By: Jason Aaron (writer), Davide Furno (artist), Giulia Brusco (colors), Steve Wands (letters) & Will Dennis (editor)
The Story: As Aaron is resetting the stories in Scalped, we take an issue to focus on the hard-bitten, jackass FBI agent, Baylis Nitz.
What’s Good: Another month, another outstanding issue of Scalped. I have really enjoyed this series of stories for the last few months as Aaron has stepped back from the hustle and bustle of our favorite Sioux Indian reservation to focus in on some characters who have been around the series since the beginning, but haven’t received a lot of focused character development. In this issue, we zero in on Agent Nitz. What we’ve known about Nitz so far is that he’s a man obsessed with catching Red Crow for the murder of two FBI agents back in the 1970’s and it has seemed that Nitz is willing to sacrifice anything (his family, other FBI agents, etc.) to get his man. His obsession is Ahab-like in its intensity and the level of self-destruction it brings on the man.
What we see in this issue is nothing really new: We knew that Nitz was a nasty son-of-a-bitch and that his obsession did not lead to taking a lot of pleasure with his job. However, I had no idea the depths that the man had sunk to. Anyone who has had a friend with self-destructive tendencies will see familiar elements in Nitz’s tale. And, that is why Scalped is sooooo good. I can’t identify with the characters in Superman, but I can see familiar things in Scalped.
However, what puts this issue over the top is the twist at the end. As Aaron was spinning Nitz completely out of control, you are 100% certain that Nitz is going to die. I had no doubt in my mind and such a death would have been a fitting end for this character. BUT…Aaron pulls him back from the brink in a very clever way that is going to give this modern day Ahab some serious new mojo. Ahad just got a really fast boat and some explosives in his hunt for his white whale and the cool thing is that he knows it.
Davide Furno is our guest artist this month and his art is quite good. In fact, it if very similar in terms of style to RM Guera who is the regular artist on the series. His faces are a little different the Guera’s, but no one is going to be thrown off by this slight art change and I honestly stopped noticing it by the end of the issue.
What’s Not So Good: There’s nothing wrong with this issue. The only downside is that it is yet another month of missing out of seeing what is going on with Dash, Carol and some of the other main characters in Scalped. The series is an ensemble piece, but I still feel like Dash is the heart and soul of the book, so I miss him when he isn’t around.
Conclusion: This series never takes a bad step. I’m curious to see the direction Aaron takes this series after he’s had a few months to lay some groundwork in the non-central parts of his story. This issue was an outstanding look behind the curtain at a man who has been on the periphery of this series since the beginning, but hasn’t really been featured before. Agent Nitz is definitely going to be born again hard after the events of this issue.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion