Annotations 

This American Death: East of West #2

By | April 24th, 2013
Posted in Annotations | 6 Comments
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Welcome back to This American Death, Multiversity’s monthly annotations column on Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta’s “East of West” from Image Comics. I’ll be taking you through each issue of and explaining references, tossing out theories, and keeping track of some of the major events while giving them context. Since I won’t catch nearly everything the book has to offer and have been wrong plenty of times in my life, I’d love to see your thoughts and theories pop up in the comments section below.

Keep in mind that we’ll be spoiling every issue, because I’m going to assume you’ve already read the issues. Why else would you be reading an annotations column on “East of West”?

With that said, let’s dive into issue #2 of “East of West”, in which the Three Horsemen decide the presidency, the leaders of the Seven Nations meet at Armistice, and Death pays a visit to the Republic of Texas.

East of West #2

Page 6, Panel 4:
The president having been murdered by Death in issue #1, the other three horsemen of the apocalypse make their way through the line of succession to the presidency, looking for a “believer” of The Message to be a suitable leader. The victims are as follows: Samuel Wayne Williams (Vice President), Tilda Mannifeld (Speaker of the House), Sanford Sanz (President Pro Tempore of the Senate), Dana Swerring (Secretary of War), Richard Warren (Secretary of State), Thad Johnson (Secretary of Treasury), Bradford Terry (Secretary of Defense), and Sandra Grigorio (The Attorney General).

Richard Warren is the only name that holds any relevance, being the name of one of the Mayflower passengers and signers of the Mayflower Compact during the original settlement of America. Of course, that is not who this is meant to be. Whether it is a coincidence or not, it’s worth noting the connection in a story that presents a very different version of American history.

It is also worth noting that Hickman presents the presidential line of succession as we know it today with one major difference: The Secretary of War has been inserted between President Pro Tempore and the Secretary of State. The Secretary of War does not exist in our current real-life America, having been discontinued as a cabinet position in 1947. Harry S. Truman was the last president to possess a Secretary of War. We already know that the civil war and the American expansion went quite differently in the “East of West” America. Perhaps with 7 different, separate territories in the country it was felt that the Secretary of War position was one still worth having around?

The Three Horsemen then arrive at Antonia LeVay, who immediately recites a passage from The Message. She is deemed acceptable and sworn in as President. It cannot be coincidence that her name matches that of Anton LaVey – a prolific figure in Satanism in America from the 1960’s and onward. Sounds like a good villain, right?

Page 10, Panel 1:

This is the Golden Bridge. In the last installment, I thought that Hickman may have been referencing the “Golden Gate Bridge” which looked more Asian in architecture. I couldn’t place it on Hickman’s map based on Death’s telling them to meet him there on “The Burning Plain.” Now we see that he was not speaking of that man-made bridge, but instead of a “Golden Bridge” rock formation that would make perfect sense as being located on The Burning Plain.

Page 17, Panel 4:

Bel Solomon (corrected, thanks to a heads up from Martin Thomas in the comments section), the leader of the Republic of Texas, appears to be the most staunch detractor of The Message and calls himself a skeptic. Chamberlain, too, appears to hold some sort of doubt, as he cuts out of the meeting early. We later find out that he no longer cares what happens to the world. To bring about the apocalypse, the three existing horsemen need their 4th member, Death. This group has tried and failed to kill Death in the past and Chamberlain wonders aloud if they shouldn’t just stop their mission and let the world keep going the way it’s going. I believe that “Mister Bones” refers to Death here, giving “Death” another name (adding to the pile of names from issue #1) and referring to the fact that he’s still at large.

Continued below

Page 18, Panel 2:

This is The Black Tower. Much like The White Tower exists for the president, this is where the leader of the Confederacy resides. This makes the color black an obvious symbolic antithesis for The White Tower. Also, this panel really reminded me of “Star Wars”, when Luke and the gang sneak their way in to rescue Princess Leia.

Page 19, Panel 5:

If we are to take this literally (and we’ve seen two instances of it across these first 2 issues), Death needs to hear his name in order to murder someone. He makes the president say it at the end of issue #1, while Chamberlain here offers it up right away. In Fantasy, urban legend, and lore, there are many instances where the occult or the supernatural follow a set of “rules.” Vampires, for instance, cannot enter a door unless invited in some interpretations. Perhaps this is one such “rule.”

Page 23, Panel 3: Chamberlain offers that he can help Death find his wife. A passage in The Message speaks of a lotus. The lotus flower is a symbol of purity and beauty in some Eastern cultures. Death and the lotus flower seems like an antithetic pairing of symbolism, but that seems to fit with what Hickman is doing in “East of West.” The passage goes on to refer to a “cup, of a cup” and a “chalice, of a chalice.” The chalice is a common religious symbol, especially in Christianity, where is represents the giving of the blood of Christ to those who believe. But in some Wiccan lore, the chalice is a symbol involved in procreation (see: Fifty Years of Wicca, by Frederic Lamond).

I prefer this interpretation for “East of West” #2. Chamberlain mentions that Death thinks he is looking for one thing, but it’s really two and that by finding one, he will find both. It sounds to me like Death’s lotus flower is pregnant.

Previous Issues: #1


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Vince Ostrowski

Dr. Steve Brule once called him "A typical hunk who thinks he knows everything about comics." Twitter: @VJ_Ostrowski

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