Scalped #39-42 "Unwanted"

Vertigo's "Scalped" has recently seen the conclusion of the four part "Unwanted" story-arc, featuring a sustained narrative by the regular creative team of Jason Aaron and RM Guera. Their newest effort follows up directly from the themes introduced in the preceding issue, spotlighting the protagonist's father. The publisher has already decided to group both "Unwanted" and the several issues before, into one extra-sized collection.

Structurally speaking, the four part arc is very methodic. Each issue starts with a flashback detailing the previous generation's struggle with the same issues concerning their children in the present. The start of the arc makes this connection apparent by intentionally obscuring the identity of the woman until the reader identifies her as Carol's mother. Aaron breaks this theme of flashbacks in the final chapter, by teasing a possible flash forward or a genuine time jump, before drawing the reader back in the present day, which has itself been transformed through the heft of the preceding three issues.

As for the drama that unfolds in the main narrative, it's anything but the bloody neo-noir storytelling that has preceded it. And while "Unwanted" definitely takes place in the Prairie rose reservation, the arc centers on the fate of Dashiell and Carol's individual lives, when they're briefly separated from their self-destructive relationship. Basically, it's an arc of "Scalped" without a gunshot, where even the strong language Red Crow uses to fend of Dash's father seems coarse and unwarranted.

The everyday of the Lacota tribe after the turbulent 70s being what emotionally draining for all of these characters has everything to do with their predicament, but it offers no help when they try to break from the lifestyle they have been trapped in. Both Carol and Dash are fixated on the past, but the gravity of the situation suddenly changes when Red Crow's daughter decides to no longer ignore her pregnancy. By leaving Dash for the time being, her main concern is shared with grandma Poor Bear, an aging wise woman, incapable of having her own children, and acting as a caretaker of sorts, for her tribe members wary of institutional social services.

Dashiell similarly finds himself being offered help from Red Crow's lieutenant Shunka, who drags him off to a traditional but nevertheless highly unsympathetic way of dealing with the situation. Similarly, the return of his long-absent father appears to only further aggravate young Bad Horse. This comes as no surprise as the younger generation of the tribe residents uniformly react by lashing out, incapable of really dealing with the pent up anger at the mistakes of their parents, when they yet again start affecting their lives.

It's interesting to contrast Carol's reaction then. The long suffering young woman has a much direct problem at her hands, in that dealing with pregnancy has previously affected her to such an extent that she blames many of the aspects of her current erratic behavior on the past. Yet, the traditionally hot tempered Indian woman displays a much firmer grip on the current situation then her lover. By taking grandma Poor Bear's advice and trying to struggle with the crisis brought on by unrestrained life style, she shows a much more focused approach to the unenviable position she finds herself in.

Dash on the other hand, starts panicking, which is reasonable considering he's dealing with the after effects of substance abuse, and isn't even aware of Carol's pregnancy when the arc starts. For him, the problem at hand is only the culmination of everything that's happened since his return to the Rez, and he still has no idea how to approach solving it. With Red Crow being the one initiating his return to sobriety, it goes without saying that what he goes through can only be described as a horrible ordeal.

Even without the threat of violence, these characters simply have no way of slowing down and dealing rationally with a bad situation, and are therefore forced to confront the enormity of it head on, and suffer through the consequences every step of the way. This means that R.M. Guerra gets to illustrate page after page of naked bodies falling into fetal positions, of panels centering on aggressive dismissals, and the general air of bleakness and claustrophobia that makes up their Prairie rose surroundings.

It's three issues full of characters struggling with indecision and trying to overcome the predicament by finding a firm ground to stand on. Both Carol and Dash reach this point by the end of the third issue, which is where they finally confront each other. Thus, it makes sense that Aaron would postpone their conversation in the concluding episode by featuring yet another of the time displaced opening sequences. Following this, their interaction is almost too serene - enough so that the writer feels the need to generate drama by spotlighting their second thoughts in narrative captions.

