The Stop Button

I don’t know if Jason Aaron’s soft cliffhanger fails because I’ve already read it once or if it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the issue.

From the first page, Aaron and artist R.M. Guera define Scalped as something different. Aaron combines realism with relentless wretchedness. There are no happy moments in Scalped, not even when Aaron and Guera construct an action sequence. The lead character, back on his reservation for the first time in decades, finds his mother an enemy, the area crime ridden, his childhood sweetheart tarnished… it goes on and on.

Aaron doesn’t spend a lot of time establishing the protagonist, Dashiel, since it’d give away his soft cliffhanger. Instead he establishes Lincoln, the villain, who’s fantastic.

The dialogue is all great, the scenes are all great. Even the lead up to the cliffhanger is great, but there’s just something off about the issue’s last panel.

CREDITS

Indian Country, Part One of Three; writer, Jason Aaron; artist, R.M. Guera; colorist, Lee Loughridge; letterer, Phil Balsman; editors, Casey Seijas and Will Dennis; publisher, Vertigo.