fusion. While escalating the threat renders Rock even more heroic, it also removes several levels of credibility. This is no longer believable as an extremely well trained ordinary man overcoming great odds. Were someone writing about Bruce Wayne’s financial dealings to refer to premium over straight bond value, Maastricht Criteria, and macroeconomic transaction leverage, it would be dull, and more than likely edited out. Yet the equivalent military guff apparently supplies legitimacy, impressing a small section of Brandon’s audience with authenticity by alienating the majority who wade through multiple explanatory footnotes to make sense of what’s otherwise a simple story. It’s an in-built sales diminisher. If you cream over the difference between a five five six cal and something that shoots seven six two, and know what a goose and crack bang is, Brandon is writing for you. Rock’s six chapters are backed up by several shorter stories, the World War II adventures of Frankenstein’s monster also drawn by Derenick. He and writers Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt are having pulp fun, as they show monster vs Nazis, monster vs monster, and monster vs robot. draws two stories of bravery very nicely. Jonathan Vankin’s another writer peppering his piece with military acronyms, but it’s considerably more accomplished than the Rock story, the collection’s highlight, constantly surprising, and better than James Robinson’s single man mission. Richard Corben’s art on John Arcudi’s strange Civil War enactment is a treat, and two other stories also meet the remit. J. T. Krul and Scott Kolins contrast the adrenalin of combat with the reality facing soldiers who don’t sign up for second tour, and Kindt with Patrick Scherberger effectively combines a knife fight with a chase as both combatants size each other up throughout. The weakest of the shorts is B. Clay Moore and Paul McCaffrey’s piece about testing a combat suit. Almost all these shorts, though, improve on the main feature, which never hits the right mood or pace, probably losing many readers with an opening chapter that needed a greater injection of thrills. Despite Uneasy Company being labelled as Volume 1 on the cover, there were no sequels.