I was going to do a plot recap, but trying to cover 8 issues
of this series would have gone on too long, especially since I’d have to keep
going back to describe things that happened earlier in the series that factor
in. Basically, Gaunt’s worst tendencies and fears about himself all come together
at the worst time. He’s dating an actual ghost, the fact she can’t die quite
possibly part of the appeal to someone concerned about how many of his loved
ones end up dead. He tries to help his best friend, BlacJacMac, get back
together with his lady, because he feels each of them is letting their pride
get in the way of something good (this turns out to be something Gaunt knows a
little about), without success. Surly over that, he delivers some bad news to
an old flame of his in a callous and straightforward fashion. The
straightforward part is standard for Gaunt, who is big on truth, but not too concerned with its effects. As usual, this causes problems for him down the line, as it
leaves Shari understandably furious.
Spook comes to him asking for help, and even though doing so
will mean losing her forever – it involves completing her unfinished
business – he agrees. Then he won’t leave when she asks, his stubborn desire to
stay with her and see this thing through (and not walk away from someone he cares for) speaking up. It nearly gets him
killed, and this puts him in a position where he’s all that stands between her
and an innocent. Up to that point, he’s protected her, because he felt she
deserved some revenge (not being above that impulse himself), but all the time
he’s been hoping she’d be satisfied before it came to a certain point. He's out of luck on that score, as usual.
So Gaunt does what he has to, whether to protect Spook or that innocent live is up for debate, but either way, it leaves him drained. It confirms his fear that he’s poison. That all his talk about
standing by his friends is a lot of hot air, considering that what he ends up standing
beside is a bunch of corpses. Coming back to a trashed Munden’s Bar full of
dead customers, injured friends, a triumphant Shari, and the Lawkillers -
having escaped being marooned in the past where Gaunt and Spook left them, and
looking for payback on both - doesn’t help. That’s a problem for Gaunt, he sometimes
makes decisions for petty reasons, or just because he’s hurting and doesn’t
care if others do as well, and they come back to bite him. They may take a
circuitous route to do it, they may gather momentum and extra suffering as they
go - a person looking for payback on GrimJack will find no shortage of potential allies - but those ugly choices he makes always have consequences.
He ends up in a graveyard, alone against three killers,
doing what he seems to do best, piling up corpses. I do want to take a minute
to highlight the following exchange between Gaunt and the Preacher. As awful as
the whole situation is otherwise, I find it really funny (Ostrander's knack for humor amidst serious moments coming through, or maybe it's Kim Yale. I read someone online this week who attributed much of the lighter bits in some of Ostrander's work to her.). It’s also a decent
representation of a lot of arguments about differing interpretations of
religious texts over the course of human history.
Interesting points, Mister, err, Preacher. Mr. Gaunt, your rebuttal?
Of course, even when the Major appears to win, appearances
can be deceiving. So we get an issue of the Major, a man who knows how
impermanent death can be, unable to enjoy his victory, chasing the man he was
sure he’d put in the ground. Then we find out what happened to Gaunt, and Ostrander
and Mandrake put some wheels in motion for further down the line, with the
Dancer and his plans, with Gaunt, and with Spook.
What’s impressive is how, as I read the story, I can feel
all this building up against him. Not just the enemies he’s made, but all the
weight he carries inside. Ostrander and Tim Truman did this to good effect on a
broader scale in their run, with the
Trade Wars. We saw how Gaunt, who tends to focus on the small pictures because
he can’t stand the bigger one’s stench, can be manipulated by people claiming
to be all about the big picture, and it leads to a lot of death and destruction.
But he’s a means to an end, which doesn’t make him feel less responsible, but
it affects mostly people he doesn’t know or care about, and the ones truly
responsible would have done it with or without him. This one is more personal,
everything is aimed at him, everything is happening specifically because of him.
Because of things he did or didn’t do, jobs he left unfinished, jobs he should
have considered finished sooner, words he delivered carelessly.
And it's a good story for Mandrake's art. Lots of atmospheric fog, mist, and smoke. Plenty of high dark ceilings, creepy graveyards, or bombed-out bars full of looming shadows. The characters are mostly older, worn, the years showing clearly, except the one who's already dead, and half the time she looks like a wailing banshee thing. It's not a pretty, happy place, but it's not a pretty story, either.
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