SKIRMISHER

Rufus Hirohito is the playboy scientist in charge of the current-generation GRW program, and his life is inverted by the news that Paraqan, an oil-rich middle-eastern dictatorship, has attained its own GRW and plans to destroy its neighbors. The US has no choice but to intervene — even if it means sending an untested GRW behemoth into the field.

There’s obviously a lot of manga influence here, but the story is pure American, a masterful take on the funnybook hero stories about America’s destiny to police and govern the world. The writer, Stuart Moore, describes the book as having been written during the brief flare of post-9/11 optimism that ended when the US squandered its international goodwill on pointless oil wars and security theater.