DC Comics; $24.99

One of our favorite mini-series of the year, Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion, returns in a hardcover collected edition. We spent a fair amount of space in Scoop documenting writer-artist Billy Tucci’s herculean effort to infuse the legend of DC’s most famous war character with the real life exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. He traveled to European battlefields, met with historians, and ended up named an ambassador to the U.S. from a region in France as he worked on the project.

Comprised of American-born Japanese who were prohibited from fighting in the Pacific (and with many of the families cruelly interned in camps by FDR), the 442nd RCT made spent themselves in pursuit of victory and became the most decorated Army unit of the war.

Tucci depicts Rock and company swept up in the events running from the bloody beaches of Normandy to treacherous terrain of the VosgesMountains, surrounded by enemy forces.

In this story, Rock and Easy Company are also joined by Johnny Cloud, the Haunted Tank and other great DC war heroes as they battle the Germans and the elements.

The hardcover features some slightly re-colored pages from the original mini-series, and the entire package is superb.