The Royals: Masters of War

When superheroes and the world wars get into the same context somehow, most buffs will associate to the Golden Age of Comic Books. Pictures like Batman hunting for nazi saboteurs in America or Superman wrestling enemy submarines come to my mind. These ancient popular entertainment pieces may strike us as naive and caricature-like, but they just reflected to the spirit of their age. Who knew that very late descendants of these patriotic comic books still appear in our days. The Royals: Masters of War is a six-part historical fiction comics adventure, which takes us back in the time of the biggest crisis of England in the 20th century. 

On these pages, the Battle of Britain is joined by the members of the British Royal Family, and superhero-abilities flow in the blue blood. This post is a review of the first two published episodes.

Hitler and Tojo are in trouble. Mr. pants on the outside of the 40s is teaching them a lesson (and doesn’t forget to encourage you to buy war bonds).

What is in the blue blood?

 

In this alternate universe, flowing royal blood in your veins means having superhuman abilities, those were the source of the power of your ancestors. This power became title and was inherited generation after generation. The superhuman ruling class guarded the purity of its noble bloodline carefully for a reason and kept the newcomers out. This marriage practice lead to interbreeding and the unavoidable mental and physical degeneration. The exhausting and costly Great War had shattered the people’s confidence in the traditional ruling classes and social order. Several ancient royal dynasties like the Romanovs or Habsburgs fell victim to this turmoil.

The East End in Flames. The Blitz, London, 1940.

The British Royal Family: The House of Windsor had chosen to lay low and withdrew from public life. The heirs were declared as powerless for the public, and the king forbid them to use their powers ever again. The Windsors would have kept living their decadent lifes on taxpayers’ money and would have filled the pages of tabloids all right if the Second World War hadn’t happened.

The king returns and seizes the skies (SPOILER)

 

The young and naive blond prince Henry cannot stand the carnage outside and  the suffering of the common people anymore. Instead of distributing tea and some blankets in a bomb shelter, he enters the raging battle above his own home, like his ancestors did in the  times of peril. In a very early part of the storyline, we will meet a serious character flaw of his, but it only makes the prince and the plot more interesting. By the way, the story itself doesn’t follow the historical family tree of the Windsors; the names and characters are different.

When I’m writing these words, yet only two parts of the six were published, but I can tell that the major theme is the superhuman escalation of World War Two. The pictures are beautiful, not Jim Lee- or The Red Star-beautiful but they are pleasant to look at. The Royals: Masters of War comics come with the promise of being extraordinary. Superheroes and the old royal dynasties are a daring but ingenious combination (bloody hell, after the magic-enchanted Soviet empire, I’m laissez faire on the subject…), and I’m really looking forward to the next episodes.

The pictures were taken from the resptective pages of The Royals: Master of War #1-2. Written by: Rob Williams. Artist: Simon Coleby. Publisher: Vertigo Comics

Tripods on No Man’s Land – The Great Martian War 1913-1917

Are you familiar with The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells? If not, that is something you have missed. This novel from 1897 is one of the first modern science fiction works and the Holy Grail of the alien invasion genera. H.G Wells, the author, was the Michael Crichton of his day, a real visionary, who fused the invasion literature with the alien element and introduced the total war, a too familiar characteristic of the 20th century conflicts. In time, this forever classic had inspired many followers, and the War of the Worlds became a franchise of popular culture. New adaptations, homages, incarnations continue to appear in our days. In this post, we will take a look at one of the latest examples: The Great Martian War 1913-1917 documentary.

War and remembrance

The Great Martian War 1913-1917 is a 90 minutes long, made-for-television pseudo-documentary, a historical fiction which recalls the events of an alternate First World War like it did happen in our own reality hundred years earlier. To create this pseudo-reality, The Great Martian War uses manipulated and mashed-up historical footage, fake retrospections of surviving witnesses, and so on. 

A deadly and dreaded weapon once, now a museum piece

This time, the scriptwriters did not really more than they transposed the story from the Victorian era and adapted it in a World War One environment. The arrival of the aliens is a shocking event, and the European nations must set aside their growing differences to avoid complete extermination in this struggle. The trenches in North-West Europe are filled with millions of dreading men. These people desperately try to check the alien war machine with their rifles, horse drawn artillery and early biplanes. 

