OUR ARMY AT WAR FEATURING SGT ROCK #222 AUGUST 1970
The tables have been turned. The indefatigable Sgt Rock has been captured by the Germans and is tied to a cross like a sacrifice. "Tell your men to SURRENDER now, Sergeant... Or-- You are a DEAD MAN!" barks the German Commander from his position atop a tank. "Y-You know what to do, Easy!" yells Rock. Surely he is not telling his men to surrender? Of course not. But how he can be suggesting anything else when the Germans have their rifles trained on him in numbers. If Easy Company don't surrender then Rock surely will be sacrificed... Maybe they will...?
The principle story in OUR WORLD AT WAR #222 sets up an opposition between two types of soldier-- the brave, honourable Sgt Rock and the Nazi officer who takes him captive. It also focuses on the nature of sacrifice, most specifically self-sacrifice. And it asks the question still pertinent in today's world-- how can tyranny be opposed and defeated?
The narrative introduces us immediately to the sinister (unnamed) German Major, representing the tyranny of the entire Nazi regime. This is a man with ambition and a zeal for conquest to match his Fuehrer. Addressing his men he arrogantly dismisses the "Amerikaners" who he says believe naively and foolishly that "victory is within their grasp".
Joe Kubert underlines this officer's ardent belief in his right to rule by prominently including an armoured suit of a medieval Teutonic knight as he spouts his rhetoric. Here is a man whose system of values, like Hitler's, is based on absurdly false myths about the past. And an even more absurd belief that they are in some way chivalrous knights themselves.
The officer's plan is to help bring about Nazi victory by learning more about his enemy. He determines to ascertain from his captive, Sgt Rock, "the American soldiers' Achilles heel" so that they may be crushed. Despite his condemnation of American "decadence" Kubert emphasises the falsity of his standards by depicting him in an opulent room complete with its suits of armour, an oversized Nazi banner and a comfy armchair in which he reclines lazily.
A flashback sequence reveals Rock's capture, and Kubert makes sure the Sarge doesn't go easily. Selflessly attempting to rescue one of his men, Rock is taken down by nearly a dozen German soldiers. The final panel of page 6 is powerfully rendered. Rock's upturned face, eyes closed, mouth yelling in pain, is ground to the floor by a featureless rifle butt which takes up most of the frame. And the artist/writer employs poetic devices in the caption box, namely the 'frozen molasses' metaphor and repeated use of the word 'stopped' to masterfully capture Rock's sense of loss of consciousness--
As we return to his interrogation by the Nazi Major, we see Rock's stoic refusal to co-operate. The guy's taken a beating and has to be held up by three or four soldiers. But though his head is bowed his strength is not in doubt, his trademark open jacket revealing his muscular body and the bullet belts still draped across his shoulders reminding us of his deadly potential.
The German Major, in contrast is depicted as a thin, weaselly looking individual with narrow eyes. Kubert draws the character as if he is drawing a snake or a reptile -- cruel, deadly and cold-blooded. His immaculate uniform confirms that he is not a man of action. His furrowed brow and almost constant malevolent smile tell the reader exactly the sort of unpleasant customer he is.
One frame positions him dwarfed both by the enormous castle window and by the swastika on the gigantic banner behind him. Here is a man utterly in the thrall of the twisted Nazi creed. Utterly confident in his own superiority. And as the story -as well as history itself- will tell, of course, utterly misguided and doomed to defeat.
He threatens to kill Rock's entire squad unless the Sarge shares what "motivates" him. He intends to understand the psychology of American soldiers so that when the information is shared with Hitler it can be used to defeat the entire US army. I don't know how open the Fuehrer was to suggestions from front-line Wermacht officers, but the Major's confidence in his crack-pot scheme only reinforces the sense of his delusional self-belief.
Indeed, as his attempts to play mind games on Rock stutter to a halt, the rest of Easy Company are advancing on the castle where the Sarge is held prisoner. Three silent panels depict the moment of attack. The first two use a switching of angles to reveal first the approaching GI's, then the unsuspecting Germans. The third panel pulls away to show the attack itself, the effectiveness and its silent execution underlined by the artist's use of a silhouette. It's an all-action tableau, with arms and legs drawn in a chaos of angles.
By now the Nazi Major is becoming frustrated. Momentarily dropping his smile he decides to take a different course of action since Rock refuses to talk. Unexpectedly he stumbles on what he identifies as Rock's "weakness"-- his compassion.
In true villainous style he lacks empathy himself and cannot appreciate that a successful leader might actually care about other people. And now that he has worked it out he sees it as something to exploit. He also suffers from a grandiosity that sees him applying his methods on a large scale, relishing the prospect of subjugating others.
His face is a picture of pure malevolence as he taunts Easy Company to surrender otherwise he will execute Sgt Rock, who he has tied to a stake like a sacrificial animal, high above the castle walls.
Like all good heroes the Sarge retains his nobility at his moment of crisis, urging his men to accept him as a sacrifice. His selflessness is in complete contrast to anything in his antagonist's persona. The moment leaves the reader struggling to work out how things might be resolved without the Sarge dying.
The three panels depicting the moment Easy Company surrendering are framed from Rock's point of view, the 'camera' moving in closer then closer still to focus on the beads of sweat and a tear that drips down his cheek as he feels 'sicker' than ever before. This is the hero defeated, at his lowest ebb.
And now the Major's sinister grin is fully restored. It is his moment of triumph as his narrow eyes glare excitedly out at the reader, gloating over his accomplishment. His talk earlier of "conquest" and making nations kneel is matched here by his references to superiority and a "master-plan" to defeat the "Amerikanische Soldaten". Employing the use of the German phrase here reinforces the difference between this character and his defeated captive, whose limp body is being taken down from the stake by the soldiers in the background.
Of course it doesn't last. Easy Company have put themselves in danger with a trick to rescue the Sarge. Kubert enjoys contrast the Major's moment of triumph with the way he is depicted several panels later when he realises he has been outwitted. His eyes are wide in disbelief, his normally immaculate hair is ruffled and his mouth is open in horror. His haughty sense of superiority is replaced by panic-stricken defeat. If he was depicted as a snake previously now he seems more like a startled chicken.
As Easy Company round up the Germans the story is neatly tied up. The Major falteringly asks why Rock's men put themselves in danger for him. He has heard Rock himself instruct them to leave him, to put the safety of the whole company before that of one man. Their behaviour seems irrational to him, despite the fact that it has paid off and they now have the upper hand. He even accuses them of acting "improperly".
Rock's explanation is delivered with the character also staring out of the frame towards the reader. Kubert wants the message to sink in-- that only by valuing the lives of others do human beings grow in strength. That compassion is a positive quality, not an "Achilles heel". And the hopeful closing note, as pertinent today as when the story was written, is that tyranny can be opposed and defeated when people stand in unity against it.
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