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Loading... East of West Volume 1: The Promise (edition 2013)by Jonathan Hickman (Author), Nick Dragotta (Illustrator)
Work InformationEast of West Volume 1: The Promise by Jonathan Hickman (Author)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I enjoyed book very much. It doesn't give itself away quickly. As you read it it starts revealing itself which is where the fun is. The ending is satisfying and smart. If you want to stop here you can but if you want to read the next volumes you can. It doesn't feel like you'll be punished for reading more than what you want to read. Hickman is clearly a big ideas kind of guy, but it feels like he's bitten off way more than he can chew here. The futuristic Wild West-ish setting is kind of interesting, and there are some amusing bits to be had, but mostly this feels like it's promising a lot and delivering not much. Nick Dragotta's art is pretty rad, though, especially Death's weird robot horse. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesEast of West (collects 1-5) Is contained inContains
This is the world. It is not the one we wanted, but it is the one we deserved. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse roam the Earth, signaling the End Times for humanity, and our best hope for life, lies in DEATH. No library descriptions found. |
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With all that said, I loved it. Not, I would give your first born to endure Saga continues and stays as good as it is -- I just consumed 10 volumes in a few days and my autistic hyperfixation is still wild. But I think it's great. More of a first time I read The Gunslinger kind of love (not the most recent re-read when I became viscerally aware of just how much misogyny there was). It was this hyperfocus that actually led me to East of West as something to read it you like Saga. Thankfully, I picked up an Image Comics Humble Bundle years ago that I totally forgot about, so I'm strapped and ready to go!
I knew absolutely nothing going in, beyond it being from Image and a vague Weird West vibe. I won't go into to too much detail on the setting as you can find better explanations and deep dives all over the place. Essentially, we're in an alternative future where the American Civil war had additional participants and a magical? Celestial? MacGuffin from the sky kicked everyone's arse, so they called it a seven-way tie and the USA is now that White Stripes song that you can't get out of your head. There's a doomsday prophecy tied to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Horsepeople as they may have different bodies and pronouns on different cycles) [I hate how writing pronouns automatically sounds wildly right wing. I'm a Sidhe/ Her/ Fey/ They, etc. for the record], that involved the leaders of the nations, but Death had a wife and now has a grudge against their siblings and their underlings. And that's about as succinct as I can do.
It's weird neo West with both cool and horrifying sci-fi elements that has the bones of a Western with lots of other interesting stuff like vaguely biblical prophecies and political intrigue sprinkled in. Imagine if the world of the Gunslinger never moved on and everyone was larping the Old West in the future. Oh, and Death's horse is a weird metal one with a big bulb/ laser for a head that kind looks like a spider when it sits down.
The story is classic Death on an epic revenge quest with political, biblical Doomsday conspiracy, and the other cow pokes of the end times coming for Death. It's fun, well-written, very aware and playing into and with tropes (or just a janky, tropey mess if you don't like it), and all around ridiculous (complimentary).
This really is a case of suck it and see, your mileage may vary, and you absolutely should not take the word of lovers (like myself) or haters because this comic really seems to polarise people.
Personally, I think it's great. I can't wait to get into more and it provides a very different tone and aesthetic to Monstress, which I'm also reading at the moment and is also brilliant (don't trust me though). I am loose as a goose with ko ADHD meds and reading an issue or so of East of West this morning did send me into a Four Horseman and Revelation wiki hole that ended with me listening to a recording of the Book of Revelation, so maybe take that as a warning and everything I say under advisement. ( )