Storming Paradise

[CmdrKiley]

Wildstorm Comics has come out with an alternate history WWII story called Storming Paradise. The premise is that America's atom bomb program is set back when the first test kills all involved. President Truman orders the invasion of Japan.

American troops are being pulled out of europe and Japan is conscripting every child off the streets to dig trenches on the beaches. Some shadowy scientists escaping Germany in a U-Boat seem to have some plans of their own.

[tordenskjold]

Nice find Great art, good writing and not even very expensive! Will probably oreder one or two of them, just to see if it's worth it.

[malkcntent]

Definitely a great find. I'll have to pick them up!


-Matthew

[xeoran]

Great find, looks like one to look out for.

[xeoran]

Double post. I've read a few of these and well, they're average. Part of the problem is that they're trying to tell the entire invasion story in a single comic and doing it badly. Every issues has a medley of scenes: generic combat, horror combat (i.e. fanatical civilians, children w/ grenades) and talent spotting (John Wayne, MacArthur, Patton). But there is no map, no explanation. I'm damned if I know how far the invaders have got, how well they've done etc. Its just a montage.

Some of the scenes area bit silly if you know even a little history (Patton giving a rousing speech- something he always avoided because he was embarrassed at having a fairly low-pitched voice), GI squads that continue the hilarious multi-ethnic membership, Japanese officers giving speeches in Fu Manchu cheese-fest style (though at least they haven't mentioned blossoms yet), the GI's with their remarkable ability not to be racist/cruel or even apathetic (I'm not saying they were all racists but every memoir I've read from the Far East, regardless of nationality has either been pretty racist or featured some seriously racist characters. The worst here is a mildly dodgy LIFE photographer).

Nor do we really know who we're following. Partly that is because telling GI A from GI B is almost impossible save the Japanese-GI who acts as interpreter (and has a Stars and Stripes painted on his helmet!). Partly its because nobody has any sort of individual voice, everyone, regardless of whether they are fiction or a historical personality talking pretty much the same.

If I'm honest this biggest missing aspect is that it isn't different. WW2 comics aren't a dime a dozen but they all seem to feed like vampires off the corpse of Saving Private Ryan. And despite an interesting concept this does that too. The ways they could have made it unique, examples- the sheer horror of being forced to burn kids with flamethrowers to stop them attacking you, the new late 1945 equipment, the explanation of how the invasion might have worked etc. -are missing.

I mean I'm ripping it apart here and it doesn't deserve it. Its not that bad, just not that good, particularly compared to some of the WW2 books I've read recently. Chuck Dixon just isn't a Charles Whiting. Is it worth getting, well yes if you have the spare change but otherwise I wouldn't worry. You're not really missing out.

Sgt. Rock and the Last Battalion btw should be avoided at all costs. One issue was enough for me to run screaming like I just heard Cthulu knocking on my front door.

[skorzeny]

Sounds like junk. I don't like stories that try to gloss over the war like that. Sorry, but most GIs, and pretty much everyone who fought against them absolutely despised the Japanese because of how ruthless they were and the fact they did not play by the accepted western rules of warfare and did things like deliberately shooting medics, etc. Then, the fact that they never surrendered also made another layer of distance between the Japanese and their foes. Hard to empathize with people you never see close up unless they are trying to stick a bayonet in your gut. And the PC squad composition is rich - alot of people don't seem to want to remember just how racist the US was. Don't forget, while Hitler refusing to shake Jesse Owens' hand is widely bandied about, the fact that FDR also refused to touch the athlete is a dirty little sercet nobody wants to remember.

[pixelgeek]

Dec 16, 2008 0:07:20 GMT -5 skorzeny said:

And the PC squad composition is rich - alot of people don't seem to want to remember just how racist the US was.

Something I recalled yesterday when seeing mixed race units in the AE-WWII rulebook. Didn't happen till Korea and even then it was a major problem.

[grujav]

Or that one of the favorite past-times of U.S. soldiers waiting to ship out or on leave in San Diego was beating up Zoot-suiters (young Latinos) to the point of two riots during the war, during both the police pretty much backed off and let the Army and Navy boys destroy parts of the city for several days. There are reports of the police actually helping the rioting service men early on in one of the riots.

The way the other ethnicities were treated state side in the work that was available and the treatment from co-workers (arguably the way white women treated black women having some of the worst interactions, one company had to build separate buildings for black women to work in).

The Japanese tried to play off this racism by sending radio messages targeting the African American communities reminding them of their treatment by the whites and promising things would be different if they through off whitey (Japan's rhetoric everywhere they went) but unsurprisingly these radio messages didn't do anything.

[skorzeny]

The Japanese had a bit more luck with their Tiger Legion/Indian separtists recruited from POWs and playing on anti-British and Indian nationalist sentiment.

For AE-WWII, we have the component that the war has stalled out so badly that simply for manpower reasons, MacArthur is starting to integrate units, much to the chagrin of some field commanders like General Patton. If they went with a similar explanation for 'Storming Paradise', I'd have no problem, because they would be at least acknowledging the way things were.

[cheif]

Considering the estimated manpower to invade Japan (1million or so I believe) plus their efforts in Europe, I think some level of integration would make sense.

[xeoran]

Dec 17, 2008 1:01:11 GMT -5 skorzeny said:

The Japanese had a bit more luck with their Tiger Legion/Indian separtists recruited from POWs and playing on anti-British and Indian nationalist sentiment.

Not that they turned out to be much use! Gandhi quite famously was convinced the Japanese would beat the British, conquer India and then just leave. Clearly he needed to read the papers from Manchuria more often...

Its also interesting that the vast majority of INA troops serving with the Japanese were recruited in Malaya and Singapore from the POW camps and that recruitment stalled after that. Similarly the Burmese soldiers who joined the Japanese switched sides once they saw the way the wind was blowing in '44.

As late as 1945 there were still Indian SS troops in Germany though they don't appear to have done anything. The reference I saw to them was Hitler demanding their weapons be taken from them and given to someone who would fight.

[Scorpio]

Dec 17, 2008 1:01:11 GMT -5 skorzeny said:

For AE-WWII, we have the component that the war has stalled out so badly that simply for manpower reasons, MacArthur is starting to integrate units, much to the chagrin of some field commanders like General Patton.

Heh, my thoughts exactly. There's enough other touchy areas concerning the history that we can let little things like this go.