Commando #4973: Mountie Hunter

Mountie Drew Fraser and Ross McKinley were partners and best friends. But when Drew enlisted in the Canadian Army, Ross was left behind.

However, Mountie life was far from quiet for Ross as the destruction of the war in Europe had extended its deathly claw all the way to Canada. Trains and supply lines were being targeted with ruthless precision, destroying vital supplies for the Allies. So ruthless in fact it spelt only one thing – sabotage!

Hunting the German spies would push Drew to the edge and force him to make the ultimate sacrifice. But a Mountie always gets his man...

So reads the solicitation text for the issue of Commando below. 

Commando being war-themed magazine dating back to the early 60s, I had not expected to come across a story involving the RCMP in its catalogue. Indeed, looking at this specific issue on Commando's website, no other book was revealed from clicking the "Mountie" tag included in its listing.

The issue has a publishing date of November 2016. I purchased the digital version for the Kindle. The story begins in 1940 and tells the tale of two friends on the force over the course of the next five years or so. It was written by Alan Hebden, drawn by Vicente Alcazar, and its cover is the work of Janek Matysiak. 

It doesn't break any new ground, and as the two join the military we get away from the Mountie adventure aspect for the most part. Since the war stories are Commando's stock and trade , that's hardly surprising.

Character development is not a key goal, either, since Commando has rarely used the same ones in multiple tales anyway. Several pages in, you'd still be hard-pressed to tell Ross and Drew apart.

Still, it's entertaining enough, and since Mountie fiction is difficult to come by these days, relatively speaking, it's a solid addition to a collection.