But despite this, and the horrible weight of the decisions they have had to shoulder to get to this point, both of them do emerge from the conflict with a new found sense of purpose. For the time being, the series will no doubt favor centering upon the after effects of the "Unwanted" from Dash's point of view. Simply, the decision that is fostered upon him by his father's simple question dovetails neatly with answering many of the wider plot threads, and as such provides a clear break which will be continued upon in the next arc.

As it stands, the four-parter is a great example of "Scalped" at top form. The slow-paced, character-based storytelling, that still advances the plot in a logical and realistic way is exactly what has lead readers to warm up to the series. It goes without saying that all of this is achieved through Guera's superbly atmospheric artwork. And just as the series starts once again enlisting guest artists to provide time for him to illustrate the next story arc, the "Unwanted" goes to rem how strong the book is at the it's peak.

And to top it all of, what Aaron and Guera have produced is such a distinctively defined storyline that could even be characterized as neo-noir soap opera. It's a testament to their strengths as creators that they have taken a highly controversial theme, filtered it through the genre mash up and made it succeed at every stage as part of the book's preexisting storyline. The regular readers can only hope that the succeeding arcs will be as strong as this one.

"Scalped" 25-29 - High lonesome

Jason Aaron and R.M.Guera's "Scalped" has just concluded it's most recent story arc, "High lonesome", thereby becoming the first "Vertigo" title in recent memory that has not been cancelled. The neo-noir series set on the Indian reservation has been consistent in it's slow pace and meticulous character work, set back against the wild western atmosphere.

It started out with the focus on Dash Bad Horse, an FBI agent going undercover back at his childhood home, and being faced with the decades-old secret and misgivings left by his mother. Having set up the central mystery, tying both the present and the past together, the series' brutal and very raw feeling has since gave way for the structure-minded vignettes fleshing out the supporting cast, while the inevitable vents realistically meander toward their final resolutions.

The "High lonesome" story arc is set up in a very unique way, with Jason Aaron's story spotlighting a different "Scalped" character every issue. Structurally, each of the chapters employs a specific view point, and their pace differs to provide the best glimpse into the narrator. "Scalped" has had a long tradition of telling side-tales that provide detail and color to the main plot, which in this five part tale serves to literally bookend them.

The story begins with the new player whose coming in the Rez', signifies the conflict directly continued and resolved in the fifth and last issue of the arc. The opening chapter, presented from his view is very active, showing all of the person's energy and intent in a somewhat manic way, rendered through a rambling and self-conscious voice of a unreliable narrator. The reader is forced to piece up the clues and forms his own theory of the individual, before the character's final actions demonstrate his true intentions in a very visual way. Even though Guera masterfully illustrates the moody and ambiguous issue, especially it's historical pages, his art is not to be seen on the pages of "Scalped" for the next two issues.

The subsequent episode does not up on the first chapter's cliffhanger, instead providing a side story, whose divergent narrative serves as the framework for the series' second look in the past of Diesel. Dash's erratic opposite number is a very different narrator, providing cold and unrelentingly sparse comments about his strange behaviour. Aaron trusts artist Davide Furno's soft earthy pencils set back against somewhat angular inking to present the reflection of the central event in the troubled man's life. The plot alternates with present days scenes acting as a parallel that reaffirms the change's lasting effect on the character.

The slight progress in the overall plot is addressed offhand at the beginning of the next issue's even more brutal story, featuring both Diesel and Dash's acquaintance, the hotheaded agent Nitz, whose drive from revenge has instigated the entire book's setup since the very beginning. Yet, it's only in the middle of the "High lonesome" arc that a more revealing light falls on the character, who was so far presented as being very one-dimensional. It's very revealing then, when the traditionally non-empathic Nitz, gets to follow Diesel, by revisiting his own past. Aaron contrasts the lawman's flashbacks to the defining moments in his life with their present-day after-effects. The agent's rare sentimental leave turning into a study of his bloody and violent underpinnings is brought to the reader by Francesco Francavilla's painterly hues. Francavilla's visuals only fail when portraying the difference in the characters' ages between the two decades, yet the colorist Gulia Brusco helps erase the confusion by alternating the blueish dream-like look of the thirty-two years ago with present-day's clearer, orange tones. Faced with some of the most intimate art the series has seen, Aaron counters with some of the story arc's most coarse and amoral moments. The character-work in the issue reads very access able and finally brings the Nitz some of the definition he desperately needed, concentrated as he is on the civil rights activist days of Dash's mother.

