Written by: Jason Aaron
Illustrated by: R.M. GueraIn the gut-wrenching conclusion to “The Unwanted,” Carol decides the fate of her unborn child while Dash struggles with the idea of fatherhood.
In perhaps the most tragic and haunting arc yet of the book that regularly earns my highest grade, Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera have upped the ante of the world of Scalped. This issue gives us the finale of the aforementioned arc, and I went in wondering: could it live up to the high standards of the preceding issues?
Find out after the jump.
One of the most difficult things to handle in life is the reconciliation of what you actually say and what you want to say. The divide between these two things inform all aspects of your life: your friendships, your job, your family, and perhaps most prominently, your love life.
In the conclusion of current arc “The Unwanted,” Jason Aaron expertly traverses this gap, taking us through an issue that is perhaps the most emotional and upsetting of the series to date.
At its core, this book is about the relationships on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation, and primarily about the ones that rotate around the chief star of the Scalped universe – Dashiell Bad Horse. This arc finds Dash attempting to overcome his addiction to drugs while his once and perhaps future love Carol deals with her addiction and the news that she is pregnant with his child. This issue deals with the final scene of the previous issue, as Dash and Carol see each other for the first time since Dash hit her and she found out their big news, and the results are restrained, powerful and perfection in storytelling.
This issue deals heavily with the reconciliation I mentioned previously, as the issue begins with the juxtaposition of both what could have been between Carol and Dash and what the reality is, and then dives into the present as Carol and Dash have a conversation in which the divide between the internal and external dialog these characters both haunts the readers now and will likely haunt the characters for the remainder of the series. The way Aaron and artist R.M. Guera handle this sequence is remarkably powerful, preferring the subtle touch of small, colored thought panels that display what the duo really wants to say, and the tragedy that comes with what never comes out.
By the time the conversation takes a turn to match the internal dialog with the external, its too late and the course is set for the cold hard grasp of reality and pending tragedy to take hold. While Aaron has gained many fans for his work on books like Wolverine and Punisher MAX, it is his work on Scalped that should be what everyone adores him for. Assured, exquisitely paced and painfully real, Aaron’s writing is enough to make this a top tier book all on its own.
Thankfully, he doesn’t have to carry the whole of the load, as his creative partner R.M. Guera continues to craft imagery that is the perfect complement to the script. Scenes like the aforementioned meet-up between Carol and Dash can only achieve the proper emotional resonance with a solid artistic representation of the action, and Guera captures the gravitas in a way that your average artist wouldn’t be able to handle. I feel as if Guera has improved on his own work with each passing issue of this series, and this issue may have been his finest work yet.
Scalped isn’t just the best Vertigo book on the market, it’s the best comic on the market. Even at its lowest point, it is still a book of the highest quality, telling outstanding stories from both a written and visual standpoint. Not only can this book’s consistency not be touched, you also can’t reach the peaks it regularly hits. The series may have found a new peak with this very issue.
Final Verdict: 9.8 – Buy
