The Jewish Brigade

August 2, 2021
The melodramatic and disappointing latest from Marvano (The Forever War) collects three stories that follow former race car driver Leslie Toliver and his activities with the Jewish Brigade. In the aftermath of WWII, the Brigade hunts down Nazis fleeing Europe, and Toliver joins as he searches for news of his mother and fiancée who had been taken to a concentration camp, and whose fate he hopes to uncover. Toliver’s quest for revenge and justice takes him across Europe and finally to Palestine, where he joins the fight against the Arab Legion in a pointedly Zionist political arc. The story often confusingly trains the narrative lens onto side characters who appear and then die (without the reader even learning their names), and a romantic subplot becomes cringe-inducing. Marvano illustrates convincing landscapes, but inconsistent facial expressions veer sharply into the uncanny valley. Colors by Bérénge Marquebreucq are likewise uneven, bright and appealing in some panels and ashy in others. There’s a focus on the gruesome reality of war, but skipping rapidly through these moments makes them hard to digest and understand. While the story brings to light lesser-known aspects of military history, the execution as a graphic narrative falls short.