Scalped #47 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), R.M. Guera (art), Giulia Brusco (colors), Steve Wands (letters), Mark Doyle (associate editor) & Will Dennis (editor)

The Story: What have Carol and Dino been up to the last few months?

What’s Good: Even though it has been really nice to get back to an ongoing Scalped story a few issues ago (this being #3 in a 5 issue arc after a string of really powerful done-in-ones), this series has missed Carol.  As much as Dash Bad Horse is the main character, Carol has always been the kinda tragic figure of Scalped as you can only look at her and wonder what kind of person she could be if she had better surroundings.

So, it is nice to catch up with her as she has been hanging out with Dino Poor Bear and family so that she can clean herself up from being the crackhead that she was becoming.  Dino is another of the tragic characters of Scalped as he’s basically a good kid who generally makes the right decision and it’s led to him scrubbing toilets in the casino to support his young daughter and having an eyeball ripped out by a torturer a couple years ago.  Nice, huh?

Watching Carol and Dino have a quiet and slow paced issue together just accentuates both of their characters.  Carol is the one who kinda always has a ray of hope in her life (whether she will seize it or not is another matter) whereas Dino is just pathetic.  And as a reader you feel like a real jerk for thinking that Dino is pathetic because of all the characters in Scalped, you’d probably most want to be friends with Dino (or Officer Falls Down, who is also pathetic).

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Kick Drum Comix #1 – From artistic genius Jim Mahfood comes this wildly awesome issue with two stories centered on the urban music scene.  The stories are very high quality, but the art is just at another level.  I always love to see an artist who isn’t pulling any punches and just letting the art be what they want it to be.  Do yourself a favor and be sure to check this out.  Runner-up: X-Men #9

Most Anticipated: Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #1 – What a stacked week for non-Big 2 comics and rising above it all (at least in terms of anticipation) is this new entry by Joe Casey.  The teaser images features what looked like some kind of cosmic she-male and the preview pages showed what appeared to be Jay Leno and Dick Cheney going to a bar together.  That’s enough for me.  It is already “sold out”, but you may be able to score one at your LCS and, if not, there’s always eBay if you don’t want to wait for the second printings to drop.

Other Picks: American Vampire #13, Detective Comics #875, Scalped #47, Undying Love #1, Age of X Universe #1, Amazing Spider-Man #657, Incognito: Bad Influences #5, Kick Ass 2 #2, Scarlet #5  (I usually try to limit myself to FIVE ‘other picks’, but this is a STACKED week)

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Captain America #615.1 – The best issue of Cap since #600, this .1 book delivered everything you’d expect from a quality Captain America comic.  Great story-telling, great atmosphere, great character-work, and great action with a sign of big things to come.

Most Anticipated: Jimmy Olsen – Once again, courtesy of the big two, the final Wednesday of the month is ridiculously stacked.  That said, it’s an easy pick for me.  Nick Spencer and RB Silva have been delivering 8-pages a month of superhero-sitcom fun in the back of Action Comics, it’s been a total blast thus far.  While this issue marks the end of the feature, it also means we get a giant sized helping of what has been an awesome comic.

Other Picks: Detective Comics #875, Action Comics #899, Captain America #616, Thor #621, American Vampire #13, Scarlet #5, Incognito: Bad Influences #5, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8, Amazing Spider-Man #657, Scalped #47, Wolverine #7, Avengers #11, Secret Avengers #11