Saturday, June 04, 2022

Saturday Splash Page #23

 
"Undead Letter Day," in Wynonna Earp: Home on the Strange #1, by Beau Smith (writer), Carlos Ferreira (penciler), Silvio Spotti (inker), Salvatore Aiala (colorist), Robbie Robbins (letterer)

When Beau Smith returned to the Wynonna Earp character in 2003, with the 3-issue Home on the Strange, he took a slightly different approach. A little more humor, like Wynonna kicking clean through a zombie's chest, but getting her boot stuck. Or the hillbilly gremlins that do mid-air sabotage for hire. There's less Nineties excess. Ferreira gave her a look tilted more towards a Western with the boots, the hip holsters. OK, the leather bomber jacket's got nothing to do with Westerns, but it's a process. She's wearing actual pants and most of a shirt now!

This mini-series gives Wynonna a supporting cast, expands the branch of the government she works for a bit. It also involves the introduction of Beau Smith's self-insert character, Smitty, who is for Wynonna what Q is for Bond. Except really buff and he basically only gives her different kinds of guns. He's also dating a very attractive brunette whose name is Holly Day and my face is twisted into a painful grimace as I type that. But it's knowingly silly, rather than demanding to be taken seriously, for what that's worth.

The story itself is mostly concerned with exploring the significance of Wynonna being an Earp, something that was only briefly alluded to in one panel of the original series. In this case, the Clantons turn out to be immortal, at least as long as there's no true Earp running around. They thought that was settled when Wyatt keeled over, but he fathered a kid with an actress and Wynonna's descended from her. For some reason, as she gets older and stronger, their immortality goes down the toilet. So they gotta kill her.

I don't think that's ever exactly explained, other than some strange vague mention of cosmic balance. Which also explains how the Clantons and their guys never managed to kill Wyatt, no matter how many bullets they sent his way.

The showdown ends in a mystically restored Tombstone, at the O.K. Corral, naturally. Though there's a lot of automatic weapons and guns firing diamainium razor discs to cut off people's heads. One guy gets shot in the back of the head and it goes flying off his shoulders. Look, I said less Nineties' excess, not none, and the expression on the guy's face makes me think it's not supposed to be entirely serious, either.

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