War Is Hell #9

History

The War Is Hell series launched in 1973 as one of Marvel's many Bronze Age reprint vehicles, spending its first six issues reprinting Atlas-era war stories and then two issues of Sgt. Fury material before editorial decided to pivot to new content with issue #9. The new direction originated with writer Tony Isabella, who pitched the series concept and plotted the debut story at the request of editor Roy Thomas, who wanted to give veteran artist Dick Ayers an ongoing vehicle. Because Isabella's new editorial duties at Marvel consumed his writing time, Chris Claremont — then barely a year into his professional scripting career — was brought in to script the issue from Isabella's plot, with Roy Thomas also receiving a writing credit; the Hey Kids Comics wiki further notes that Steve Gerber contributed an uncredited assist on this specific issue, something acknowledged in the letter column of issue #12. Len Wein served as editor-in-chief at the time of publication, and Gil Kane provided the cover.

Trivia · 7 facts

• First appearance of John Kowalski (Earth-616): a dishonorably discharged, deported Polish-American Marine who is killed during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 and condemned by Death to die repeatedly across World War II in the bodies of other soldiers.
• First story-length, speaking appearance of Death (Earth-616) in her role as cosmic punisher and jailer — the entity who would later become Thanos's 'Mistress Death' throughout Marvel's major cosmic storylines.
• Written by Chris Claremont (script) and Tony Isabella (plot), with Roy Thomas also credited as writer; Dick Ayers provided interior pencils, Frank Springer inks, Phil Rachelson colors, and Gil Kane the cover.
• Steve Gerber contributed an uncredited assist on this issue, confirmed in the letter column of War Is Hell #12.
• Issue #9 was the first installment of all-new material in the series; issues #1–6 had reprinted Atlas/Marvel war comics and issues #7–8 reprinted Sgt. Fury stories.
• Kowalski's purgatory mechanic — inhabiting the bodies of soldiers from all sides of the war just before their deaths — gave Claremont creative latitude to tell stories from Axis and Allied perspectives alike, an unusual moral flexibility for a 1974 Marvel war book.
• War Is Hell #9–15 was later collected in the Marvel Universe by Chris Claremont omnibus (August 2017, ISBN 978-1302907150), and the debut issue was also included in Marvel Ghost Stories (October 2011).

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