Gunplay
Jorge Vega, story
Dominic Vivona, art
Christopher Priest, prose
Gunplay

One of my favorite westerns is an older movie Rio Bravo. I’m sure you’ve probably heard of it. One of the things I love about it is the use of inherent inferiority in the Wild West as a way to push the heroes as something special. More so in those days than in the present, you had to be a grown, healthy man to get any real respect. So while John Wayne’s John T. Chance character fits the bill, so do all the bad guys he has to fight off. It’s just that Chance’s few allies are all based on the kind of people many looked down upon based on who they were despite what they were capable of: an alcoholic, an aging man with a physical handicap, a woman and a teenager.

So it was nice that not only were we supposed to cheer for these underdogs, but Chance himself was able to see past their so-called shortcomings. One of the major bad guys goads Chance with, “A game-legged old man and a drunk. That’s all you got?”

Immediately after, Chance matter-of-factly corrects him with, “That’s WHAT I got.” He takes in their diversity and doesn’t second-guess it.

Gunplay, despite its different cast, different story and relationship with the supernatural, brings me back to the feeling of Rio Bravo. In a time of lawlessness and survival of the fittest, it is another grouping of these kinds of protagonists that fill the role. This time they don’t have a John Wayne-type holding things together. A sheriff, the only true ally they come across in this, their origin adventure, is also held back by his own identity. He too is looked down upon by society for being who he is.

The main characters in Gunplay are Abner and Finn. It’s important that I tell you this because it’s a long time before the comic tells you these things. Normally, that would be fine, but the trade keeps switching between Jorge Vega’s comic and Christopher Priest’s prose side-story and it confused the hell out of me. Priest’s story is essentially a retelling, almost like Ultimate Gunplay, where it looks like he was given the basics of what it’s about and was told to come up with his own story based on it. It took time to figure that out and for a little while I couldn’t figure out if it was some kind of prequel story that wasn’t jibing with the comic’s continuity or what. I even though that his version of Finn was just a similar but separate character that got in an adventure with Abner until the comic version of Finn finally said his name about four-fifths into the book.

Other than that, it’s a pretty solid collection. In terms of standalone stories, Priest’s prose story is superior. As a launching point for a series of stories, Vega’s version definitely trumps it. I felt that I wanted to see more with those characters and that they had more potential for good stories. Vega’s version of Finn was also better, due to how much farther he was from being down-to-earth.

Westerns usually aren’t known for their gore. Bullets rarely hit skull while knives and arrows only draw blood. The gore in Gunplay far exceeds that in an effective way that makes you fear being in Abner’s way almost as much as you’d fear to be in Abner’s shoes. Cursed with immortality, he goes through some nasty situations. Ever see that episode of Justice League where Vandal Savage gets buried under rubble and comes out simply dirty and with temporarily broken bones? Yeah, Abner’s own take on the situation is far more disturbing to look at.

There’s still plenty of road to be paved with our two heroes and I personally would like to see where the next story goes.

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