East of West #13 Review

writer: Jonathan Hickman / artist: Nick Dragotta While everyone can share some praise from what I felt was another successful issue of East of West, can we start with the amazing work of Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin and Rus Wooton who may be collaborating for the most beautiful book on shelves right now? Every bit of action in the East of West franchise, especially in issue #13 feels like an epic action film in a gorgeously dangerous world. The book begins with one of the most incredible shots from issue #11, namely the sniper shot that killed Cheveyo. The depiction of the portal opening is amazing in is scale and beauty and treachery; this book continues to look head and shoulders above most books in the game.

As for the story, Hickman navigates a tightly scripted event well, while still giving so much weight to the movement of the plot. The honorable fist fight between Death and Hurk the Ranger might be the main draw as it is a great conflict between two characters we’ve grown familiar with, but the much weightier consequence happens with Wolf, Crow and their dealing with the portal opening. While I still want for more, it was nice to get some more impactful moments with these characters that weren’t just at the obedience of Death. Hopefully, their back stories and motivations (which I don’t think we’ve gotten yet through 13 issues) will come more into the spotlight as the war of the Nations begins and Death continues his quest to find his son. This wasn’t the best issue of…