In this week's Graphic Novel Review update, I look at B. Clay Moore and Jeremy Haun's grim'n'gritty WWII superhero epic Battle Hymn: Farewell to the First Golden Age. Excerpt:

[T]he impulse to take a character like, say, Captain America (even if he’s going by the name “Proud American”) and reinvent him in a grittier, more realistic and cynical context, is one that has given us plenty of good stories in the “official” comics (Steve Englehart’s Nixon-era run on the character comes to mind). Marvel and DC would never quite be able to go as far with their icons as Moore and Haun have, though — I can’t imagine Captain America hitting a whore, or even calling her one — which is probably why this book wasn’t published by them, and why thin disguises had to be draped over all the characters.

Read the whole review.

Other recent reviews on the site: Casey and Scioli's Kirby-inspired sci-fi/superhero/family drama Godland, Wood and Cloonan's rock-and-rolling Demo and Seth's wry Wimbledon Green