The first four parts of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" were uniformily excellent, with each successive chapter arguably better than the last one. So, perhaps its inevitable that the next chapter, appearing in Fightin' Army #80 (1968) is a tiny bit of a letdown. At some point, there was bound to be a merely good--rather than superb--chapter in Capt. Schultz's story. Sam Glanzman's art work is great, but Willy Franz's script has a contrived element to it.
Willy was back in an American uniform at the end of the last issue, so this is still the case at the beginning of this issue. He comes across some dead Luftwaffe personnel next to bodies of the Arab renegades who had ambushed them. There's one survivor, a Luftwaffe nurse named Ilse.
Isle is temporarily blinded by a concussion during the ambush. When she hears Willy approaching, she tries to shoot him. But after disarming her, he speaks to her in German. Not surprisingly, she assumes he is a German soldier.
He takes her to a nearby cave to rest. A short time later, he exits the cave to check out a noise he heard. This leads him into a brief firefight with a German patrol supported by Arab scouts. One of the Germans, despite being wounded, gets away.
Willy knows that if the German survives to get back to his own lines, the enemy will be coming back in force. But in the meantime, he and Ilse spend the afternoon in the cave. This is the contrived part. That the two might like each other and be attracted to each other is perfectly fine. But within a few hours, the two are madly in love with each other. I know they needed to care for each other for the ending, in which Willy must leave her and know he'll never see her again, poignant. But gee whiz, you don't fall in love that quickly. No one does. Despite what Disney movies often try to tell us, love at virtual first sight is nonsense.
To be fair, I will grant that the stress and danger of war can cause people to rush into relationships and fall in love (or think they've fallen in love) very quickly. But I just have trouble buying into it as being a real and healthy emotion. Perhaps if we just assume it's the war playing with Willy and Ilse's emotions, the story can work just as well.
Anyway, Willy sees Germans approaching and hits the road, leaving behind his helment in his haste. Ilse, who's eyesight has gradually returned, is shocked to discover the helmet is American.
Willy is on the run again. The story is still good and the plot point I find contrived might not bother another reader. I half-expect to have someone comment that they fell in love in the space of an afternoon and have a joyously happy marriage. But for myself--heck, I "dated" my wife for a year before I even realized we were dating. Love takes time, Willy. Ilse will be confused, but she'll be fine.
In three weeks or so, we'll check in again to see how Willy is doing. Next week, we'll visit the Tomb of Dracula.
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