The
Masked Bookwyrm's Graphic Novel (& TPB) Reviews
Westerns & Related Milieus... (Page 1)
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All-Star Western, vol. 1: Guns and Gotham (2012) 186 pages
Written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti. Illustrated by Moritat, and Phil Winslade, Jordi Bernet.
Colours: Gabriel Bautista with Dominic Regan, Rob Schwager. Letters: Rob Leigh.
Reprinting: All-Star Western (2011-2012) #1-6
Additional notes: covers; character sketches and visual designs.
Rating: * * 1/2 (put of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Reviewed: Oct. 2024
Published by DC Comics
I'm not sure the behind-the-scenes that led to this series. Palmiotti & Gray (with a series of artists) had been writing a revived Jonah Hex series -- DC's violent cowboy anti-hero. But then that series was cancelled and essentially revived in this new form. So I don't know if sales had been slumping on Jonah Hex or whether Gray & Palmiotti simply wanted to try something fresh (this series ran a couple of dozen issues or so).
This All-Star Western (itself a revival of an old DC title) does two things different from the preceding Jonah Hex series. It pads things out with short back-up series (making it a quasi-anthology magazine) while in the main, Jonah Hex storyline, wild west bounty hunter Jonah comes to an Eastern big city on a case, and ends up staying a while.
Which, in a way, makes the title a misnomer: All-Star Western but the lead feature isn't, technically, a western!
What's more, the big city Jonah arrives in is the fictional Gotham City -- home, in a Century or so, of Batman. And he sort of teams up with Dr Amadeus Arkham who narrates and acts, in a sense, as Watson to Jonah's rough n ruthless Holmes.
And the result, for me, is maybe less than the sum of its potential. (Yeah, I'm mixing adages).
As I say: I don't know if this re-conceiving of Hex was driven by commercial desperation or creative inspiration. At first it seems like a neat idea, transposing cowboy Jonah Hex to the big city. The problem is on one hand it doesn't really change much. Jonah basically acts and operates much as he did in his previous series, still ruthless, killing (and torturing!) with impunity. I had thought maybe the gimmick would be how does Jonah, used to operating in a quasi-wilderness with limited rules, function in essentially a "civilized" city? Turns out, mostly the same as always. Yes, the big city environs add a slight change to Hex's usual milieu. But not that much while losing the visceral appeal of the western -- the wide open plains, the small towns, the sheriffs and farmsteads, etc.
And the plotting suffers both because it's a bit thin and it's a bit familiar. Hex's western adventures were often told in simple, one-issue adventures where the atmosphere and attitude was as important as any plot or character arcs. But here Palmiotti & Gray try to tell longer stories -- the first six issues comprised of two story arcs -- and neither one is especially layered or nuanced, in either what happens or any motives or emotions driving it.
That doesn't mean the pages don't flip by. Indeed, I suspect that was the inspiration: to try and tell pulpy action-thrillers that bounce from one cliff hanger to another. It's just after a while you can struggle to care.
Neither Jonah or Amadeus are given much chance to grow or develop. Jonah is supposed to be a taciturn anti-hero but in stories I've read of yore (many from the Bronze Age pre-dating Gray & Palmiotti's tenure) he was still an interesting personality to explore. But here, filtered mostly through Amadeus' perspective, he just exists as the gruff, nihilistic, badass.
Which is maybe one of the issues I had with this. Seeing Jonah struggling to adjust to the big city environment (and its rules) could have been interesting. But Gray & Palmiotti clearly love the idea of Jonah as this uncompromising, one-tone badass who doesn't change (I'd argue some of the better Jonah stories are the ones that recognize his vulnerabilities, both physical and emotional; indeed, I seem to recall stories where he would drop his gruff manner and behave almost courteously toward a lady).
While the plots feel a little too familiar both in the way they dive into DC Comics lore and Victorian-set pulp fiction. One story involves missing children which, it turns out, are being used for slave labour (a pretty familiar trope); the other involves Jonah and Amadeus exposing a conspiracy involving Gotham's elite -- clearly meant to tie into the Court of Owls that occupied the contemporary-set Batman stories (if we're in any doubt, there's a scene where they are visiting a wealthy household and owl imagery is everywhere). To be honest, reflecting back I can't even recall the point of the opening arc which involves them investigating a serial killer that then leads to this conspiracy-of-the-elites. Which is both a comment on my memory, sure, but also I'm guessing on how loosely it was plotted. (I flipped back through it and remembered it was because it was just cult stuff, so didn't have an inherent underlining logic).
