East of West vol. 9
As far as penultimate volumes go, this is ahead of “Curse Words” but behind “The Wicked + The Divine.” I do appreciate the fact that vol. 9 of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s opus is still an accessible read. This is in the sense that it never felt like I needed to go back and re-read the previous nine in order to appreciate what was going on here. All I needed to remember was the general thrust of the many ongoing character arcs and conflicts in this series. Whether it involves the very bad blood that exists between Death and War, Xiaolan’s drive towards war, or Archibald Chamberlain being a slippery old bastard as always, it’s easy to appreciate everything that goes on here. I guess the question is whether or not “East of West” will wind up feeling like more than the sum of these parts by the time it’s over.
Even so, there’s much to appreciate in the execution of this volume. Hickman crafts such memorable dialogue as his characters speak almost entirely in veiled threats or ominous proclamations. All of them wrought to the point where they have dramatic weight — any further and it’d all be laughable. As opposed to the bits of dialogue that intentionally serve to puncture the self-seriousness. This works in great concert with Dragotta’s beautiful art as it captures the epic nature of the characters and their tasks — such as Death hard-fought slaughter of the Psalms. He gives the action its energy and the drama its gravitas, to the point where it’s hard not to be transfixed by a scene like Death and War making tense words amidst the wreckage of battle. Yes, this volume is not without its more opaque moments — kinda wondering what happened to Death at the end of that flashback — but the overall work has me very ready for the finale when it arrives.