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.
Special thanks to the incomparable Tim Daniel for the great banner we’ve been using!
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”?
This month, we find out who Ezra Orion really is, we experience some awesome body-horror, and Death takes a trip under a “sea of mirrors.”
East of West #7
The Beast and Ezra Orion
We found out that Ezra Orion is not merely some patsy/keeper of “The Message”, but also the child of one of the 4 horsemen (Conquest). The issue goes on to give us insight into the formation of Armistice and the propagation of “The Message” through Orion.
I find it interesting that, in the Greek interpretation, “Orion” is the god of war. In “East of West”, Ezra Orion propagates the “religion” surrounding The Message and religion is heavily tied to war throughout human history. One can argue that point at each stop along the way in the true history of the world, but in “East of West”, this is clearly and undeniably the case. Now let’s look at the name “Ezra”: a very important name from a biblical/scripture standpoint. Ezra, in the Hebrew tradition, was responsible for the reintroduction of the Torah into common observation in Jerusalem. It’s also worth noting that Ezra had written a book of the apocalypse of his own with “The 4th Book of Ezra” (4 Esdras) – surely not a coincidence.
A Loving Mother
Things didn’t go so well for Ezra, however, in trying to please his “mother”, Conquest. You’ll remember that Conquest was reborn as a boy-child (as you can clearly see here). Over and over, we see Conquest demanding that her child do more for The Message. Specifically, The Message says that “the hand of the Keeper and the hand of the Beast” are to be inseparable until the last days. That is quite literally what we see here. Conquest claims to be proud of her child for becoming the agent of The Message that he was meant to be, but I’m skeptical as to whether Conquest cares for Ezra in the least.
A Lesson in Latin
Means “Fuck you” in Latin. ’nuff said!
“When the wind’s from the east and the sun’s from the west…”
The mysterious water guardian basically quotes the Cave of Wonders in the opening scene from Disney’s Aladdin here. At least that was my first thought. Of course, similar phrasing has occurred throughout fiction for ages and ages, I’m sure.
Death comes here, to a landscape filled with little lakes (likened to “mirrors of other worlds” by the characters in this comic), on his way to tracking down his lost child. We don’t spend much time here, but it deepens the “East of West” mythology in a way that we haven’t seen yet. Until now, we’ve seen “East of West” mostly as a science fiction affair, with some mysticism on the part of the 4 horsemen, I suppose. This sequences enriches the idea that science fiction meets fantasy in “East of West.”
It also presents a downward staircase that spirals down further than we can perceive it from the top. Much of “East of West” concerns what is going on deep, deep below the surface of things, both literally and figuratively. The pit where the beast was kept, for instance, is deep below the Earth. Likewise, the apocalyptic conspiracy at the center of the comic goes far deeper than most people could possibly know. What lies deep below the surface for Death and his companions? I suppose we’ll find out next time?
Continued belowLet’s Theorize
Death seems more than prepared to pay the price for entering the spiral staircase. What could that price be? In “East of West”, the price seems to be someone’s life far more often than not. Since Death already has a hit list that contains pretty much everyone in this story, I have to theorize that the price is ostensibly Death’s own life or existence as he knows it. I don’t think he has anything else to give, and I’m not sure the water guard or god or whatever that thing was probably cares about anyone else.
What do you guys and gals think?
