Peter Panzerfaust #14

By Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins

Peter Panzerfaust is a shining example of someone taking a well known and beloved story and putting their own twist on it to send it in new, exciting directions. Peter Pan has been around since he first appeared in The Little White Bird back in 1902, and everybody knows the general story of Peter Pan and his crazy adventures. What Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins have done, and continue to do, is take this classic tale and drop into occupied France during World War II. The best part of all of that, is that it 100% works.

Kurtis Wiebe has continued to craft and weave this fantastic tale of Peter and his resistance from the perspective of different characters retelling their story to a reporter, many years after the events and time of World War II. Every character has their own style and personality, and every character has been thoroughly thought out up to this point and, undoubtedly, for the rest of the series. It’s always exciting to see Kaptain Haken (yes, that’s a German SS Nazi version of Captain Hook), even if it’s briefly, because every time we see him Wiebe seems to add another layer to his character. Without spoiling it, the ending cliff hanger was possibly one of the best of the series. It brought back memories of that 90’s Robin Williams movie, Hook, and will make for an excruciating wait until next month’s issue.

Tyler Jenkins, co-creator and artiest extraordinaire, continues to grow as an artist between the pages of Peter Panzerfaust. His angles seem to be more challenging with each issue, his backgrounds and scenery are more detailed and he really seems to have settled into this fairly large cast of characters. Everybody is consistent and everybody has their own unique look. Even when carried over to the “present” and we get to look at a much older version, you can still tell who the character is. There is really nothing but praise for Jenkins on this series and it’ll be interesting to watch him grow even more as the series continues.

So what do we have with Peter Panzerfaust? We have a series that demands your attention. It takes a childhood favorite and adds evil Nazis, a favorite comic book villain, guns, explosions and war. The heart of the story is still very much the same, it just has an even cooler backdrop than the story of Peter Pan that you know. Two trades are out, a deluxe hardcover is on its way and a third trade is sure to be here soon. There’s no excuse to not check this series out. It’s one of the best over at Image and, really, that says it all doesn’t it?