Broken Frontier

For "Unwanted Part Two," Jason Aaron continues the serious exploration of abortion as a central theme facing Carol and Dash in Scalped #40. 

In many ways, Scalped #40 mirrors issue #39 in layout and approach, which allows for a rather seamless transition between installments.  Audiences receive mere glimpses of the Bad Horse family's turbulent past and this brief experience should have most readers wanting to learn more about Gina, Wade, and young Dash.  Once again, Carol is the primary focus of the story as she begins her treatment for drug addiction and initiates the adjustment process to life with Granny and Poor Bear family.  Audiences also receive only snippets as Wade Bad Horse engages Red Crow for the first time in decades.  Obviously, Aaron is building up to something between these two figures that has only been teased in certain issues.  Much like the sequence with the Bad Horses, the Poor Bears, and even Red Crow and Wade, Aaron would do well to move away from what has become the largely formulaic decline of Dash as a weathered junkie and instead broaden the cast of Scalped with greater insight into these mostly auxiliary characters. 

Unfortunately, the remainder of Scalped #40 spotlights the main character of Dash and, honestly, he has become tiresome in his continued depression, anger, and addictive behaviors.  Brought to a sweat lodge where a Lakota holy man oversees his detoxification, Dash undergoes a vision and runs away screaming.  From here, naked and disoriented, Dash finds himself in the snow covered forests of the Reservation where he has yet another vision of his ancestors.  Aaron has often walked the line quite admirably when it comes to issues of Native spirituality and culture that are many times fodder for mostly stereotypical portrayals found in film and television.  Here, by employing a Lakota speaker to translate the dialogue, Aaron provides readers a greater insight into the culture as Dash believes himself welcomed and secure only to be shocked into the realization that there is no salvation in a past or heritage he's largely ignored and tried valiantly to forget.

While Aaron has also given longtime readers a brief respite with either one-shots or two-issue storylines that explore characters beyond Dash and Carol, some fans may begin to wonder if the ongoing portrayal of the Prairie Rose Reservation as a degraded environment whose inhabitants can do little if anything to improve their station in life beyond succumbing to either drugs or criminal activities is worth their continued attention.  Although still good, Scalped and its characters need to grow beyond what has become the conventional approach within the past twenty or so issues.