Broken Frontier

In the waning days of World War II, a mysterious killer hunts surviving members of the Third Reich. Who is the Iron Ghost?

Berlin, 1944: As bombs relentlessly ravage the city and Hitler’s regime slowly crumbles, many members of the S.S. and Gestapo are willing to cut their losses and flee Germany for neutral territory. But a dark and murderous individual will not let them escape without facing the consequences of their actions. As a German detective attempts to solve the mystery of these grisly deaths, eye witness accounts become more and more fanciful—the man is said to be eight feet tall with an inhuman red eye, an iron cross, and the ability to vanish into the shadows. The clues point to more mundane explanations but the identity of this figure remains elusive.

The Iron Ghost is intended as a throwback to the style of 1930s and 40s pulp adventure, particularly the dark avenger characters like The Shadow and The Spider. As such, there’s not much that’s particularly new or innovative about it but if one enjoys that style of storytelling (as I do), it’s an entertaining tale. The decision to set the story in Berlin is an interesting one as World War II era comics stories are rarely told from this perspective. Chuck Dixon does an admirable job conveying the horror of living in a city under siege and depicting the disparity between the Nazi propaganda campaign and the truth that at this point, the war is nearly lost. And rather than painting the Germans as being all villains, Dixon has reminded us that there were ordinary people trying to live their lives amid the chaos and the oppressive rule of the Gestapo. That said, he doesn’t shirk from showing the corruption and evil at the heart of the Third Reich or the violent retribution which the Iron Ghost exacts upon its members.

While all this is fascinating, I felt that this issue was largely more of the same and that clues to the Ghost’s true identity are still few and far between. However, it appears that a revelation is in the near future of this miniseries. In the meantime, it’s been fun attempting to come up with theories just as the characters have.

Sergio Cariello’s art style seems to alternate between straightforward illustration and occasional moments of looser stylization. It’s been a suitable choice for depicting the Ghost’s savage attacks and the explosions that terrorize the city. He’s employed a fairly heavy black ink line to his pencils that contributes to the somber mood, just as the earthy coloring by Rick Hiltbrunner and Barry Williams has. The art of The Iron Ghost is not flashy or award-winning by any means but it has a grittiness that seems appropriate to the subject matter.

For those interested in seeing the type of violent but stylish anti-hero that was en vogue decades before the Punisher, The Iron Ghost offers something a little different from the average superhero story.