Hidden Gems of Comics: Peter J. Tomasi's Light Brigade

When a book is described as "Where Eagles Dare meets The Evil Dead", a certain image is conjured in your mind: soldiers versus zombies. When I saw this description attached to Light Brigade, I was expecting a light, fun mash up of two well known genres. Nothing more. How wrong I was. Released in 2004, the four issue DC Comics miniseries, from writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Peter Snejbjerg, uses the World War II as the backdrop for a much bigger war: the war in heaven. When the war spills over onto earth, the last of the offspring of humans and renegade angels, the Nephillim, make one last push to storm the gates of heaven. Standing in their way are a platoon of American soldiers tasked by God with the stopping the Nephillim at any cost. While a great writer on established titles, given free reign with his own creations Tomasi is fantastic (see The Mighty for further proof). He imbues the story with a great sense of history, not just his well researched take on the second World War, but also his back story for the Nephillim and their vendetta against God. He takes established events in the bible, such as Noah's Ark and the crucifixion of Jesus, adding his own twists to make the world of Light Brigade feel real and grab the reader. He also crafts some amazing action scenes, the dog fight between an angel and American warplane being the stand out. The main draw of the book for me is the characters. They are so well written and fleshed out, they really clicked with me and helped draw me deeper into the story. Every member of the the Light Brigade is given their own unique voice, even when most of the spotlight is on Chis and Marcus. Basically two sides of the same coin, Chris questions the point of faith after learning of the death of his wife, while Marcus, the centurion who pierced Jesus' side while on the cross, has fully embraced his after witnessing proof of the son of god's divinity. They provide voices for the theological discussion which becomes the back bone of the book. Then there is the Nephillim. Introduced wearing Nazi uniforms, just in case you didn't know they were evil, we see them soak up hundreds of bullets and replace severed body parts (where the Evil Dead comparisons come from). Rejected by God, they are truly formidable and insidious creatures, destroying all thats good in the world to erode the faith and belief of innocent humans. They are my favorite comic book villains by far. Mixing together action, horror, and human drama together to craft a truly epic and unique story, Light Brigade is a book that demands to be read by anybody with more than a passing interest in comics.