Despite being self-contained, the second and third issues of the arc work as reminders of Dash's perilous legal status, with Diesel and Nitz acting as comparisons. The stylistic changes in artwork provide for a different perspective on the viewpoints of characters away from the Rez'. The subsequent, co-creator Guerra pencilled tale once again rearranges the structure of "High lonesome", while still working in part as an intimate portrayal of a seldom-seen character. It brings back officer Fallsdown,who is forced to collaborate with agent Nitz's associate, providing the link between the chapters. The investigation calls back to the first, Guerra-pencilled issue of the story-arc, but seems mainly as a catalyst to finally reveal the truth that's been eluding agent Nitz for so long, about the bloody night from thirty two years ago. By focusing on the common past of all of the book's main characters, the issue's epilogue serves to set-up future events, recasting another series regular in the new light.

Yet, it's only after spending three issues on subplots, that Aaron and Guera use the arc's concluding chapter bring the sense of closure to the initial plot of "High lonesome", providing definition to the whole, disparate experience. Bringing the focus back on Dash, the writer is uncompromising in structuring the story to reveal the truth of his present state, and challenge the character to change, in the light of the catalyst memorably depicted by his co-creator. In effect, bringing Dash's hidden identity to the forefront of the heist-oriented plot is a very welcome idea, capable of sustaining the violence that surrounds it. Despite hinging the starting point of the drama on a coincidence, in the end Aaron offers no easy answers, in keeping with the book's return to the more grounded scenario.

In fact, perhaps "the Scalped"'s greatest strength might well lie in it's characters, and their decisions to acknowledge the events that shape their lives, sometimes taking the very long and life-like periods of time to come to grips with what their decisions should be. The story unfortunately loses some of it's focus due to the shift to other characters in it's three central three issues, making it appear as though they were intended for publication after the two parts that ended up framed around them. Strangely, Diesel, agent Nitz, and officer Fallsdown effectively make no direct impact on the main plot, making it appear that their stories could have been published verbatim after the events of thus much-shorter "High lonesome" arc.

It seems like no coincidence then, that the first two of these character pieces are pencilled by Furno and Francaville, with Guera's highly detailed and atmospheric style returning for the concluding issue in the story-within-a-story seeming almost misplaced. The fill-in artists are a necessity with the editorial's preference for the monthly publishing as a way to ensure the audience's enthusiasm doesn't decline for the relatively new title. Taking into account that "Vertigo" titles are traditionally strong trade paperback sellers, a more relaxed publishing approach could have perhaps made "High lonesome" a different reading experience.

In any event, with Jason Aaron as the constant, the book keeps it's gritty edge, most bluntly by various atrocities commited by the characters, that permeate the issues. The arc's negativity works to keep up the book's balance between wild-west inspired shoot-outs, and the carefully depicted acts of crime with long-lasting dramatic consequences, such as the tragic event in the Dash's mother past. No matter the artist, the grittiness and depression never seem to stop gnawing on the characters of the Rez', acting as both an explanation for their anti-social behaviour, and a catalyst for their further deterioration, with all of it's implied consequences.

As rendered by Guera, Dash is a perfect example of all the book's philosophy, trying to make sense of his violent tendencies colliding with long-suppressed emotions. Forced to endure a situation as traumatic as the one his mother faced thirty-two years ago, by the issue's end it's still unclear how will he proceed, given all that has befell him since coming to the FBI assignment. Still, the renewed focus on Bad Horse's exploits could only benefit the book as it comes closer to the inevitable resolutions it's been building up to, since the beginning.

Because, despite the many players influencing the events in Prairie Rose Reservation, and orchestrating random acts of violence on their own, "Scalped" never stops being a classical tale of a man trying to make piece with his past. Hopefully, it will end as it begun, with Dash getting past the details, to deal with the most important man in both his and his mother's life.