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sofm's review against another edition
5.0
It was fun to see where the inspiration to create one of my favorite characters of all time came from.
dr_matthew_lloyd's review against another edition
2.0
Let's get this out of the way first: I love Wynonna Earp, the television show about a descendant of famous lawman Wyatt Earp who fights to break the curse placed on her family with a bunch of beautiful, queer, supernatural allies. That's why I picked up this book. And the part of me that should've been an English Literature student enjoyed it. At some points, all of me enjoyed it. But my overall impression was twofold: deep respect for the creative team behind the television show for mining the gold out of such meagre material; and appreciation for how much better a largely female creative team on the television show handles a supernatural detective that is a woman compared to the handling by a largely male creative team on the comic book.
Beau Smith's original Wynonna Earp comics were published in three separate runs (plus one short story) by Image Comics (the first five issues) and IDW (the rest). The first three comics set Wynonna up as a supernatural detective fighting drug-running "trailer trash" vampires led by Bobo Del Ray, who would go on to become a much more interesting antagonist in the television show. It's terrible, but in a gratuitous, pulpy, '90s comic book way that makes it weirdly enjoyable. I give no small amount of the credit for this to Joyce Chin's artwork, which gives Wynonna a bulky, muscular physique emphasised by powerful stances and ridiculous blood-splatter and allows her to stand alongside contemporaries like Lara Croft and Xena as an literally strong female character. It's not what I'd want from a contemporary hero, but as something produced twenty years ago I can get behind it. The second arc, the last two issues with Image, completely ruin this. The art is bad; the characterisation terrible; the antagonists racist caricatures. The violence begins to suck any sense of tension out of the plot in a way that I found a major problem with the rest of the series. There's a coda in which Smith almost seems to recognise these problems, but it's difficult to see how he failed to tackle them given the creator-driven nature of Image Comic's set-up.
For all of this first-run's other problems there's also a major one of definition and characterisation: Why was it necessary for Wynonna to be descended from Wyatt? After a six year gap (1997 to 2003), Beau Smith was able to answer this question in "Home on the Strange", a three-issue arc that is the main basis of the television show. But this hiatus contained another major inspiration for the creators of television Wynonna: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's unclear to me if Buffy had much of an impact on comic Wynonna, although the attempts at humour that now pepper the dialogue suggest it. One definite influence, though, is Dana Scully of The X-Files, whose dress-sense and hairstyle must have influenced Carlos Ferreira's depiction of Wynonna. Clearly, Wynonna's revival was intended to place her alongside the female luminaries of supernatural detectivism.
Nevertheless, "Home on the Strange" doesn't quite work for me. The antagonists are poorly defined; Wynonna's motivation is unclear (beyond "it's her job"); the actions and jokes just don't quite land. To save some time: this is also exactly my criticism of the 2011 revival "The Yeti Wars". In both cases, these stories are backed up by solid artwork; it's really the writing that fails to captivate me. Focusing on the US Marshals storming an enemy stronghold rather than investigating and uncovering evidence, there just isn't enough story beyond shooting things and changes in the tide of the single long battle they each cover.
I want to make special mention of the short story "Blood is the Harvest". Despite its brevity, it's the story that most clearly characterised Wynonna as a snarky, experienced, effective paranormal investigator; significantly, I also laughed out loud at a couple of the jokes. It's twist might have lost a little impact from the fact that, in comic book form, we haven't seen Wynonna do much routine investigating, but familiarity with the genre will carry the story through.
Overall, I think that this volume will interest two parties: those who like slightly crummy, pulpy, supernatural comics, and those (like me) who want to see the genesis of the television series, even if it is nowhere near as good. Despite the low rating, I am glad I read it; I just wouldn't strongly recommend that anyone else do so.
Beau Smith's original Wynonna Earp comics were published in three separate runs (plus one short story) by Image Comics (the first five issues) and IDW (the rest). The first three comics set Wynonna up as a supernatural detective fighting drug-running "trailer trash" vampires led by Bobo Del Ray, who would go on to become a much more interesting antagonist in the television show. It's terrible, but in a gratuitous, pulpy, '90s comic book way that makes it weirdly enjoyable. I give no small amount of the credit for this to Joyce Chin's artwork, which gives Wynonna a bulky, muscular physique emphasised by powerful stances and ridiculous blood-splatter and allows her to stand alongside contemporaries like Lara Croft and Xena as an literally strong female character. It's not what I'd want from a contemporary hero, but as something produced twenty years ago I can get behind it. The second arc, the last two issues with Image, completely ruin this. The art is bad; the characterisation terrible; the antagonists racist caricatures. The violence begins to suck any sense of tension out of the plot in a way that I found a major problem with the rest of the series. There's a coda in which Smith almost seems to recognise these problems, but it's difficult to see how he failed to tackle them given the creator-driven nature of Image Comic's set-up.
For all of this first-run's other problems there's also a major one of definition and characterisation: Why was it necessary for Wynonna to be descended from Wyatt? After a six year gap (1997 to 2003), Beau Smith was able to answer this question in "Home on the Strange", a three-issue arc that is the main basis of the television show. But this hiatus contained another major inspiration for the creators of television Wynonna: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's unclear to me if Buffy had much of an impact on comic Wynonna, although the attempts at humour that now pepper the dialogue suggest it. One definite influence, though, is Dana Scully of The X-Files, whose dress-sense and hairstyle must have influenced Carlos Ferreira's depiction of Wynonna. Clearly, Wynonna's revival was intended to place her alongside the female luminaries of supernatural detectivism.
Nevertheless, "Home on the Strange" doesn't quite work for me. The antagonists are poorly defined; Wynonna's motivation is unclear (beyond "it's her job"); the actions and jokes just don't quite land. To save some time: this is also exactly my criticism of the 2011 revival "The Yeti Wars". In both cases, these stories are backed up by solid artwork; it's really the writing that fails to captivate me. Focusing on the US Marshals storming an enemy stronghold rather than investigating and uncovering evidence, there just isn't enough story beyond shooting things and changes in the tide of the single long battle they each cover.
I want to make special mention of the short story "Blood is the Harvest". Despite its brevity, it's the story that most clearly characterised Wynonna as a snarky, experienced, effective paranormal investigator; significantly, I also laughed out loud at a couple of the jokes. It's twist might have lost a little impact from the fact that, in comic book form, we haven't seen Wynonna do much routine investigating, but familiarity with the genre will carry the story through.
Overall, I think that this volume will interest two parties: those who like slightly crummy, pulpy, supernatural comics, and those (like me) who want to see the genesis of the television series, even if it is nowhere near as good. Despite the low rating, I am glad I read it; I just wouldn't strongly recommend that anyone else do so.
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