East of West #1 by Jonathan Hickman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wanted to give this another shot, and in order to know what in the holy hell was going on in volumes 2-4, I had to re-read this one. And it gets bumped up a star.
Hickman does some weird-ass shit. That’s the simplest way I can put it.
More precisely, he does crazy stuff that sometimes works because it’s so out there and interesting, and sometimes flops because I think HE thinks that his stories are less impenetrable than they are. Because sometimes, whoa.
Sometimes with Hickman, I feel like I need a buddy in the narrative. I kinda hate when this person exists, the person in the story who’s New Guy and is always like, “Wait…What? Explain to me again why we’re doing this stuff we’re doing?” But these stories are pretty complicated, and they don’t have a 3rd person, omniscient narrator who can tell me a few things, so there are times when I need a better look in to what the story is.
I respect that Hickman does dense stuff that isn’t always easy to explain, and I do feel like he’s doing different work, individual stuff that we aren’t getting from other creators. I added a star because, having read more of his stuff, I don’t think he’s being purposely difficult. I don’t think he makes things confusing just to pump up the drama and the story. I think he just has some wild ideas that play out a little slower.