Set during World War II, the story follows a rogue unit led by the uncompromising Joe Darkie, operating in Burma behind Japanese lines.

"Darkie's Mob" was his first commission since leaving the staff role, and Wagner conducted considerable research into the Burma campaign in order to ensure he "got it right".

Western would later list "Darkie's Mob" as his favourite work from his own career, relating that Wagner's scripts "could put the atmosphere on the end of your pen and brush".

Shortly after the story debuted in Battle, the comic's sister title Action drew critical media coverage for its purported brutality, editor Dave Hunt received a letter of complaint from an MP after a constituent had flagged up an episode where Joe Darkie tied one of his men to a cross and left him for the Japanese.

[4] The story's popularity was nevertheless such that when declining sales saw Battle begin a reprint slot in March 1981, "Darkie's Mob" was chosen as the inaugural rerun.

[6][7] Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II a battered, stained notebook is found in 1946 among the remains of a bloody jungle battle in Burma.

News of the unit's exploits reach British high command, and SOE agent Raymond Reynolds is parachuted behind Japanese lines to find out exactly what is going on.

A year to the day after Darkie's arrival, Meeker is the latest to die, causing a train collision during a rescue after Samson and a patrol are captured.

Soon afterwards, the Mob find themselves surrounded by a thousand Japanese troops on a hilltop but escape into a monsoon, though two more men - Tomlinson and Trench - are killed during the battle.

This leaves Darkie, Johnson, Samson, Flyboy, Smiley, Roper and Shorty as the sole survivors, but after the monsoon season passes the Mob goes back on the offensive.

However, in October 1943 a ¥2m bounty sees the group turned in by a Burmese villager and paraded around Mandalay ahead of execution, though civilians help Flyboy escape.

[12] Comic writer, Battle fan and military history enthusiast Garth Ennis has lauded the strip, and wrote a foreword for the 2011 collected edition.

The Judge Dredd Megazine rerun drew accusations of racism from readers,[14] and in 2023, Michael Molcher opined that the story's "jingoistic language and brutal violence make for uncomfortable reading now".