When the first East of West issue came out I picked it up excitedly. I’m a huge Jonathan Hickman fan but after reading the first issue I was a bit confused and I finally saw the complaint most people have about Hickman, his writing is a slow burn and it takes a while to pick up and get going. Now I had missed this before because I always read his work in trade paperbacks so the slow burn wasn’t as noticeable. But the first single issue of East of West was interesting but I had no idea what was going on.
But now coming back to the world of East of West in trade form allowed me to get a clearer picture of the world that Hickman was building and I really started to dig it. East of West is a Western set in the future where the Civil War divided the country into 7 factions. The impetus for this was something called “The Message”, a prophecy that predicts the end of the world. The story starts with 3 of the four horseman of the Apocalypse emerging from the ground. War, Famine, and Conquest realize Death isn’t there and that he somehow “survived”.
The story then goes to Death and his two companions walking into a bar looking for something that was taken from him and for the rest of the volume Death goes about kicking ass. And readers let me tell you, the artist, Nick Dragotta, depicts this kicking of ass gloriously. Also we get a glimpse of the leaders of the 7 factions of the world, known as the Chosen, interacting with each other and we learn that not all of them are as dedicated to bringing about the end of the world as they seem. I’m really interested in this world that Hickman and Dragotta have built and even though I was a bit confused in the beginning I’m now fully on board and am waiting impatiently for the next volume.
Post by Sam
Twitter: BigSam425
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