Scalped

Taken as a whole, this book is a train wreck.

By itself, the art isn't too bad. A bit heavy on the blacks, and a bit overly detailed on the faces so everyone looks craggy and/or dirty. Rereading Alan Moore's Swamp thing at the moment and I can see where the style came from. I prefer the older stuff myself, but it does fit the general tone of the story which is SUPER dark and gritty.

The page layouts are probably the best part of the art IMHO. Not really saying much, but it's something. Some people's page layouts are just a total snore.

The story, again, by itself isn't too bad. I'm not a great connoisseur of gritty crime fiction, but even I could see where this plot was going a mile away. Not to mention the fact that the dialog wasn't anything to write home about, and the timeline jumping often feels disjointed and amateurish. As if that's just something that mature adult graphic novels do so Jason Aaron had to fit it in somewhere.

Of course it almost goes without mentioning that Aaron's portrayal of women is less then stellar to boot. I mean, they would probably be pretty kick ass if they were real people, but since we are in a balls deep in grit sort of man's world comic one gets herself killed (the peace activist of course) and the other is a "whore and a liar. And if you got a lick o' goddamn sense you'll stay way the hell away from her." or so says her father.

Of course the chief has few good words for anyone. Not only does he not approve of his daughter's sex life, he also doesn't like activists (because back in his day, burning flags and killing feds didn't accomplish anything), and he and Dashiel Dead Horse get to bond over their mutual disdain for their people's "dead" traditions. Because we aren't going to have to put up with enough racist bullshit from the Feds.

Which takes us to the point where this book started slipping below average. Not only is native culture cut down at every opportunity, the promoters of this book have the audacity to celebrate Aaron as a true American writer, because what's more AMERICAN then a dying culture?

In the last paragraph of his introduction, Brian K Vaughan of all people has the audacity to promote Aaron's work as "well-researched yet imaginative, funny but serious, political and politically incorrect, SCALPED is further proof that the most exciting new writer in comics is an American." And yet everything that Aaron does falls firmly in the camp of perpetuating racial stereotypes, harmful racial stereotypes if we are being completely honest here.

Labeling Scalped as "Politically incorrect" as if its a good thing, Vaughan is acting as if people don't want to think that native people are all a bunch of slacker drunk, drug dealers and pimps. What Aaron is doing is not cool or rebellious, it's echoing the colonialist establishment that wants to assuage its own guilt over the misstatement of native peoples. For someone who supposedly able to write "about the united states with both the burning passion and the uniquely vitriolic rage that's difficult to balance if you didn't gestate inside the lovely belly of this cruel beast." Aaron spends a whole lot of time pitting native against native, relegating all of the USA's sins to the distant past.

So while I will be the first to admit that not every single native person ever takes issue with this comic, and that's their right, I am not just pulling this stuff out of my ass either. It's not as if the comic book industry is overflowing with native representation, and it really disgusts me when one of the only comics that most people will ever see perpetuates such derogatory views of native peoples.

Of course do stay tuned as I continue my way through the series. While I had originally planned on not wasting my time on the entire series, apparently I'm just to positive when it comes to reviewing comics.