Going over the top

Numerous historical events like the Christmas of 1914, the Somme offensive, chemical warfare, America’s isolatism, the tank attack at Cambrai, the Spanish flu, etc., were reused in the plot. As a matter of fact, we can just replace the alien term with the Germans from World War One. The script doesn’t really help to understand how the conventional armies of humanity manage to hold the line against the seemingly unstoppable, faceless conquerors with heat-rays and energy shields for three years, and we won’t know anything about the fate of Austro-Hungary and Imperial Russia – another major military powers of that age.

What the writers did really catch a hold of is how the contemporary people percept the aliens, for example, how they struggle with the concept of artificial intelligence. Other big bonus point for this work are the visuals. The alien machines roaming on No Man’s Land on day and night are a creepy sight, and their attack drones doing disturbing things with the soldiers with their tentacle-like manipulators raise our innermost fears. 

At the beginning of the understanding

The plot contains several really good ideas, and some turn of events staggered even a seen-a-lot on screen guy like me. The endgame and the development of the conflict hold thought-provoking surprises, and instead of a catharsis, we will face another horizon of war and conflict, and we won’t even know who the real enemy is.

These were the positive points for the story. But I can’t get over the feeling that the war story part could have been a lot better if the scriptwriters had just worked on it a bit longer. The already mentioned West-centered storyline is another heartache of mine. The Great Martian War 1913-1917 is a faithful adaptation of The War of the Worlds, but it’s good for one view only, not more and not less.

Redcoats of the Twentieth Century – The Foresight War

Happy new year! What could trigger the most cataclysmic changes in world history in historical fiction? The most dangerous gamechanger is not a single piece of equipment or a lone ship but a single human mind from the future. Unexplained time travel occurs, and the dream scenario of military history buffs comes true, they can aid their favourite side with their tremendous knowledge. One Englishman can reshape the way his nation will fight this war. Who knows, maybe  the British Empire endures after the Foresight War. Military history expert Anthony G. Williams presents:

 The foresight superpowers (minor SPOILERS)

This is what this book, The Foresight War is about. A British military history professor (who else) makes an unexpected and unexplained time travel from 2003 to 1933. Maybe it's an odd alien sociological experiment, but the fellow actually has the chance to change the course of history and trigger something better than the pyrrhic victory awaits the British twelve years later. Now, to make the story more interesting, someone from future prompts the other side, the Axis as well! I don't think I reveal a big secret if I tell you that the British got the brighter one.

 

The novel is good enough to inspire fans. British  "Churchill" main battle tanks of The Foresight War. Picture from http://paintfan08.deviantart.com/gallery/7826067

The existence of these two messengers results in that the two World War Two combatants, Britain and the Nazi Germany will be far ahead in military doctrine and technology than the rest. What more, this reality's real contenders will strive for not repeating the mistakes of the „future”. The outcome of this altered war will lay on the struggle of these two foresight superpowers.

 

And the counterpart: the German Panzerkampfwagen IV "Panther"

A cleaner war for a better outcome

The battlefield technology in The Foresight War is more and more Cold War-like. This alternate World War Two is about the arms race between the two foresight powers, a cleaner war with more button-pushing and less of the human element. It's almost a clean war instead of the all out struggle, at least on the Western Front it is. 

The flow of events and the reshaped balance of power reminds me the Napoleonic Wars, where the only real opponent in the open was the British Army for the French, and the Old Guard is now the elite of the German army. This time, not a peace-minded nation tries to endure an unwanted war. These British redcoats of the 20th Century are an even match for the German war machine, and are prepared to set things right on the continent, before the commies take it all.

One single scout plane  in the right place and at the right time can change the outcome of the most dramatic battle over the Pacific

Everything before this big showdown are foreplay, and the book builds up this suspension well. What I did miss are more battle details from France, and the Eastern Front is very obscure as well. The flow of events are not really worked out well sometimes. The endgame is hasty and for me it was unbelievable. The historical characters, big shots are made from cardboard.

The green Americans enter the fray with the new Pershing tank in Europe in The Foresight War

A honourable effort

The way I see it, Anthony G. William's The Foresight War isn't much of a serious work about historical fiction, rather an interesting peak about the fictional use of shelved or afterthought technology that didn't make it to the front in time. It has its moments. If people outside the military history buff circles will appreciate it is an open question. Despite my grieving I enjoyed it, but the Foresight War wasn't something that made my mind moving. It's a tribute for the forum dwelling military-minded ilk and the odd British, God bless them!

Attila