Broken Frontier

With Scalped #41, Jason Aaron continues the rather depressing decline of his central characters as they descend further and further into their respective personal hells.  Yet, taken as a whole, the refocusing of attention solely upon Dash for the majority of the story and the prospect for future development at the end of the issue generates hope that Aaron may still resurrect some of the old magic that brought the title so much acclaim a little over three years ago.

Vertigo books have often teetered between serious, adult stories that challenge the readers and defy perceptions of sequential art versus those that simply utilize the near-limitless freedom as a platform for continuous profanity as shock value in lieu of sound writing and characterization.  Unfortunately, Scalped has made a steady, if unintentional, progression towards the latter in the past ten to fifteen issues.  #41 is a prime example of this movement.  Aaron continues to tease connections between the generations through the themes of abuse, neglect, and abortion, but many of these are surface explorations only.  While audiences witness the horrors inflicted on the individuals in the present, the links to the past are tenuous at best.  Furthermore, the fact that Aaron's modern noir narrative embodied a contemporary Indian reservation and showcased a fully-Native cast was one of the most critical factors that differentiated it from other titles.  Now, however, those aspects have been shelved and only trotted out here and there as merely superficial incidents.  As a result, the stories could occur anywhere with anybody.

The return of Dash as a story vehicle though does hold promise, although its execution is somewhat muddled.  Lying in a hospital bed after his attempted detoxification and exposure to the extreme coldness of winter in the Badlands, Dash is visited by his estranged father.  This is the moment Aaron has been building towards since introducing Wade several issues back.  While anything other than hostility at the appearance of his father would be out of character for Dash, the way the scene is carried out reduces its significance and potential, emotional impact due in large part to the simplistic reliance upon profane language.  Of course Dash is going to be angry and express it, but Aaron had an opportunity here to move his central character beyond the limitations of the angry-Indian persona.  Instead, the serious insight is revealed through Wade and it is powerful in its own right. 

"Unwanted Part Three" could in some ways be renamed "Generations" as Aaron's strengths in this three-issue arc are in introducing the parallel family experiences of Carol and Dash through their parents.  Yet, while running parallel and at times intersecting, the payoff has been limited.  Perhaps the strongest sequence of this theme in Scalped #41 is Aaron's return to Dino Poor Bear and some readers will definitely yearn for this type of characterization and introspection with the other major players in the series.