Special Forces Issue 1

Written and illustrated by Kyle Baker

Published by Image Comics

One of comics' most individualistic and intelligent creators, Kyle Baker has been responsible for some of the best and most interesting work to come out of any of the major comic companies in the last ten years. From his inspired run on Plastic Man for DC to the highly controversial and hugely impressive The Truth mini-series for Marvel, Baker's work is relentlessly smart, frequently very funny and fiercely human. Special Forces, his new title, is no exception.

Opening with a moment which balances sickening violence with Baker's customary wry humour, the series follows a group of soldiers recruited, at an unspecificed point in the very near future, to fight in the War on Terror. The difference is that these soldiers are part of the Quota, a system that's effectively the draft via the backdoor. Veterans must serve if recalled to duty, unless they can recruit the right amount of new soldiers to take their place. Desperate to avoid returning, Sergeant Ramirez trawls the high schools, methadone clinics and homeless shelters of his area to get someone, anyone to take his place. He succeeds too, until a twist of fate sees him sent back anyway, as the commanding officer of the group of sociopaths and drop outs he lied to to make quota in the first place.

On the surface this looks like a modern remake of The Dirty Dozen, but there's actually a lot more going on here. Baker has always been a writer fascinated by character more than anything else and Special Forces is no exception. The first issue is narrated by Felony, a high school student who on her third strike is given a choice between prison and the Army. Superficially she's a stereotypical comic book woman, all hot pants and attitude, but this being Baker, there's a great deal more going on than first appears. Felony is the heart of the book, a woman smart enough to know she made the only choice but also smart enough to realise how much trouble she's in. She's the Yossarian of the piece, if you will and this, combined with the flashbacks to fourteen weeks previously with Sarge struggling to fill his quota gives the book many of its best, jet-black moments of humour.

Baker's art may not be to everyone's taste, varying wildly from the deliberately grotesque to the painfully detailed but here it works perfectly. Likewise, the political subtext of the book may well offend some readers, but, frankly, that's the author's intent. This is a piece of political fiction after all and as the back matter in this issue shows, it's not that far from the truth.

Gripping, smart and relentlessly bleak this is a fantastic book from a creator at the top of his game. If you've never tried Kyle Baker's work before, now's the time.