Johnny Red: The Hurricane

What might have happened if, during a particularly dangerous Allied convoy run to beleaguered Murmansk, the pilot of an RAF Hurricane fighter ended up not just landing in the Soviet Union but fighting the Nazis alongside his Commie comrades in arms? That’s the conceit behind this update of a long-running story line from the British war comic series Battle Picture. The situation is dire to start, with the Wehrmacht chewing through the Soviet lines and the Russian squad, the Falcons, handicapped by equipment issues and unwanted oversight from a suspicious political officer. But RAF pilot Johnny, whose Russian is as fluent as his blonde mane is fulsome, takes no quarter and leads the Falcons—as well as some Night Witches, the legendary Soviet female pilots, who get a rare nod here—into one desperately outnumbered white-knuckle dogfight and ground skirmish after another. Burns’s (The Boys) art is appropriately frenetic for the bloody action, and Ennis’s (Preacher) macho template is overlaid with a suitably world-weary sensibility. (Jan.)