"East of West" Amazing Premise Tempered by a Shaky Landing

    People, come around, for I have finished another comic book series, this time by the wonderful Jonathan Hickman. I wouldn't say I've read everything he's done, but I will say that I read both his Avengers and Fantastic Four runs and I both loved them, particularly as they were the leadups/lead-in's to Secret Wars. So, when I saw someone post an image of East of West, it didn't take me much convincing. Not only did the premise seem super cool, not only was it in a compact and relatively digestible 45 issues, but it was by an author whose stories I enjoyed. And well, I must say, East of West is really good, except for the ending. That is not to say I think the story ended incorrectly, it's just that it came to that conclusion significantly faster than I thought it would. Let's talk about it.

    So, for the uninitiated, the gist of East of West is basically this. Some time in the 1800's(?) America was hit with a meteor in a place called Armistice. This supposedly was a sign of the end times, and in the future it was divided into seven nations. Every nation is led by leaders known as the Chosen who are ultimately there to lead humanity to it's very own demise. To help see the world through to the apocalypse are the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Death, Conquest, War and Famine, who change gender each time they are reincarnated, yet retain all of their old memories. East of West follows the seven nations at a critical point in time, in which the apocalypse seems right on the horizon, as Death has seemingly defected from the rest of his fellow horsemen, in a quest to find his son.

    If that sounds pretty interesting to you, it did to me as well, especially when Death is roaming the country with a vengeance like a cowboy in an old western. What I think East of West also does well is this melding of both hyper-futuristic and mystical. Usually when it comes to comics that include both of these concepts heavily, it can feel a bit at odds with each other, but I'd argue East of West does it quite seamlessly. It doesn't feel that out of place that despite wielding basically only a revolver, Death is riding a faceless horse that shoots giant lasers. There's an oracle that the horsemen have locked and chained up in some secret magical jail, and there's also some "native supremacists" that have giant floating cities and could have decimated most of the other nations through their advanced technology alone.

     I will say though, the ending fell a little flat to me. Like I said before, the conclusion made sense, it was not like Chew where I felt they were leaving too many loose ends tied. It's just that the entire series there was this overarching sense of dread because of the prophecy that loomed over the heads of everyone, only for it to largely be dropped/changed at the last minute. Wolf literally makes this super secret ritual with this unknown spirit right after his father dies, and it sort of hints that he shouldn't have made this deal with him, only for him to largely end up pretty fine by the end of things. Or the lawman just being completely absent from the ending after killing John Freeman 9 or whichever one he was. John Freeman 1 (the crown prince) got off pretty scott-free in the ending to be honest.

    I'm not saying I need everything in the story explained, far from it, I love the fact that the presence of the horsemen/balloon/the other magical aspects of the world are largely in the dark for readers, leaving them to wonder how they fit/work. But what you do need to do is figure out how to properly subvert/upend the prophecy that the entire premise/world functions on. You can't just have Wolf eat Orion and be like "I am the living word, the word has changed." Like really? By far the worst offender to this is Babylon. He is literally built up to be "The Beast of Apocalypse." He's being tricked/brainwashed by his first "friend" in balloon, and everyone seemed scared enough that they had to lock him up. But he turns out to be a red herring, and in the end literally no one cares where he is and he has a very clean happily ever after. 

Final Score: 80/100

    You just have to give Hickman and Co. credit where it's due. East of West Accomplishes so much in so little, and despite being 45 issues, I relished every single one. I think this series could have been easily doubled in length with the amount of content the creators gave themselves room to play with. Perhaps then it would have fixed the pacing issue by the end. I don't know if I'd even call it pacing issues, maybe I'm just so used to other comics/manga, where I expected there to be more of a transformation involving Babylon and for it to drag on a little bit more. The War to End All Wars was ultimately what? Two or Three Years? It's a real shame to be honest, but I'm also still glad that I had the opportunity to read this comic regardless. So much so that I would recommend it in spite of the ending. Go read this comic, it's just cool as hell.