Editor's Note: War is Hell: First Flight of the Phantom Eagle #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 16.

"5: Black September"

And thus completes the first of Garth Ennis' War is Hell series for Marvel. We can only hope that there will be more to come, because that one was pretty damn good from start to finish. Not only did it have excellent characterizations, comedy alongside tragedy, and a boatload of information about the First World War, it had some of Howard Chaykin's best artwork this century.

Essentially, Ennis has used the somewhat ridiculous character, The Phantom Eagle, to give readers an entertaining and informative summary of just what it was like to be in combat during The Great War. Anyone who already knows something about the history of the time should be satisfied with the accuracy of Ennis' research, and anyone who doesn't know anything about World War One will come away having actually learnt something. And there were enough laughs (mainly at the expense of our hero, Karl Kaufmann, a.k.a. The Phantom Eagle) to keep it from becoming dry or too depressing. Because this is some depressing stuff right here, folks. Characters die at the drop of a hat in this series, because this was a war that cost Europe nearly an entire generation of young men.

And Chaykin provides us with a gorgeous and horrifying two page spread (followed by a full page aftermath shot) of British troops going over the top and being mowed down by machine gun fire, in order to really bring home the meaninglessness of this combat. The saddest part is that it is exactly how it happened. Over and over again.

As an added bonus, this issue we finally get the first reference to "The Phantom Eagle," and it is both hilarious and absurd, and summed up most appropriately by Booker. I'd go ahead and spoil it here, but your children might have delicate ears (especially if you're American and know nothing about British slang). Suffice to say, it is perfect.

I know that the fifth and final issue of a miniseries is a bad time to try to tell people to read something if they haven't started already, but here I am saying it. This is a beautiful book, both to look at and to read. If you can't be bothered to track down the back issues, then keep an eye out for the collected version. It's definitely worth the time and money for five issues of Howard Chaykin at his best and Garth Ennis writing the kind of comics that we just don't get much of in America. Sure, England has had comics like this for thirty years, but over here it's rare and exciting and we need more like it.

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