Scalped vol. 7: Rez Blues

While “Scalped” has certainly been one of the grimmer series to come down the Vertigo pipeline, it has yet to reach the point where the darkness overwhelms the story or the characters.  That’s because at the end of vol. 4, it reached the point where I figured series protagonist Dash Bad Horse had hit rock bottom… and it just kept on going from there.  Turning his main character into a junkie rather than have him face his problems dead on was about the last thing I expected from writer Jason Aaron and it has worked out beautifully for the series.  Instead of hoping against hope for things to get better, I instead revel in the sick thrill of seeing how much worse it’s going to get for Dash and the rest of the cast… Yes, it’s weird, but that’s the kind of hold this series has over me.  With the latest volume, the descent of the cast hits a plateu as the series taunts the potential redemption of Dash and his girlfriend.

We don’t get to that right away, as the first story, “Listening to the Earth Turn,” is about an aged couple at the end of their rope.  Faced with mounting medical, food, and financial problems, Mance and Hazel have to swallow their pride and accept some charity before their pride becomes the death of one of them.  It’s an effective little character portrait, with a not-quite-out-of-left-field twist at the end.  The most memorable part isn’t the twist, but how their unspoken dialogue in the captions is used to show their wordless bond and devotion to each other.

Next up is Shunka, Chief Red Crow’s top enforcer, who finally gets a story to himself in the second arc, “A Fine Action of an Honorable and Catholic Spaniard.”  We learn here that he has a secret that he’s been keeping from pretty much everyone.  The problem for us is that it’s the most obvious one that a big, strong, violent and macho man like him would have.  Fortunately, Aaron expands the story beyond that opening surprise and shows us that the character isn’t just a violent thug, but someone who is driven by shame and a deep-seated sense of justice.  Very violent justice, but you’ve probably guessed that’s the only kind he deals in.  There’s another neat trick with the narration in this story, but it’s best left for the reader to experience on their own terms.

“Family Tradition” serves as a prologue to the volume’s centerpiece and it centers around Wade, a Native American serving in Vietnam with some uncanny luck.  His luck at surviving is so great that he can’t figure out whether he’s living a cursed existence or just meant to die for a reason greater than himself.  Said reason is actually VERY integral to the series itself, but the story itself is still a compelling in itself as a portrait of a man who can’t seem to do the right thing — even when he has every chance to.

We finally come back to the saga of Dash Bad Horse and Carol Red Crow, soul-mates and junkies, in “Unwanted” and find out how their absent parents shaped their lives.  While Dash’s dad was a screw-up, Carol’s mom just couldn’t wrap her head around being a mother and left when she was four.  Now they’re older, and these issues come back to haunt them again.  Carol finds out that she’s pregnant (well, she actually found out in the last volume, but I digress…) and can’t make up her mind as to whether she wants to keep the kid or even tell Dash that it’s his.  Dash’s problems are twofold as he not only has to deal with a forced withdrawal from drugs, but the return of his father who strolls into town looking to put the murder of his ex-wife to rest.  Both stories are compelling portraits of people at crossroads in their lives, possibly about to turn the corner after years of self-inflicted hate and abuse.  I know I started off by talking about how I loved seeing the downward spiral that these characters were in, but this arc manages to subvert that by showing how difficult and complicated their road back is going to be.  It’s also going to take them (or Carol at least) down paths that I wouldn’t have expected to see them on when I first started reading this series.

I know this article is probably coming off as a total love-fest to some right about now, but I do feel that this series is one of the most engrossing reads on the market today.  Some might have issue with the depravity of certain characters, others might find the darkness at the heart of the series too much to take, and a few might be turned off by the art (which I could understand, but strongly disagree with — it’s meant to look this rough and messy).  Aaron, however, isn’t trading in shock value here as each event, no matter how squalid or obscene, has a deeper purpose to the story beyond just grabbing the reader’s attention.  That’s why I keep reading this series, and why I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a good crime story or character driven drama.