Without question, the East German National People’s Army was a profoundly masculine institution that emphasized traditional ideals of stoicism, sacrifice, and physical courage. Nonetheless, as this innovative study demonstrates, depictions of the military in the film and literature of the GDR were far more nuanced and ambivalent. Departing from past studies that have found in such portrayals an unchanging, idealized masculinity, Comrades in Arms shows how cultural works both before and after reunification place violence, physical vulnerability, and military theatricality, as well as conscripts’ powerful emotions and desires, at the center of soldiers’ lives and the military institution itself.

Long before "Don't ask don't tell," gays served in the military--sometimes openly--more often in secret. In this volume the author imagines what their lives might have been like. Within, you will find tales of historical fiction mixed occasionally with supernatural horror, including: · A French fusilier fighting guerrillas and growing disillusionment in Napoleonic Spain · Soldiers encountering the unthinkable during the 1812 occupation and retreat from Moscow · A good-natured Wiltshire man finding companionship and courage amid the muck and misery of the Western Front · A downed American airman realizing everyone is not quite as they seem as he takes refuge with a band of Polish partisans during World War II; and more. Comrades-in-Arms offers tales of battles and the aftermath, of comradeship, loss, duty, and discovery.

The world's most powerful mutant team failed to stop him, and now Onslaught begins his quest to place homo-superior over mankind. But the X-Men's failure only signals that Earth's other heroes are joining the fray. Still, can the combined might of all the X-Teams, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers finally end the terror of Onslaught? Don't bet on it!!!

Without question, the East German National People’s Army was a profoundly masculine institution that emphasized traditional ideals of stoicism, sacrifice, and physical courage. Nonetheless, as this innovative study demonstrates, depictions of the military in the film and literature of the GDR were far more nuanced and ambivalent. Departing from past studies that have found in such portrayals an unchanging, idealized masculinity, Comrades in Arms shows how cultural works both before and after reunification place violence, physical vulnerability, and military theatricality, as well as conscripts’ powerful emotions and desires, at the center of soldiers’ lives and the military institution itself.