Exclusive Review: Border Town #4 Comes Together To Tear It Apart

***This is an exclusive review, this issue will be available on 12/5/18*** writer: Eric M Esquivel / artists: Ramon Villalobos & Tamra Bonvillain / DC / Vertigo Comics WHO TELLS YOUR STORY In previous reviews, I’ve remarked that if this series was in lesser hands, the symbolism and language invoked here would be cause for concern. For example, the final line of the latest issue – “It’s a goddamn full-blown Mexican invasion!” – could be read as a provocatively worded stunt.

Stripped of any frame of reference, this pull quote might seed reasonable doubt as to whether the team on this book knows what they’re doing. In this case I’m speaking hypothetically, because anyone who’s read this far in Vertigo’s highly-acclaimed new series has no doubt in Team Border Town’s control of their narrative. DUAL CITIZENSHIP At every turn, the aforementioned union of Ramon Villalobos, Eriq Esquivel, and Tamra Bonvillain reject leaving the heavy lifting of their story to easy archetypes. In addition to having to develop a cast of characters from the ground up at the speed of a monthly comic schedule, they’ve made sure that none of the prime movers and shakers in this tale are two-dimensional. Consider the reductive phrase ‘Mexican invasion’ – meant to diminish human beings into ‘The Other’. Frank, Aimi, and Quinteh’s ‘origin stories’ so far have shown the limits of that lie. This issue, the fourth member of the group gets her spotlight to do the same.

This got me in my feelings: the warm orang…