Gunhawks #1 Review
Writers: David & Maria Lapham
Artist: Luca Pizzari
Colourists: Neeraj Menon & Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
As per Brian Overton's historical note at the back of Gunhawks #1, Western stories have been with Marvel since the Timely days. Thus, in the company's 80th anniversary year, we get to enjoy this Western one-shot. It's retro in its basic tropes, but it delivers some wonderfully modern moral complexities.
It begins with a sheriff facing down some Mexican bandits, but even before he discovers that his assailants are women, we get some twists in the standard-issue Western setting.
It's 1914 in Arizona. The late date is required to contextualize the sheriff. He's a veteran of the Mexican Revolution (which would actually still be ongoing), and the women hunting him are soldaderas working for Pancho Villa.
The sheriff gets a moment to explain the beef thanks to a pretty fiancee whose main role is catching his exposition. He was sent (with other mercenaries working for Huerta) to assassinate Villa. There were massacres and counter-massacres, and of the dozen Huerta-hired guns, only the sheriff survived. Until now.
If the story's characters are a little flat, it's eminently forgivable thanks to their clear purpose: To set the stage for the sheriff's complicated moral quandary. It is, yes, of course, a very "Stray Bullets" kind of quandary, and it's the heart of this story.
The art and the colours also concentrate on setting a stage and realizing a mood. My only visual complaint would be that the sheriff himself is a little slippery and generic. That could, of course, be intentional; this story interrogates its protagonist's heroism quite a lot for a one-shot.
The palette does a good job bringing forth the punishing sun of Arizona. Direct sunlight washes out the most vibrant colours, but they're still lurking in the heavy shadows, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
And the blood! Coloured and drawn to glorious excess in the climactic fight scenes, it gouts out like arterial salsa. The copious carnage serves a useful purpose in the final scenes, making the resolution of the story feel appropriately larger-than-life.
Gunhawks #1 delivers something more complex than a "white hats vs. black hats" fight. It uses a fateful day of gunplay to ask fascinating questions about moral growth and it lets the sheriff work out his own bittersweet answer. It's subtle and thoughtful and highly rewarding.
Artist: Luca Pizzari
Colourists: Neeraj Menon & Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
As per Brian Overton's historical note at the back of Gunhawks #1, Western stories have been with Marvel since the Timely days. Thus, in the company's 80th anniversary year, we get to enjoy this Western one-shot. It's retro in its basic tropes, but it delivers some wonderfully modern moral complexities.
It begins with a sheriff facing down some Mexican bandits, but even before he discovers that his assailants are women, we get some twists in the standard-issue Western setting.
It's 1914 in Arizona. The late date is required to contextualize the sheriff. He's a veteran of the Mexican Revolution (which would actually still be ongoing), and the women hunting him are soldaderas working for Pancho Villa.
The sheriff gets a moment to explain the beef thanks to a pretty fiancee whose main role is catching his exposition. He was sent (with other mercenaries working for Huerta) to assassinate Villa. There were massacres and counter-massacres, and of the dozen Huerta-hired guns, only the sheriff survived. Until now.
If the story's characters are a little flat, it's eminently forgivable thanks to their clear purpose: To set the stage for the sheriff's complicated moral quandary. It is, yes, of course, a very "Stray Bullets" kind of quandary, and it's the heart of this story.
The art and the colours also concentrate on setting a stage and realizing a mood. My only visual complaint would be that the sheriff himself is a little slippery and generic. That could, of course, be intentional; this story interrogates its protagonist's heroism quite a lot for a one-shot.
The palette does a good job bringing forth the punishing sun of Arizona. Direct sunlight washes out the most vibrant colours, but they're still lurking in the heavy shadows, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
And the blood! Coloured and drawn to glorious excess in the climactic fight scenes, it gouts out like arterial salsa. The copious carnage serves a useful purpose in the final scenes, making the resolution of the story feel appropriately larger-than-life.
Gunhawks #1 delivers something more complex than a "white hats vs. black hats" fight. It uses a fateful day of gunplay to ask fascinating questions about moral growth and it lets the sheriff work out his own bittersweet answer. It's subtle and thoughtful and highly rewarding.
A Look Inside
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