There are other shout outs to DC lore when I would argue the appeal of DC's westerns was that they existed mostly in their own historical realism. But here there's Amadeus Arkham himself (Arkham Asylum being a staple of the Bat-comics, of course) and even a scene where they encounter the Wayne's (Batman's forbearers) plus they encounter a giant bat in underground caves (presumably also an allusion to Batman) and a lost tribe of underground-dwelling Indians. Which is another aspect to this series: it feels more fanciful and quasi-supernatural at times compared to Jonah Hex's traditional Westerns (not that Jonah hasn't gone through fanciful phases). At one point Amadeus even remarks he feels like he's living a Jules Verne adventure.
Palmiotti & Gray also write the eight-page back series. Whether this is because they had a lock on DC's western wing or no one else wanted to play in that sand box, I'm not sure (surely other writers would've liked a stab at it?) One is a two-part revival of another old DC western character -- the Zorro-inspired El Diablo. The other is a new creation: a Chinese-American girl called the Barbary Ghost (a play on the Barbary Coast for those not up on their Americana)
Both also suffer from a general thinness to the stories. El Diablo is a character who is quasi-supernatural in origin. Comatose Lazarus Lane would rise at night, thanks to the powers of the Indian shaman, Wise Owl, to right wrongs -- though how much he was supernatural, beyond simply rising from his coma, was often unclear. Here they've tinkered with the lore: Lazarus isn't in a coma (and Wise Owl nowhere around) but slides into a coma state so that El Diablo can rise as a separate being. And the story here is more explicitly supernatural as he gets caught up in a zombie outbreak in a small town. El Diablo was never that well conceived of a property (more appealing just for his visual flare which, as I say, was borrowed from Zorro) but I'm not sure the changes here improve things.
While the Barbary Ghost is given three chapters to unfold her origin -- and never really manages to rise above the generic (her family is killed by a mobster so she seeks revenge). We never even learn, in these pages, the source of her "powers." And if the inclusion of a Chinese heroine was meant to counter the overt white, maleness of the rest of the stories, it doesn't really work -- in the sense that she never exhibits much personality (much of the actual story focused on, and told by, others). But maybe things develop in subsequent appearances.
The art throughout is never less than good -- but also problematic. In that Moritat on the lead Jonah Hex series (and Bernet on the El Diablo story) has a raw, harsh, craggy style. As I say: it's rarely less than good. It evokes the Victorian atmosphere, the buildings, the hansom cabs, the grittiness and the brutal violence of Jonah's world. But that's the thing. After a while it just can be a bit overwhelming in its unpleasantness. This gets back to my point about how Westerns -- y'know, stories set in the west -- can be a mix of the ugly violence with a kind of bucolic beauty of the landscape, the milieu. Things aren't helped (or conversely, they are helped, since that's the vibe they're going for) by Bautista's colours which are likewise drab and oppressive. Although interestingly the first issue is particularly colourless, almost as though meant to evoke an almost black & white feel, but then colour starts to infuse the later issues (a bit). I don't know if that was just him adjusting things as he went, or whether it was deliberate -- almost like a movie that starts out in black and white, to set the mood, then slowly brightening with colour as the story unfolds.
Rounding out the art is Phil Winslade on the Barbary Ghost stories. Winslade with a smoother, more realist style that offers a stylistic counter point to Moritat and Bernet.
Ultimately -- I was a little underwhelmed by this series (so far). And underwhelmed is maybe a good word because it's not like I can say this was bad -- just that it didn't really grab my enthusiasm. Plotting that feels too thin and generic (in mixing cowboy Jonah Hex with a Victorian detective-thriller they ended up leaning too much on the weakest parts of both) with a general nihilistic grittiness unleavened by anything, even a beautiful landscape. And this generic blandness extends to the back-up stories, too.
Maybe Jonah is a character that just works best featured in shorter little episodes and in his familiar wild west milieu.
Bat Lash: Guns and Roses 2008 (SC TPB) 132 pages
Written
by Peter Brandvold and Sergio Aragones. Illustrated by John Severin, with
Javi Pina &
Steve Leiber.
Colours: Steve
Buccellato. Letters: Pat Brosseau. Editor: Rachel Gluckstern.
