Comic of the Week - Peter Panzerfaust

Light week for me, and yet, I still have one book left to read (Planet of the Apes #11). The usual suspects (Batman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Wolverine) were all good. Supergirl continues to surprise me, as it turns out that my favorite Superman is actually the new Supergirl. Wonder Woman still featured art by Tony Atkins, as did last issue, and while there is nothing wrong with it, it's not Chiang.  Jason Aaron is wrapping his Wolverine run, so it remains to be seen if I'll continue reading once he's off the book. Batman is probably the best book out right now, nothing more to say about it.

Peter Panzerfaust by Kurtis Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins is billed as Peter Pan in WWII. Such a strange combination was intriguing enough to get me to try it out. The story opens with a flash forward to an old man being interviewed about his adventures with Peter, a framing device that I'm sure will come back later. Somehow, this old man survived the war after running around as a young, orphaned boy, with Peter and the rest of the orphans. In this take, there really is no Neverland, unless you count a bomb ravaged, Nazi infested French town as Neverland. While Peter does appear mysteriously, he is more reckless than magical and the miracle is that they don't get killed in the first few pages. The parallels with the original Peter Pan are not all that clear, which, to me makes it that much stronger. Too often when stories are reimagined like this, the parallels are so obvious it leaves me wondering what the point was in changing the setting. Peter and his orphans jump from building to building and by the end are fighting Nazis head on, or at least Peter is as the boys watch in terror. I'm sure the fact that the hand of the Nazi we see in the end is off panel is a hint that this will be our Hook. Visually, the book has a dirty, fantastical feel to it that sets a perfect mood for something that is at once dark and yet somehow hopeful. Overall, I enjoyed this book fine, but a few panels in the end seemed a bit jumpy and I wasn't sure what happened until I read them a couple of times. It's a minor issue with a comic that holds potential for being one of the more interesting ongoing series to begin this year.