COMIC BOOK REVIEW: East of West #22

SOUND OF SILENCE

Despite the hectic schedule comic scribe Jonathan Hickman has already, he has the time and space to continue his science fiction/Western tale of the inevitable apocalyptic proportion, EAST OF WEST, in the twenty-second issue that pays tribute and/or homage to the great single issue and/or standalone comics that are virtually silent, no and/or very less wordings/dialogues, and rely heavily on the artistic sequential paneling that the creator/illustrator must execute delicately to ensure the justification of the silent mode part. That is the case of that page-turning issue that is aptly named as “A Moment of Silence” that is well-done, well-crafted, well-executed, well-paced, and well-drawn akin to relishing a great medium rare beef steak, joining in the likes of Larry Hama’s classic G.I. Joe #21 (the Silent Interlude) and G.I. Joe #213 (a solemn farewell to the fallen ninja joe); and a couple of “Nuff Said” Marvel titles like Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men #121, Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil #28, and Bruce Jones and John Romita, Jr.’s Incredible Hulk #35.

Long story short, East of West #22 concerns on assassinating one of the most powerful leaders of dystopian American. Many comics that focus on that matter tend to make an arc or massive storyline, but Hickman and co-creator Nick Dragotta put matters on their hands and finish up delivering this into an exciting, fast-paced but surprisingly balanced, and pulsating chapter. This is also significant in the sense that this is the first time Hickman writes an almost wordless issue, making Nick do the most important responsibility of fulfilling a great silent chapter without giving most of the readers headaches, and ending them up more confused than ever. What even more significant here is the given time allotment for the assassins to do their task, and how they fare their given assignment. This again the brilliance of the creative team of understanding well how to convey the sense of time and space in their respective tasks in the sequential departments that need a precise coordination and synchronization between one another that resulted to a surprising balance of speed and precision in narrative and artistic executions and to the readers’ pacing as well. For examples, some of the primary pages present the building of tensions through the well-coordinated timing or pacing that explicating the fluidity of the panels until those dramatic moments in the middle part up to some of the last pages that obviously gear to the highest momentum that really excites and wheat some of the readers’ appetite on how would the story end or so. In that regards, the creative team truly holds our attention to the fullest from one panel to the last, making even so rereading this issue for minor details if the readers desire so.

Nick Dragotta’s continuing evolution of his existing artistic craft is beyond description due to his continuing knack of precisions, fine and clear lines, and greater attentions of details, especially in the backgrounds that describe some of the geographical and interior profiles of one of the target’s nations. Due to those characteristics, they actually help complimenting the pacing of this silent chapter to its almost fullest objective of a well-comprehensive and well-executed wordless but engaging visual narrative. Even the most highlight parts of this issue, the fight scenes of the assassins and their target, are done beautifully almost similar of some of the best well-choreographed fight scenes either in movies and/or television series. Plus, with an artistic license to bout, Nick is undeniably improving on making those difficult fight moments as accessible as ever.

One of the most common weaknesses in a silent issue is some of the panels need wordings, either dialogues and/or thought balloons. True, the ultimate page has one, but I believe that some of the panels should have one or three, especially the onomatopoeia of the wounded or the killed and the explosions at least. As usual in many, many great Image titles, this one possesses frontal nudities of a single character, that same target. Aside from the usual violence East of West readers are accustomed so well; those graphic illustrations are done within the context of the story, hence those exciting and heart-beating scenes. Nonetheless, East of West #22 is a growing evidence of Hickman’s evolutionary transcendence as a comic writer and one of the few visual narratives that highly satisfactory achieves of a great silent comic chapter ever. So, the war that will “end” all wars is just in the horizons….