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uosdwisrdewoh's review against another edition
4.0
Brian Azzarello brings his noir sensibilities to the frontier in this Western set in Reconstruction-era Missouri.
The war is over, and with residents seething under Union occupation, Confederate veteran Wes Cutter returns to town to take back his land from Union soldiers and to find his wife. Nobody in town particularly trusts Wes, but he somehow gets by on his wiles, manipulating both sides to gain a position of power.
Much like his opus 100 Bullets, Azzarello goes for the slow burn, setting a ponderous mood and telling the story carefully and obliquely. His characters dole out information sparingly, in clipped dialogue, and flashbacks don't always announce themselves as such. Azzarello doesn't spoon-feed information; you have to work for it. And while I love the hard-boiled tone Azzarello brings to the material, it drags on a bit too long. He's still setting up the pieces without much payoff in this volume, and although there is action in the form of shootouts, these encounters only raise questions about the plot. Why do people still tolerate having Wes Cutter in town when people seem to drop dead around him on a daily basis? Should we just attribute it to a more violent era, or are the people surrounding Wes simply that oblivious?
At once helping and hindering the storytelling is Marcelo Frusin's dark, yet somewhat disjointed, art. Many times the reader has to go back and piece together exactly which of the many similar-looking Union soldiers we're dealing with in a scene. Sometimes this seems intentional, other times you wish for a rock-solid storyteller like Eduardo Risso, Azzarello's partner on 100 Bullets.
In spite of all my problems with the book, I still enjoyed it. I fear that Azzarello's glacial pace won't allow for the plots to come together satisfactorily, since the book was cancelled and there were only two more volumes completed, but it's still an interesting effort to bring the Western back to comics in modern form.
The war is over, and with residents seething under Union occupation, Confederate veteran Wes Cutter returns to town to take back his land from Union soldiers and to find his wife. Nobody in town particularly trusts Wes, but he somehow gets by on his wiles, manipulating both sides to gain a position of power.
Much like his opus 100 Bullets, Azzarello goes for the slow burn, setting a ponderous mood and telling the story carefully and obliquely. His characters dole out information sparingly, in clipped dialogue, and flashbacks don't always announce themselves as such. Azzarello doesn't spoon-feed information; you have to work for it. And while I love the hard-boiled tone Azzarello brings to the material, it drags on a bit too long. He's still setting up the pieces without much payoff in this volume, and although there is action in the form of shootouts, these encounters only raise questions about the plot. Why do people still tolerate having Wes Cutter in town when people seem to drop dead around him on a daily basis? Should we just attribute it to a more violent era, or are the people surrounding Wes simply that oblivious?
At once helping and hindering the storytelling is Marcelo Frusin's dark, yet somewhat disjointed, art. Many times the reader has to go back and piece together exactly which of the many similar-looking Union soldiers we're dealing with in a scene. Sometimes this seems intentional, other times you wish for a rock-solid storyteller like Eduardo Risso, Azzarello's partner on 100 Bullets.
In spite of all my problems with the book, I still enjoyed it. I fear that Azzarello's glacial pace won't allow for the plots to come together satisfactorily, since the book was cancelled and there were only two more volumes completed, but it's still an interesting effort to bring the Western back to comics in modern form.
matt4hire's review against another edition
4.0
A decent start to the series, though it's a little light on plot and heavy on portent. But the characters are interesting enough, and Wes Cutter's standing in town is a particular situation of interest.
ladydewinter's review
3.0
I've watched Deadwood and I've read Jonah Hex, so when I picked this up I didn't expect a cheerful book. But this is so bleak and dreadful in the beginning, I almost put it down again. If the art hadn't been as good as it is, I probably would have. I didn't, though, and once I finished about half of it, I was intrigued enough to keep on reading.
Most of what happens in this book is the set up for what's to come - there's an awful lot of shooting and killing, with some sex sprinkled in between. Set after the Civil War, it's the story of Wes Cutter, who returns to his hometown where tensions between Northerners, Southerners and former slaves are running high.
I'm looking forward to reading the next part, but I hope the plot gets a bit interesting and - it would be nice if at least one person who isn't completely horrible were to turn up.
Most of what happens in this book is the set up for what's to come - there's an awful lot of shooting and killing, with some sex sprinkled in between. Set after the Civil War, it's the story of Wes Cutter, who returns to his hometown where tensions between Northerners, Southerners and former slaves are running high.
I'm looking forward to reading the next part, but I hope the plot gets a bit interesting and - it would be nice if at least one person who isn't completely horrible were to turn up.
nharkins's review
2.0
The art doesn't differentiate characters well, and the story jumps around a bit in time, so it's also unclear when it isn't jumping around in time, because the main character is apparently lying to others, and it's unclear why it even matters.
xterminal's review
3.0
Brian Azzarello, Loveless: A Kin of Homecoming (Vertigo, 2006)
Despite my overwhelming affection for Preacher, I still feel kind of hinky towards the idea of western comics. I've never been a huge fan of the genre in general, though there have always been specific pieces of it that work for me, rather as there are in any genre. I should have known that, like anything else he turns his hand to, Brian Azzarello can make a western work like nobody's business. For one thing, it's not a Western so much as it is a Southern, being about the antebellum South and the horrors of reconstruction from the losing side's point of view, and no matter what genre he's working in, Azzarello has a knack for coming up with intelligent, thoughtful (if unforgivably violent) main characters, while adding just enough of the classic two-dimensionality to the really, really bad guys to not let you forget that you are, after all, reading a comic book.
For some odd reason, Loveless reminds me more of Fallen Angel than it does of Preacher (or, for that matter, 100 Bullets, Azzarello's current taking-the-world-by-storm series); maybe it's the setting, though no one's going to recognize these two takes on the American South as being in the same universe. Or maybe it's the idea that there's one person, and that person ain't exactly a hero, who's taking on the world, with only a ragtag straggle of fair-weather allies for company. Or maybe it's the reluctant nature of the protagonist's heroism. I don't know, but the comparison is sticking in my mind, and it's a strong one. I hope Loveless ends up with a much, much longer run than was allowed Fallen Angel, I must say. Mr. Azzarello has hit upon another winner. *** ½
Despite my overwhelming affection for Preacher, I still feel kind of hinky towards the idea of western comics. I've never been a huge fan of the genre in general, though there have always been specific pieces of it that work for me, rather as there are in any genre. I should have known that, like anything else he turns his hand to, Brian Azzarello can make a western work like nobody's business. For one thing, it's not a Western so much as it is a Southern, being about the antebellum South and the horrors of reconstruction from the losing side's point of view, and no matter what genre he's working in, Azzarello has a knack for coming up with intelligent, thoughtful (if unforgivably violent) main characters, while adding just enough of the classic two-dimensionality to the really, really bad guys to not let you forget that you are, after all, reading a comic book.
For some odd reason, Loveless reminds me more of Fallen Angel than it does of Preacher (or, for that matter, 100 Bullets, Azzarello's current taking-the-world-by-storm series); maybe it's the setting, though no one's going to recognize these two takes on the American South as being in the same universe. Or maybe it's the idea that there's one person, and that person ain't exactly a hero, who's taking on the world, with only a ragtag straggle of fair-weather allies for company. Or maybe it's the reluctant nature of the protagonist's heroism. I don't know, but the comparison is sticking in my mind, and it's a strong one. I hope Loveless ends up with a much, much longer run than was allowed Fallen Angel, I must say. Mr. Azzarello has hit upon another winner. *** ½
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