Scalped Vol. 1: Indian Country

August 7, 2007 | Trades

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Scalped Vol. 1: Indian Country
Jason Aaron, R.M. Guerra
Vertigo/DC Comics
$11.99/$9.99 US (Paperback)
**** 1/2 (out of five)

If you haven’t heard of Jason Aaron yet, you will soon.
Aaron seems destined to become the next great writer for DC Comics’ edgy and endlessly diverse Vertigo line. His recent miniseries, The Other Side (beautifully illustrated by Toronto’s Cameron Stewart) is one of the most refreshing and compelling war comics in years and his new monthly series Scalped is the nastiest new Vertigo series since the award-winning 100 Bullets began in 1999.
Scalped opens with Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse returning home to the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation 15 years after he ran away as a young teen, only to find things even worse than he remembers.
The poverty rate, along with the drug and alcohol abuse, is off the charts, as is the crime rate, but Dash’s “uncle” Lincoln Red Crow has big plans for how to turn things around for his people (and get filthy rich): opening a $97-million casino.
Red Crow figures he can use a tough-as-nails character like Dash as part of his private army of “Dawg Soldiers” who keep the peace on the reservation (and it’s people under Red Crow’s thumb) but Dash has his own reasons for sticking close to his “uncle” — the kind that’d get him killed if anyone found out.
Thanks to Aaron’s compelling script and visceral dialogue and R.M. Guerra’s ferocious artistic talents, Scalped is set to be Vertigo’s next great epic.

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