WilliamBruceWest.com

Adventures West Coast #4: The Lone Ranger Vol 1: Now And Forever

Adventures West Coast #4: The Lone Ranger Vol 1: Now And Forever

Look, I don’t do much preliminary research for these things. Sure, we live in a world where Wikipedia is just a mouseclick away, but I’m not on wiki when I’m reading these books. If something stands out to me, I might research it further, but I don’t check to see what has come before as I’m writing these. That said, I know next to nothing about the Lone Ranger. I know he’s a hero on a horse named Silver. I know he’s masked, and I also know he has a sidekick, named Tonto. That’s where it ends. So, that’s what I took with me into reading this book.

Dynamite Entertainment presents The Lone Ranger, a pretty solid story by Brett Matthews & Sergio Cariello. I feel the need, however, to explain an oddity of the “Dynamite process”. You see, they hire “name” artists to do character desgins, then pass the actual books on to somewhat lesser known artists. In the case of The Lone Ranger, the character designs are by John Cassaday, whom most know by his work on Astonishing X-Men and Planetary. Now, I’m sure that John brought something to the table, in terms of visualizing the characters, but I don’t really know why he gets a credit. I mean, he listed in the credits just like he was there for the whole process, but it’s almost like he wrote the screenplay, but not the final script. It’s clearly a marketing ploy, so that his name will attract interest on shelves. I understand this, but I’m still bothered by it for some reason. I feel that it takes away from the work and time that Cariello’s putting into the book, month in and month out.

So, The Lone Ranger wasn’t always alone. You see, he was a Texas Ranger, along with his father and brothers. One day, out on patrol, all but one of them are killed in an ambush. Left for dead, the Lone Ranger wakes up in the desert, only to find that he’s about to be killed by a masked assailant. At that moment, he’s saved by a well-timed arrow from a mysterious man on a horse. We find out that this man is a Native American, named Tonto, who proceeds to nurse The Ranger back to health.

Meanwhile, Black Bart, a mysterious black man travels the frontier, killing all rangers and relatives of rangers. He was the one who had ordered the original hit, and when he finds out that a ranger survived, he sets out to finish the job. After some back and forth, The Ranger and Tonto form an uneasy alliance, as Tonto agrees to help him get his revenge on those who murdered his family.

It turns out that one of The Ranger’s brothers was married, but had kept the wife and child a secret, so as to protect them. The Ranger knew about this secret family, and sets out to protect them before Black Bart reaches them. Tonto uses himself as bait to distract Bart, while The Ranger continues on. In the end, The Ranger manages to save his remaining family, returns to save Tonto, and leaves an incapacitated Bart with a knife. You see, over the course of the adventure, The Ranger remembers a lesson that his father had taught him: sometimes the job calls for killing, but once you start killing, it changes you. The Ranger knows that Bart’s evil, but he won’t allow him to change him. Bart’s trapped in a derailed train, with little hope of survival. The Ranger won’t finish him, but he leaves him with the means to finish himself, should he choose to do so. With everything wrapped up, The Ranger and Tonto make their partnership official, and Tonto first calls his friend “Kemosabe” as they race to the horizon.

In all, it was a solid read. It was a great origin story, which left the door open for many more stories to tell. There was a b-story involving the railroad as it moved west. It’s clear that it’s development would be important or the development of the nation, but it’s also a political goldmine. We meet a character, Butch Cavendish, who seems ready to take advantage of that expansion. It’s clear that he hired Bart to round up a gang to take out the rangers, but his full intentions aren’t known at this point. The story felt somewhat decompressed, as the whole thing took place over 6 issues, when it probably could’ve been done in 4. That said, I’m putting the book in my “to keep” pile. For now.

