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Peter Pan moves to WWII in a new comic book series

Captain Hook becomes a Nazi and Peter Pan is a freedom fighter in the series 'Peter Panzerfaust.'

The first issue of 'Peter Panzerfaust' was released in February 2012.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Captain Hook as a Nazi and Peter Pan as a French freedom fighter?

That’s the storyline of the comic series “Peter Panzerfaust,” which released its eighth issue today. The series is written by Kurtis J. Wiebe and illustrated by Tyler Jenkins and is published by Image Comics. So far, the series has followed Peter and his Lost Boys, now fighting back against the Nazis, but in the newest issue, Peter’s nemesis, now known as Kapitan Haken, made his debut.

“Peter Pan is a story of legends, and I'm weaving that idea into this series,” Wiebe said in an interview with USA Today. “It ties Peter and Hook together in a way I'm very excited about, and it makes their rivalry even more perilous.”

Haken, known as “The Hook,” is a member of the SS whose job is to kill the French who are resisting, and Peter encounters Haken when he and his fellows try to rescue a freedom fighter who was captured.

“Now that the heroes of our story have embraced their fate as participants in the French Resistance, we can fully play with flesh-and-blood villains,” Wiebe told USA Today.

Other film twists on the Peter Pan legend are currently in the works, including a film version of the stage prequel “Peter and the Starcatcher” and a film version of an original story called “Pan,” in which Peter is a serial killer and Hook is a policeman hunting him down. So it’s probably no surprise that “Panzerfaust” has been picked up for adaptation, too. The BBC announced in October that it was teaming up with Quality Transmedia to produce a TV adaptation of the comic series, first in a “motion comic” format, then as a live-action show. In the motion comic adaptation, the series will combine elements of illustrations and voice-overs to adapt the comic books for TV. 

“This clever take on such an iconic story offers us an opportunity to take a comprehensive cross-platform approach to development, with the motion comic series being the ideal entry point to bring the concept to life,” Dan Tischler, vice-president of digital content at BBC Worldwide Productions, said in a statement.

It's enough to leave some Peter Pan fans wondering: Is this a clever take on the "Peter Pan" legend, or is this loved story now getting a few too many twists?

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