Reprinting: the six issue mini-series (2007-2008)
Rating: * * * * (put of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by DC Comics
Bat Lash was a short lived 1960s western comic from DC Comics, created by Sergio Aragones (creator of Groo the Wanderer) and co-written with Denny O'Neil. A light-hearted (with a serious edge) series about a lovable rogue who wandered the Old West, it owed more to TV series like Maverick than, say, the up-right heroes of Gunsmoke. But though short lived, it was critically well regarded, and Bat Lash cropped up occasionally in other western comics from time to time.
This 2008 mini-series, dubbed "Guns and Roses" inside, follows the current trend in comics of remaking older tales, in that this isn't a "new" adventure of Bat Lash, but a retelling of his origin story (which had previously been told in the 6th issue of his 1960s series). But though I don't think this is meant to be a radical reinterpretation of the story, it is, one assumes, greatly expanded (going from one issue to six!) and with more modern grittiness (profanity like "bastard" and an attempted rape scene -- but only attempted).
Aragones returns to the property, this time teamed with co-writer Peter Brandvold and artist John Severin.
And the result is a strange beast. Because in many respects it comes across as pretty trite, telling its Romeo & Juliet type tale of young, clean cut Bat Lash being in love with the daughter of a greedy land baron -- who has eyes for the Lash family farm and with a corrupt sheriff in his pay. It's pretty straight forward and doesn't really warrant six issues.
Yet, it's quite enjoyable.
Maybe it's because the very triteness of it all means it is kind of appealingly evocative, seeming like -- well, like a good ol' western, which can be fun even if, like me, you aren't really a hardcore western fan, per se. But it remains just fresh enough that it doesn't seem tired or uninspired, the way some recent western movies have seemed so desperate to evoke their milieu they end up a collection of cut and paste cliches.
You're interested to see where it's going...even if you don't really expect it to go anywhere too surprising. Nonetheless there are a few curve balls thrown at you here and there, particularly in the dynamics of the villains, as the land baron finds his crooked sheriff is not as easy to control as he'd like.
As mentioned, it really didn't warrant six issues (heck, when there are no less than two scenes of Bat Lash being strung up by a noose, only to be rescued at the last minute -- and by the same character, no less! -- you know there could've been some trimming). At the same time, unlike my criticism of some modern comics with their "decompression" of scenes, it doesn't really feel like the creators are padding out pages with a lot of pointless panels and the like. The pacing might be a bit relaxed, but not slow.
Of course, a large appeal of the series can be laid at the feet of artist John Severin, one of those guys who can probably enjoy the title of "Old Master". There's an understated elegance to his work that suits this rustic tale of men -- as opposed to super-men -- and their horses. And though the story is, primarily, serious, there is a thread of humour through it in spots which Severin, deftly mixing realism with a hint of caricature, serves well. (Severin who enjoyed a long association with the satirical comic, Cracked, where his deft blending a realism and comedy was ideally suited to movie and TV spoofs).
Towards the climax, artists Javi Pina & Steve Lieber pinch hit about 5 pages. They're a solid enough pairing that it doesn't hurt the story -- it's mainly an action sequence, which they handle well. It's more in the close ups of the faces that it becomes more obvious that it isn't Severin. (Funnily enough, their style is a bit evocative of Walt Simonson -- who contributed the covers for the series). Severin is back for the epilogue and you wonder, did he just fall behind the "dreaded deadline doom" (as comics used to call it), or was the original climax maybe scrapped and reworked at the last minute, but by then Severin had other commitments. Who knows?
I mentioned earlier that this is a strange beast. Part of that is because it is a big, six part mini-series -- re-presenting a property that, though critically well regarded, is, nonetheless, pretty obscure. In the wake of DC's successful revival of cowboy Jonah Hex, it stands to reason they might be looking to dust off other western characters, but still... But more, what makes it strange is that, in essence, this isn't really about the Bat Lash that was known -- the likeably amoral gambler and ladies man. This is about him as a younger, more up right character. And this is, primarily, serious, whereas the original series was humorous. In other words, if they were hoping to interest new readers in the character...why start with a six issue story which isn't really representative of the character or the tone?
As well, knowing the man he is to become, one can suspect the story won't end happily for him and his true love -- though it doesn't necessarily end the way you might expect.
But that becomes another issue, as it's basically a self-contained story, with no guarantee of any sequels...yet ends in a vaguely open way that might leave readers scratching their heads if they weren't aware this was essentially a prequel to a pre-existing character who has many adventures ahead of him. In fact, it's curious that even as comics companies seem to more and more shamelessly cannibalize their own catalogue of stories, they don't necessarily make that clear to the reader. Nowhere in the original mini-series issues is there any editorial mentioning that Bat Lash is an established character dating back decades.