Adventures West Coast #3: Scarface: Devil In Disguise

Adventures West Coast #3: Scarface: Devil In Disguise

Scarface: Devil In Disguise was published by IDW during the pseudo-Scarface revival when the video game, Scarface: The World Is Yours, was released. IDW, like a lot of comic companies, LOVES them some licenses. Just as with other companies, some of these licenses make more sense than others. IDW, however, tends to gravitate to prequels and sequels more than direct adaptations.They first released Scarface: The Movie Scriptbook, which was a move that I didn’t really understand. Next, they released Scarface: Scarred For Life, which was considered the sequel to the movie. Basically stealing the same premise as the video game, Scarred For Life assumed that Tony Montana didn’t die at the end of the movie, and had been in a coma under federal protection for several years. I’m not sure where the game took things, but Scarred For Life had Tony at the bottom of the totem pole, trying to work his way back to the top, while learning how much times had changed. The writing was juvenile at times, as it featured Tony killing people with his colostomy bag. It also didn’t help that the art could best be described as “seizured cartoony”. This book didn’t do much, pro or con, for IDW’s profile, but it seemed like the contract called for one more series, which led to Scarface: Devil In Disguise.

Written by Joshua Jabcuga, with art by Alberto Dose, Devil In Disguise was a prequel designed to show us Tony Montana, AKA Scarface,’s childhood, and explain how he earned that infamous scar. What they ended up with was a story that might’ve stood alright on its own, but makes me wonder if anyone involved had EVER watched Scarface.

Where to begin….well, the American mafia decide to take out Castro. They’re upset that he ran them out of Cuba, where they had been running casinos. They decide to cover the assasination under the guise of “patriotism”, but they need a fall guy. Enter Tony Montana. The hit needs to be an inside job, and he’s been promised a green card and transportation to the US, so that he can join Mama and his sister, Gina.

Flashback! You see, Tony had been a bad little kid for some time, so when the first boats left for America, Mama and Gina were on ‘em, but they left him behind. He ended up growing up on the streets, but was eventually taken in by members of Fidel’s Revolucion. This is where he mets his partner, Manolo, whom he saves from a gang of bullies. Anyway, the two grow up and Tony eventually joins one of the mercenary armies. Trudging through the jungles, terrorizing peaceful villagers. Eventually, Tony gets fed up and kills his commanding officer, signalling that he’s finally had enough of Castro and his regime. This makes him ripe for the pickings when the mafia comes calling.

Back to normal time! The cries for revolution grow louder, and the people begin to arm themselves for protection. This is how Tony makes a name for himself, as he takes over the gunrunning. It’s at this time that he falls in love with a whore. No, I’m not being disrepectful – she was a prostitute who worked in one of Tony’s brothels. Well, Tony got sloppy when hiring the help because, unbeknownst to him, he hired the brother of the commanding officer that he’d killed in the jungles. The guy kills Tony’s whorefriend, and slashes him in the face, giving him THE SCAR!!! Dun Dun DUNNNNN! It’s really anticlimactic, especially since Tony just cuts off the dude’s hand instead of killing him. Of course, the guy comes back later, but with a hook hand! A fucking HOOK HAND. Don’t worry, another whore, in some kind of act of whorely sisterhood, blows him away with a shotgun.

Man, I’m tired of writing about this book…So, Tony realizes that shit’s getting too hot in Cuba, so he and Manny start plotting to get to the US. They, along with some other Cubans, grab some inner tubes and float away. A couple days later, they wash up on shore in Miami. I shit you not. All of that, spread over 5 issues, at $3.99 each ($17.99 trade). All of that, just to end with Tony washing up on shore, just like every Fox News myth of immigrants:”See? They all just float over here, stealing our jobs. I’ll bet some of them were even criminals back in their countries!”

Like I said before, this story would’ve been fine as an OGN, called “Havana!” or something, but it didn’t really include much to place it in the Scarface canon. Also, it’s timeline is a bitch, because it bounces around between 3 different periods of his life: childhood and criminal rise, with interstitials of a stint as a political prisoner. Like every black man in America, I LOVE Scarface, but I did not like this. A good prequel helps support what you already know about a franchise. This did not do that; this was simply a money grab.