REVIEW: A road to perdition for ‘Southern Bastards, Vol. 3: Homecoming’

Jason Aaron and Jason Latour continues to explore the American Southern identity in dissecting the lives and views of Coach Boss’ henchmen and Tubb’s daughter in their critically acclaimed creator owned Southern Bastards, Vol. 3: Homecoming. It contains the series’ #9 to #14, with Chris Brunner as guest artist when Jason Latour wrote one of the issues.

The title itself is very poignant and appropriate because it also tells the story of the County’s greatest religion—American football. As per characters’ lives are examined, the Coach’s preparation for the most sacred match ever fits almost perfectly up to the last detail in the penultimate and climatic chapter. The last part serves as a denouement, if not anti-climatic, but the formal appearance of the battle-scarred combatant created an intriguing moment that may influence to the succeeding arcs, reminiscing Aaron’s Scalped series. The writer spotted on the emotional and psychological turmoil and mindsets of every character he lain on, particularly the prime antagonist.

Latour’s art is grittier than ever since “Homecoming” is something of a life-and-death scenario. Totally graphic, no holds barred portrayals of characters, especially Eshaw; the artist even had time to illustrate the beautiful scenery of the Southern landscape. But the game itself was a tour de force in visuals, which he brilliantly captured the essence of this story arc. Moreover the facial portrayal and the emotional projections were both menacing to view to show how serious this sports event really is to the County.

Southern Bastards, Vol. #3: Homecoming tells the stories of six different characters that intertwined to the main event. The two Jasons put their common Southern passion to great effect in producing a suspenseful and even thoughtful arc to illustrate how far American football is really loved to the degree of being ingrained to the political-socioeconomic-cultural spheres of the County and the people themselves. Indeed, there are lots of graphic scenes and foul languages around, but these liabilities are actually some of the reasons why Southern Bastards reads so good, similar to watching an intense Ginebra basketball game, if you get the Pinoy reference here.