But the bottom line is, the series works more than it doesn't, as an agreeable, old fashioned western drama/adventure.
This is a
review of the story as it was serialized in the mini-series.
***
Desperadoes: Epidemic! 1999 (SC GN) 48 pages
Written
by Jeff Mariotte. Illustrated by John Lucas (layouts: John Lucas, John
Cassaday).
Colours: Nick
Bell. Letters: Gene Doney. Editor: John Layman.
Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by Homage Comics / DC Comics
Set in the days of the Wild West, Desperadoes features a quartet of heroes whose gun slinging exploits tend also to involve a dollop of the supernatural. Created by Jeff Mariotte and John Cassaday, they've appeared in at least a couple of mini-series (at least one of which has been collected in a TPB), and this one-shot graphic novel.
The plot has our heroes, pursued by a posse, arriving in a quarantined town in mid-winter that's suffering from a flu epidemic. They stick around, helping out as best they can...and, eventually, a supernatural evil rears its ugly head.
It's bad enough when monthly comics provide very little introduction for the novice reader, but when you have a "series" that appears only irregularly in, ostensibly, self-contained stories (mini-series, graphic novels), it might behoove the creators to provide some background. But here it's not really clear who or what the heroes are, or how they came to hang out together. The title -- Desperadoes -- allows one to infer they're outlaws of some kind, and the fact that they are being pursued by a Sheriff re-inforces this. But otherwise they deport themselves properly, and when discovering the town is quarantined, happily do their civic duty; it's not clear how they make a living, actually. We are told the Sheriff is hunting them because they "accidentally" killed his wife...but no explanation is given for how this happened.
A great deal of the story is concerned more with character than action and adventure -- without the characters being that well-defined. Sure, leader Gideon Brood is obviously a battle scarred middle-age guy, and Race Kennedy is the well-tailored easterner; Jerome Alexander Betts is perhaps most clearly defined simply as "the black guy"; and while narrator Abby DeGrazia is, in some respects, the main character, she's not especially well delineated. The character stuff doesn't really go much of anywhere, anyway. Partly my objection can be laid at the feet of the story's format: the graphic novel. If this was one or two issues of an on-going title, it might not seem so strange. But presented as it is, you expect a little more detail to who and what these people are.
The plot is pretty basic. Characters are thrown in, then nothing is done with them -- the heroes are befriended by a boy...who then dies from the flu a couple of pages later. Abby romances a local doctor...but he isn't given much personality.
The supernatural threat only starts being introduced about half-way through, and when finally confronted, proves anti-climactic. Always a fan of larger-than-life fantasy and SF, normally I'd approve of mixing the western milieu with fantasy elements. But precisely because it takes so long to show up, it felt frankly intrusive and tacked on. Like the story might've worked better as a straight western story (since there aren't too many of those in comics these days).
Then again, the problem is that I never quite felt the period milieu was entirely evoked as well as it could be. In his afterward, writer Jeff Mariotte puts a big emphasis on the flu aspect of the story and its historical precedents. And yet, for all that the story takes place in a quarantined town, and we are treated to frequent landscapes dotted with grave markers, there's little actualization of the illness -- I'm not sure anyone even coughs once in the story. Nor is there any sense the heroes are unduly concerned about being trapped in a town being decimated by a plague.
The art may be part of the source of my ambivalence. Though co-created by John Cassaday -- an artist with a detailed, realist style (and who provides some lay-outs) -- the actual drawing is done by John Lucas. Though Lucas has a bold, confident style, it also tends toward rudimentary, even a little cartoony. Sure, he draws cowboy hats and stables, but without much detail. He doesn't generate the kind of necessary reality that would really transport you back a hundred and some years (the way I remember some of DC Comics' 1970s western comics like Jonah Hex managing to do). Another Desperadoes mini-series (and TPB) was drawn by the great John Severin, and I'm guessing that would evoke the period better.
Ultimately,
I'm hard pressed to know what to say about Desperadoes: Epidemic! It's
not terrible, certainly, and might work better a second time through. But
as a western, it didn't quite evoke the period the way I hoped it would;
as a supernatural thriller it was thin; and as a character drama -- at
least for someone unfamiliar with these characters -- I didn't really feel
I got to know them much by the end.
***
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