Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!
Today we look at the five-part Scalped storyline "Dead Mothers," by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera...
Enjoy!
First off, some major spoilers for the first year's worth of Scalped stories as we continue, as this story takes place from Scalped #13-17.
So SPOILER WARNING!
Okay, let's continue.
As you may or may not know, the gist of the plot for Scalped is that Dasheill Bad Horse is sent back to the reservation he grew up as an undercover FBI Agent. He is tasked by his supervisor, Agent Nitz (who is pretty darn corrupt himself), to come up with a murder charge that the FBI can pin on Lincoln Red Crow, the chief of the reservation and head of the new casino there. Dash gets a job working as a member of the reservation's police department (under Red Crow) and begins his investigation. His return causes all sorts of weird situations with his mother, Gina Bad Horse.
Well, in #12, Gina Bad Horse is murdered.
In the next issue, Dashiell is working on a murder of a prostitute who is found dead in a meth house. He learns that her murderer is Diesel (a white psychopath who believes he's part Native American).
Check out this brilliant piece of sequential storytelling by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera, as Aaron shows Bad Horse about to tell the kids that their mother is dead when he, himself, learns the news of his mother's passing from Red Crow...
Brilliant work by Aaron there - especially the heartbreaking piece with the oldest son tearing the hamburger into five pieces.
But now Guera takes center stage with the following three pages...
WOW.
Such stunningly accomplished storytelling.
The next issue, Dash comes up with a plan - Red Crow also wants Diesel dead, so Dashiell will arrest Diesel, let Red Crow kill him and ta da, both the children's murderer is taken down as well AND the FBI gets their murder wrap.
Life is never that simple for Dashiell Bad Horse...
This naturally sets all sorts of bad crap into motion, and things are made even WORSE when the Hmong criminal organization that helped fund the casino send a representative to check out their investment.
Really dark things are to come, but damned if Aaron and Guera do not show them in an extremely well-told fashion.
This is collected in Volume 3 of the Scalped trades. Might as well get 1 and 2 while you're at it!