303 (2007)
by Garth Ennis, Art by Jacen Burrows
TPB collects issue 1-6 (2004-2005)
A group of russian soldiers that is in search for a crashed US plane in Afghanistan meets heavy resistance by another group of soldiers. From there things start to spiral out of control.
Despite being a mini-series whose central conceit is that the War on Terror is a big conspiracy by the US government to get financial gains in the middle east, Ennis never falls into the trap of preaching to the reader. The whole critical stance is always secondary to the narrative, there are no awkward moments when the writer is breaching the flow of the story to deliver a sermon. Everything is told from the perspective of the characters, and they are hardly interested in indoctrination. All they do is follow their own imperatives.
That said, I don’t think you’ll like 303, when you don’t already think that the War on Terror is one big clusterfuck. Such a theme is too polarizing as not to rouse people who are emotionally invested in it, and these days most people probably are. But objectively speaking, I think it’s a fine piece of storytelling with excellent characterization. The scene where the doctor tells the sheriff that he fears for him, man, that really went under my skin.
Rating: 5/5
