Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Red Wolf #1
Marvel Comics
Edmondson, Talajic, Marzan Jr & Mrva
Spinning out of the "Secret Wars" tie-in comic, "1872" comes "Red Wolf." The first issue is a standard story that takes the lead character and makes him the outsider in a rough town. Strangely, the comic then takes that outsider and dumps him a completely different setting where he is even more of an outsider by the comic's end. It's hard to say what this book's identity will be, but it appears to be a man out of his element. I'm not sure that is a very good selling point. The first issue is pretty much paint-by-the-numbers. If you are curious then give it a shot.
Red Wolf gets introduced to readers by breaking up a dispute. This allows the reader to get an idea of how tough the townspeople are and how much they dislike having a Native American sheriff. Once resolved Red Wolf goes back home.
Red Wolf's sounding board is his mother. A wise and caring person offers a more clearly defined direction for Red Wolf to stick to. He is brought back to town when a murder seems to have occurred. Red Wolf is trying to keep the townspeople from going out and lynching some random Indian that they suspect is the killer. Of course it couldn't be anyone else that would randomly kill despite having two white guys drawing guys on each other ten pages earlier. It can only be a Native American and the sheriff was probably in on it!
Eventually Red Wolf sets out to find the killer but he is given a young kid to drag along so that he won't let the Indian killer go when he spots him. The book ends with some interesting action and plot developments. No one trusts Red Wolf, but does it matter?
The comic hits every western stereotype you can think of except there isn't a robbery anywhere. Any unseen crime is an Indian's fault, the law man is on his own without any significant support, there is a gun fight, the townspeople all have the same scared and knee-jerk personality traits, it rains and so on. I would have liked to see the book do something a little different. The cliffhanger at the end jolts the book's direction but is it just another way to present Red Wolf in a way where no one trusts him? I'm not sure what this book is hoping to achieve direction wise.
The artwork is very good. The two action scenes are depicted in a logical and believable manner. The artwork presents the old west well and definitely has the right tone for the setting. The mystical elements of the comic also look very cool. Overall I enjoyed the artwork on this comic.
"Red Wolf" is a very ordinary western comic book. The lead character isn't trusted by townspeople that look for any way they can to pin every crime on a Native American. The book tries too hard to present a man that is trying to do the right thing and win over the public at the same time. The comic doesn't present anything new to the idea or the genre. The ending is a strange one and could create a different direction for the next issue. The artwork does a great job capturing the mood and time period. I was looking for this comic to bring something a little different to the western genre. This is a fairly average comic book.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
