Unknown Soldier
A new arc and a new threat: bounty hunters commissioned to take von Hammer, not kill him, but capture him, as if the Hammer of Hell can be owned. Monika and General von Kurtz remain in the background. The premise converts the Ace's lethal reputation into a price on his head and a new category of danger.
The bounty hunter premise is a genre inversion, transplanting western and thriller conventions into the WWI aerial setting, that Kanigher handles with his usual forward momentum. By 1982 the Enemy Ace stories had accumulated a density of supporting characters and backstory that gives even a relatively straightforward action premise this kind of layered resonance.
