A fictionalised account of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of primarily African-American pilots and airmen who fought during World War Two. If it doesn't quite escape the feel of a history lesson, it's at least a beautifully illustrated one that raises some interesting and important themes.

The most overt is America's ongoing identity crisis, which finds its most visible expression in the hypocritical and often brutal treatment of its Black population. For all the glory America may feel in its defeat of Nazi Germany, it fought with a segregated army and is still enacting racist policies today.

Tying into that is a compelling theme of the vastness of a war when set against individual human lives. The soldier on the ground – or pilot in the air – may know he's contributing to a larger push, but the scale of the conflict and destruction may make it very hard for him to feel his own efforts are anything but futile. Whether it's Adolf Hitler or Jim Crow, the hardest part of the fight is often pushing on when you can't see the effect you are having. ( )

Probably the best writer of war comics currently working delivers a reverential tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. ( )