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A review by xterminal
Loveless, Vol. 1: A Kin of Homecoming by Brian Azzarello, Marcelo Frusín
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