Okay I give up. I finished reading this book an hour ago and that is
after waiting the whole weekend to crack it, and I’ve sat here and
meditated on it and distracted myself and any number of things, and I
give up.

There is nothing redeeming about this book. It is the most
bland thing Warren Ellis has ever done. As sad as it is to say that a
space western has nothing going for it is bad, but when the entire
series is filled with bastards, be it capable bastards that get shit
done or sad pathetic bastards that get drunk and yell at giant fleas
and call them crabs, THAT is just depressing.

Warren has made a lot of
great comics in the past. He’s also made some horrible ones, but I’ve
never felt a book of his was as tepid as this before. It’s not even for
a pay check, this book reads like it was being done because Warren felt
it was expected of him. He has no energy in this book. It’s about as by
the numbers as a coloring book. It’s about as engaging as a wet noodle.

And since this is an Avatar book there is absolutely no chance that the
art could save it. I hate the house style of Avatar, but this artist
doesn’t even make that effort. His characters are so flat and
uninspired, I am kind of curious if he got his character sheets off a
failed western cartoon from the 70’s that Hanna Barbara never got
around to producing. I assume there was a reason for having the main
charcter make her shirt have a knot in the front and show off her belly
button, but I’ll be damned if I can think of one.

The drinking scene in
this book was as engaging as it was in the third Back to the Future
movie and the gun fight did nothing for me. It’s not that it’s a bad book, it’s just that it makes milk seem like Tabasco sauce on cut tongue.