East of West #5 – Review

Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Nick Dragotta (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Death and Xiaolian have a lot to discuss about; now that a multitude of people have died in trying to make sure they did not meet.

The Review: Mixing genres, for writers and the like, can be a pretty challenging notion. Making sure that none of the elements clashes against each other, negating what makes them work is something that sounds difficult, as a lot of writers tend to stick to a single genre or to experiment with others without completely leaving behind what they know. For readers, it creates worlds and concepts that can make them invest their time toward the book. For creators, though, it must be an accomplishment to see that nothing stumbles against each other as the world they built continues to work.

This very notion is what makes East of West a particularly unique and satisfying book. Combining the tropes and other such elements of western, politics, science-fiction, romance, post-apocalyptic in its narrative in a successful manner, Hickman made a world that we may think we can completely understand, yet continues to go in directions and adding new stuff to surprise us. Characters, ideas and action become then something meaningful as we never know what to anticipate from this strange version of America that is presented to us.

In this issue, following the bloodbath of the previous one, we finally get the meeting between Death and his loved one, Xiaolian, the new ruler of the house of Mao. Right from the very beginning of their conversation, Hickman goes toward a route that is unexpected, as the baggage that both characters carry within themselves gives the dialogue a whole new flavour– combining traditional lover’s quarrel, like an old couple that have marital problems, with the prophecy of the message as it written for us to read. Mixing the prophetic, the metaphysic and the down-to-Earth situation between those two lovers create a scene that create a slow build toward a very potent revelation, one that propels this book toward a new direction that is full of potential for the book itself. The poesy that a warrior and Death ceased to be such things in order to love make for a touching irony, yet the scene they do share after such an act is filled with revelations and some neat moments.

East of West #4 – Review

Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Nick Dragotta (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: The house of Mao stands between Death and his loved one. Battle and destruction ensues.

The Review: It’s always a nice thing to see something that is quite ambitious in its ideas succeed. Not all stories told try to go big, which can be fine a lot of time, yet stories with big concepts, big ideas and big characters are always so satisfying to read when done right. God knows those kind of stories must be hard to pull off, to be able to write a big world that makes the readers want to invest their time into discovering.

This is why this series is special. This may seem a bit premature to come and say something like this after only four issues, yet the quality of the book has been consistent on every front. Hickman, Dragotta and Martin have offered us a big new world full of potential that seems larger than life and filled with potential that definitely sucks the readers in.

One of the main reason of the book’s appeal, as noted before, is the world itself. Hickman has created a really weird, yet compelling mix of sci-fi, western, political, fantastical and post-apocalyptic to create an America that is so different to the one we know. By using many historical elements from our own world and twisting it into a new version, Hickman makes a connection with the readers, creating both a sense of expectation that he can crush every second and he opens up new possibilities to surprise us at every corner.

He does this very effectively in this issue with some information on the house of Mao, of Mao Tse-Tung’s fame. Here, Hickman asks a simple question and extrapolate on it in a very effective way: what if Mao had exiled himself to America? This, of course, opens up tons of other questions, some that would be very interesting to follow upon. The aforementioned house of Mao, in this issue, is key to the action and to the story, which gives us some interesting insight in how some parts of the world function.

Another part which makes the title so fascinating in a lot of ways are the characters. You can have a great world and a great story, yet you need a good point-of-view, a compelling lead or at least someone to follow that is interesting. Here, we have many choices, from Death itself, to his brethren, Xiaolian, his beloved or Chamberlain, all characters that have big personalities, goals and depth just waiting for us readers to discover. Their dialogue, their interaction, their actions, everything is big, poetic or just plain captivating, which is always so satisfying to read. There are some titles that people follow for a specific character or two, yet here everyone is just interesting enough for us to want to know more about them.

East of West #3 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Nick Dragotta (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Turns out Death fell in love with a woman, one that is still alive and that he wants to see again. However, the Chinese might have something to say about that…

The Review: There are several types of reading experiences. There are some that are direct in their approach to things, giving uncomplicated, yet inventive and exciting concepts that fuels the imagination in ways that are stimulating, like many superheroes comics (though not all). There are also some that are much more complicated and intricate in their revelation of information, giving us a few hints and letting their world and characters slowly suck you in as you get invested in the bigger questions that the book leaves for the reader to figure out.

East of West, in many ways, is close to the very definition of the latter type. While there are many more ways to interpret a reading experience, this book is one that rewards those that pay attention and allow for speculation for the readers. How did things turn out this way? Why is Death in love with this woman? What kind of powers does he actually possess? What his is agenda and for the matter what is the agenda of his siblings? Those are but a few questions that Hickman leaves for us readers to ponder on as we read and discover this world he has created and fleshed out with three issues so far.