Stan Lee and Stan Timmons’s The Alien Factor takes place during the latter half of October 1942 in Nazi-occupied France where the Nazis, the French Resistance, and Allied Forces all compete to control an alien spacecraft and its pilot. Marcel, a young boy in Occupied France, first encounters the pilot and believes it to be an angel sent to ensure French victory in the war like the one Jeanne d’Arc supposedly saw in the fifteenth century. Drawing upon the best tropes of Nazi villainy, Lee and Timmons portray Oberführer Borck leading the Nazis in their capture of the craft and its pilot, believing he can use both to ensure the success of the Reich. Meanwhile, the Allied infiltration to destroy the ship and pilot in order to ensure the Reich cannot benefit from them is lead by Captain Joe Logan, an American solider who had previously been captured and tortured by Borck before escaping back to the United Kingdom. He assembles a motley crew of English, Canadian, Welsh, and American troops into a group he privately refers to as Logan’s Losers for what will likely be a suicide mission. Along the way, all three groups encounter spies, a Soviet agent, and more in a tale that reflects the best of World War II action stories.

In terms of tone and content, The Alien Factor closely resembles Lee’s other major story set during World War II, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. The ragtag group of Allied troops all have their own special skills and butt heads early on as they figure out their dynamic. Each possesses a unique enough personality and some have nicknames reminiscent of “Dum Dum” Dugan or “Pinky” Pinkerton of the Howling Commandos. The scenes with young Marcel are particularly well-executed as they feel the most authentic rather than being based on established tropes of genre fiction. To their benefit, while Lee and Timmons give some background on the alien, they use it more as a MacGuffin and avoid making it a deus ex machina, having the characters themselves resolve the conflict. They also ensure that the story doesn’t set up a premise like Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar series with aliens directly interfering in World War II. My only complaint is that the ending feels a bit rushed, but the build-up to the conclusion is a fun adventure. The overall effect is a fun story from a master entertainer. ( )