Our Army at War #151
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeOur Army at War #151 (cover-dated February 1965) is one of the most consequential single issues in DC's Silver Age war line because it introduced Enemy Ace — Baron Hans von Hammer, the 'Hammer of Hell' — a German World War I flying ace who was presented not as a villain to be vanquished but as a fully sympathetic, deeply conflicted protagonist. That narrative inversion, placing American readers squarely inside the psyche of an enemy combatant, was genuinely groundbreaking for the genre and distinguished the feature from virtually every other war anthology title of its era. The debut also made Our Army at War the birthplace of DC's two most enduring war characters: Sgt. Rock had already anchored the book since the early 1960s, and now the same title — under the same creative partnership — delivered a character whose stories have since been praised as among the strongest war comics of the entire Silver Age. By insisting on the universal human cost of conflict over jingoistic heroism, Kanigher and Kubert quietly helped shift what a war comic could say and who it could speak for.
In "Enemy Ace," a relentless German pilot known as the Red Demon downgrades his 50th and 51st enemy aircraft before being wounded in the head. Afterward, he takes on the mission to escort a zeppelin, though he ultimately fails to save it.
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Robert Kanigher wrote and edited the issue, with Julius Schwartz's editorial records (later made available to DC Comics) confirming the credits: Kanigher scripted the Enemy Ace backup while Joe Kubert handled both pencils and inks, and Kubert also drew the cover. The Enemy Ace debut was structured as a two-part backup story of roughly fourteen pages, with a final tier on the last page soliciting direct reader feedback — a sign that Kanigher was actively testing audience response to the unconventional premise. Kanigher and Kubert modeled von Hammer loosely on the real German ace Manfred von Richthofen: both characters flew crimson Fokker Dr.I triplanes, came from aristocratic families, and tracked each kill with a personal trophy. The backup's quick popularity led to two further backup appearances in Our Army at War #153 and #155, then a two-issue tryout in Showcase #57–58 (1965), before the feature graduated to a lead slot in Star-Spangled War Stories beginning with issue #134 (1968).
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Enemy Ace (Baron Hans von Hammer, 'The Hammer of Hell'), created by writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert; cover-dated February 1965.
- The Enemy Ace debut was a two-part backup story (approximately 14 pages total), in which von Hammer celebrates his 50th aerial kill, is grazed by a bullet from his 51st victim, convalesces, finds solace hunting with a lone black wolf in the Black Forest, then returns to the air to defend a zeppelin against Allied fighters.
- Sgt. Rock and Easy Company anchor the lead story in the same issue, making #151 the single issue in which DC's two most celebrated war characters share a book.
- The character was modeled loosely on the real-life World War I German ace Manfred von Richthofen (the 'Red Baron'): like Richthofen, von Hammer flew a crimson Fokker Dr.I triplane, was of aristocratic birth, and collected a personal trophy for each kill.
- The Enemy Ace feature was structurally innovative in that it told the German side of World War I, presenting an enemy soldier as a man of honor and psychological torment rather than as an antagonist — a format groundbreaking within American war comics of the era.
- The debut backup was reprinted multiple times: in Star-Spangled War Stories #158 (1971), DC Special #26 (1977), Enemy Ace Special #1, Enemy Ace Archives Volume 1 (DC hardcover, October 2002), Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace Volume 1 (DC, 2008), and the New Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Stories (2004); the entire issue was later reprinted as a DC Facsimile Edition (2025).
- After three backup appearances in Our Army at War (#151, #153, #155), the character received a two-issue tryout in Showcase #57–58 (1965) — his first cover appearances — before becoming the lead feature of Star-Spangled War Stories starting with issue #134 (April–May 1968).
- Enemy Ace never headlined a self-titled ongoing series; all original Kanigher/Kubert stories appeared in anthology titles, and the character was later revived in original graphic novel form by George Pratt (Enemy Ace: War Idyll, 1990) and by Garth Ennis and Chris Weston (Enemy Ace: War in Heaven, 2001).
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Reprinted in 80 Page Giant Magazine #7 (1965), Brûlant #1 (1967), Brûlant #3 (1967), Star Spangled War Stories #158 (1971), DC Special #26 (1977), Pilot #3/1978 (1978), Magnum #6/1986 (1986), Enemy Ace Special #1 (1990), Sgt. Rock #15 (1991), Enemy Ace Archives #1 (2002), The New Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Stories: From Crumb to Clowes #[nn] (2004), Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace #1 (2008), Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock #3 (2010), Our Army at War 151 (Facsimile Edition) #[nn] (2025)
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