Scalped #42 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), R.M. Guera (art), Giulia Brusco (colors) & Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: The finale of the Unwanted story arc.  Will Dash & Carol get back together?  Will Carol keep the baby?  Can Dash and his father unite against a common enemy?   Yeesh, it sounds like a soap opera.

What’s Good: The first 2/3 of this comic are about as tight as it gets.  The set up is incredibly simple: Dash and Carol standing on a snow-covered road.  They haven’t seen each other in months and now that they’re both clean and sober, they have a LOT to say to each other.  But the wizardry in this scene is that Aaron uses the same dialog device he used several issues ago with the elderly couple.  Dash and Gina are speaking to each other, but it is just chit chat little stuff.  The really big thoughts all confined to the narrative text boxes and run as a counterpoint to the entire conversation.  It is almost hard to describe how effectively Aaron pulls this off.  You may have heard of someone like Alex Baldwin having perfect comedic timing?  Well, this is the written, dramatic comic book form of expert comedic timing.  Aaron is really a gifted writer.

Guera also shines.  Scalped is such a nuanced book and it doesn’t lend itself to flashy splash pages, so it can be easy to overlook the art, but the way that Guera captures Dash and Carol as they verbally evade each other is just really something because the facial expressions and body language are as much of a counterpoint to the conversation as the narration boxes.  But, Guera’s real chance to shine is on a silent multi page run where [SPOILER ALERT] Dash is shown cleaning up his drug-trashed home as Carol is at the abortion clinic.  It is crystal clear that these two are turning a page in their lives and Guera sells the hell out of it.

What’s Not So Good: This issue was headed right to a rare “A” grade, but it sputters a little when Dash’s father comes back into the story.  The father just isn’t as compelling of a character as the central cast is.  Clearly, he has to have his page time, but after the maestro performance through the first portion of this issue and the emotional climax, it was hard to invest much in seeing “daddy.”  Why not flip-flop the order of the two stories?

Conclusion: We should just set up a hot-key that says, “Another outstanding issue of Scalped.  This is one of the top 5 books on the shelf right now and you must read it.”

Grade: A-

– Dean Stell