Broken Frontier

The horrors of the Civil War have ended but for the returning Wes and Ruth Cutter, things are just beginning to get interesting.

DC Comic’s Vertigo imprint has been successful with projects related to the fantasy, horror and crime genres, but now they have tapped the western as their next successful venture. This time writer Brian Azzarello has crafted an intriguing post-Civil War drama focusing on a belligerent relationship in a time when the lines of right and wrong are blurred.

The story opens with Wes Cutter sojourning across the countryside with a mysterious stranger tagging along. The pair treks into Blackwater on a dark and cold night only to be greeted by a group of eager gunslingers. Wes gets down off his horse and identifies himself before getting a belly full of lead. The gunslingers are surprised to see Wes since he’s been assumed dead after the conclusion of the Civil War two years before. But as it turns out, Wes is alive and kicking and before a blink of an eye he unloads several rounds of bullet fire into the men. He’s definitely proving to be one mean cuss and that’s just for starters.

From there he makes a trip into the town and receives a similar reception from the townsfolk but Wes is proving to everyone that he’s alive and kicking. His penchant for gunfighting continues to follow him, and it doesn’t take him long to dispatch a group of Confederate soldiers hanging out on his abandoned property. Wes is pretty much a one man army when it comes to gunslinging but there is one thing than can tame him and I am leaving that surprise for anyone picking up this issue.

I know I am only giving you just a smidgeon of what’s in store with this series, but I assure you there is more than just senseless gunfire on the mind of writer Brian Azzarello. I think his intention with this series is to raise issues of sexual politics and the effects of human violence in the Old West. I also believe the Western is a great platform to examine these issues and I believe Brian Azzarrello will reinvent the genre the same way he did 100 Bullets. He’s off to a great start here with the first issue and it will be interesting to see where he takes this relationship between Wes and Ruth Cutter.

On the flipside of things, artist Marcelo Frusin brings an interesting palate to the series. His version of Wes Cutter is cut from the same mold as the man with no name and the outlaw Josey Wales and it works for just about every panel. It’s obvious that the artist has referenced the classic Leone/Eastwood Westerns and I have no problem with that since I am a big fan of those films. I am hoping he stays on this series for the long haul and continues delivering a high quality of storytelling he’s known to bring to the world of sequential art.

Loveless is the perfect foil for Brian Azzarello’s caustic brand of storytelling and if that isn’t reason enough alone to entice you, then how about the addition of Marcelo Frusin? Both of these creators worked well together previously on Hellblazer and I predict nothing but good things on this series.