Well, only two books out of the five that came out last week, but maybe I'll do a little better with the five books that came out this week. The store in the next town over that had been coming through on the smaller publishers, really isn't these days. They have stuff published by Scout and Vault, but never the books I actually want.
Moonie is waging war against the vampires that turned Reese. The vampires, in turn, call Taskmaster for information on Moon Knight. Which he provides, along with the advice to not mess with Moon Knight, because the guy does not care how much damage he takes so long as he destroys you. So he declines to kill Moon Knight for money, and even warns Moon Knight about the threat.
Meanwhile, it turns out Reese sort of saved Soldier's life by turning him into a vampire. Which is half the reason the dip running the vamp pyramid scheme is cheesed, because he wants to be the only one making vamps. So he hires two characters and I have no clue who the fuck these people are supposed to be. Best I can tell, MacKay and Sabbatini created them, which is fine. If the idea is Tutor is hitting Moon Knight with people he's never met, better to use brand-new characters than try to argue, "No, Moon Knight never fought Zaran the Weapons Master or Razorfist."
Problem is, having their introduction be full-page splash of the two of them just standing there is. . .kind of underwhelming. Like the reveal of their identities is supposed to be a big deal. But if these are new characters, why are we gonna be impressed? Wouldn't it be better to save the reveal for when they're actually confronting Moon Knight? You know, they get the drop on him, maybe kick him through a wall. He's picking himself up asking what name they want in the obituary or something more violent and ta-da! We get a panel of them looking menacing for their introduction! Come on, people, this is elementary shit here!
Dirt is the guy on the cover, after the Above Snakes gang who killed his wife, Dorothea. There's a yellow vulture that hangs around him called Speck, who alternates between encouraging and criticizing Dirt reaches a town with a whorehouse run by a member of the gang, and the man is killed. Dirt and Speck continue on their way.
Lewis establishes that there are so many people roaming the West looking for revenge that they have their own bars where they hang out and discuss their progress. It almost feels like a joke, commentary on how many Westerns are about someone out for revenge, but I'm not sure it's meant for a laugh. Probably supposed to tsk at it. We get a brief intro to one, Annie, who proclaims she and Dirt are the only ones in the bar who are actually determined enough to complete their revenge.
Sherman colors Dirt as almost magenta or purple at the start of the issue, then shifts to a blue coloring for him during the fight at the whorehouse, then something intermediate at the end of the issue. It could just be related to the time of day or light levels. The beginning of the book is in the middle of an extremely sunny day, while the fight is in nighttime and the end of the issue is early morning. But it could be that something's been building in Dirt, a pressure, and the opportunity to vent it on people he thinks deserve it released it. But only temporarily, which is why the ruddy shading is already coming back by the end of the issue. The release didn't last long, because the underlying problem is still there. I'll need more than one issue to confirm or deny that hypothesis.
There's also only 4 panels where you can actually see Dirt's eyes. He glares at Speck when the bird points out he didn't share water with some people he met. Scowls as he heads to the whorehouse, and one close-up after he almost gets shot and we see the bullet holes in the wall over his shoulder. And one panel in profile of him staring wearily in the distance. The rest of the time the view is either too distant, at the wrong angle, or his eyes are narrow slits. A Clint Eastwood glare taken to the extreme. Does it make him blind to anything else?
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