East of West #9 Review

By Harrison Rawdin on Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

2014 is here, and this epic revolving around an alternate Earth and the dangers brought on by supernatural forces barrels onward, but should you really care? Read on to find out.

The official description from Image:

“HUNTER”

The Ranger and Death finally clash in the inevitable meeting of LAW and INEVITABILITY.

Right when the first issue arrived at local comic shops it tickled my fancy. It was the way this creative team presented their narrative and delivered this saga, they knew what they were going after as they set-up this technologically infused but western inspired tale. It was full of madness, monsters and mayhem with just enough spunk to keep a growing audience at bay. There really is nothing quite like it out there and this latest release proves the worth of the franchise as a key bout of political intrigue reflects questions of own modern day debt dilemmas.

The script by Jonathan Hickman speaks with a candor and cadence that allows even the odd elements of this jaunt to be digestible. The bulk of the narrative this outing focused on the financial crisis highlighted in the last release while Death bargained for information. It’s a fairly straightforward story with a strong body of dialogue, but what really makes the whole thing work is the fact that there were some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. The best part about them was the fact that they were so subtle and unexpected that when they bubbled to the surface I was caught off guard.

Nick Dragotta hands in another barrage of renditions that are clean, crisp and to the point. His illustrations are easily the strongest piece of this fictional odyssey, but there are some shortcomings namely a couple facial expressions that just seemed too over the top given the context. Still by the end of the book I kept flipping back to check out the body of work laid before me, as these versatile visuals more than earned some attention.