Comic Books
SCALPED #35
In a special stand-alone issue, we meet a couple of characters for the first and last time – an aging husband and wife who eke out a living in the harsh and rugged heart of the Badlands. Learn what it means to reside in the poorest community in the entire United States – and what it means to survive.
Written by Jason AaronArt by Danijel Zezelj
Cover by Jock
Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 14.1%
Reviews
| User | Added | Spoilers | |
| odare77 | 02/27/10 | Yes | Read Review |
| vadamowens | 02/24/10 | No | Read Review |
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That cover is dreamy!!!!
I usually trade wait, but since this is a stand alone I might just pick it up. Need my fix.
I thought all issues were included in the trades for most Vertigo series
Yes they are all included in the trade.
If they put out a collection of Jocks covers for this series (like Preacher: Dead or Alive) I would buy it in a heart beat. Every cover of this series has been stunning.
That cover is pretty awesome. I have a feeling this is gonna one of the best single issues of the year.
Zezelj art?! Awesome.
The one shots are always awesome.
I’m about 50/50 with the one-shots depending on who the story is centered around.
It’s good to see this issue come out so quickly after the huge delay between the penultimate and the final issue o the last arc.
It was touching and emotional, with all kinds of awesome panels, dialogs and captions. I was so into this issue and then Aaron fucks up everything on page 19. The end was just plain awful. Hated it.
I can’t get over how good this was!!!
I loved this issue. The part with the plane was just way too convenient, but whatever. The rest was amazing and the ending was great.
Not if you look at it from the ‘God’s greater plan’ theme. It seemed to permeate through the entire book.
Agree with you guys on the plane being pretty lame, took me right out of a phenominal story.
Loved the very end though, a happy ending is as shocking as it gets in this comic.
@vadamowens-No, it’s still contrived.
My POTW.
lol
I love this book. As I read the issue I kept preparing myself for the worst and was surprised by an actual happy ending. Moving stuff, I thought.
is this agood jumping on point?
@Nathan, not really a good indicator of what this book is like. Honestly I didn’t like it as much as everyone else. I guess I’m just too grim and gritty … I did really like taking the camera off the drama of the other arcs, but, it was hard for me to change gears.
I bet, if I ever reread this series, I’d like this issue much more …
@drakedangerz – I don’t think it’s contrived, I think it’s kind of funny. From my perspective this was Jason Aaron playing with how relentlessly nihlistic this story has been by having this couples life go from great, to good, to not-so-good, to bad, to horrible, to "Oh c’mon you’ve got to be kidding!" This book has been so depressing (as all good noir ought to be) that to see that applied to these good and innocent people, and then to see it all work out happily for once? I thought it was incredibly sweet and funny because of the preposterousness of how bad it got.
@jon I agree with everything you said but the ‘noir’ part. This is not noir in any way, imo.
The ending killed the book for me, I have never been a fan of deus ex machinas and this was one of the weaker ones. The rest of the book was spectacular though. Really loved it, the ending just akes it so I can’t make it my pick.
@JonSamuelson-That would be fine and dandy, if the rest of his series had that same sort of tone to it. But it doesn’t, so I disagree with you.
@ JonSam and drakedangerz,
I think we’ll need to see where he goes with the book, and these two characters to really say if it’s contrived or if it fits in ways that we just can’t see at this point. That said, it did take me out of the "story-so-far" with the art, characters, and feeling of the series changed so suddenly.
Okay, after looking up the definition of contrived, so that I was on the same page as everyone else, I’ll concede that it was a bit contrived. I would still absolutely argue that Aaron wrote this story exactly the way he did, intentionally. He knew that he was writing a story in which the sequence of events that befell this couple was outrageously depressing. And then for once he let his foot off the gas, and the story ended happily. He hasn’t done so at all, not with one single character, up until this point. Why these people? I think it’s because they’re actually good people. They’re "white hats". Therefore, because of that, things can work out for them. Now when look at the regular characters in the mirror of "good things happen to good people", Dashiel, and Red Crow, and Diesel, and Lutz, when we see bad things happen to them, it just drives home the point that it’s been their own terrible choices that brought it onto themselves. And honestly, I think this story would be better off if these characters are never referenced again for the rest of the run of Scalped. I guess I just don’t believe that every single issue of the entire run has to have the same unrelentingly nihlistic viewpoint. Just my $0.02.
And in response to whether or not Scalped is "noir"? I typically don’t like using the definitions of words in my arguments, but in this case it works too well.
Noir: Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.
If that doesn’t describe Scalped, I don’t know what does.
I always thought a private dick was normally involved somewhere in there. I think Scalped is a conglomeration of genre’s, just not noir. Sorry man. I’m still not with you. I’m probably wrong, but it doesn’t fit into what I think noir actually is.
Definately not noir
This wasn’t my PotW until my friends and I started talking about some of the themes and contradictions of the characters. Touching, poignant, and a different take on the world other than ‘Casino Land’ that pervades the main storyline. Nice.
This has to be one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Structurally, narratively and art-wise it blew me away. An absolute treat to read.
I just read this, retroactive pick of the week for me. Tom Katers said he cried… oh yeah? Well I cried three times so booya!