Star Spangled War Stories #153

Star Spangled War Stories #153 (On Sale: August 20, 1970) has a nice, dramatic cover by Joe Kubert. By looking you would guess this might be an Unknown Soldier cover, but in reality, this book features, for the most part, reprints and the Unknown Soldier is only a used in a framing sequence. this cover features a new logo and the new round icon in the upper left corner.

"Everybody Dies" is our cover feature, an eight-page reprint from Star Spangled War Stories #36 by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick, with a new one-page introduction by the Unknown Soldier. As a kid, I remember feeling ripped off by this book.

That reprint is followed by another: "Fokker  Fury," an Enemy Ace story from Our Army at War #155 by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. During a fierce aerial battle, Enemy Ace pursues an English plane and shoots it down. Only too late does he realize that the enemy plane's guns were empty. He returns to base feeling bad for killing an unarmed man.

Later Von Hammer receives a challenge from Alan Iver, a pilot in the RAF. The Englishman wants to duel with Von Hammer because he killed the unarmed pilot. Enemy Ace meets the challenge with his own guns empty. He dodges the English pilot's shots until both are out of ammunition. The Englishman realizes that Enemy Ace is a man to be respected, and the warring pilots depart the scene intact.

The book ends with the only new material, a four-pages U.S.S. Stevens story, "Double Rescue" by Sam Glanzman.

Edited by Joe Kubert.