Capsule reviews: Comics from 1/12

(another light week, and late to boot, thanks to the snowstorm that hit the South)

Doc Savage #10 (DC, $2.99, Ivan Brandon, Phil Winslade) - J.G. Jones gives us a very Bama-esque cover for this issue, and it is quite nice.  Once you make your way past that, you get a flashback story dealing with Doc and Ronan during the height of the war in the Middle East.  Brandon's story highlights the differences between the two men, and how those differences would eventually send them along vary different paths.  It's not badly done - better than the main story so far set in the current day, quite frankly - but there's still nothing exceptional here.  Winslade's art is solid, although occasionally uneven.

As an aside, there's no Avenger back-up story this issue, and it doesn't look as if there will be any more in future issues.  Which is a shame, as I was enjoying the Avenger stories more than the lead features.

The Sixth Gun book 1: Cold Dead Fingers (Oni Press, $19.99, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt) - This collects the first six issues of The Sixth Gun, a supernatural/horror series set in the old west.  It concerns six guns of eldritch and malevolent power, and those who would seek to use them.  Our two leads include Drake Sinclair, an independent agent with a shady past, who by his own admission is not a very nice person, and Becky Montcrief, a young woman who, after the murder of her step-father, finds herself in possession of one of the six guns.  Against them is Oleander Hume, a former Confederate General during the Civil War, who isn't letting a little thing like being dead stop him from pursing ownership of the guns, which is only a stepping stone to even darker plans.

This is well worth picking up, especially if you like 'weird west' stories.  It has something of a Hellboy vibe to it, partially because of the supernatural and horror elements to it, and partially because Hurtt's art looks like it would fit right in illustrating a Hellboy or B.P.R.D. story.  Bunn's story is solid and engaging, making you care about our lead characters without ever taking for granted that they will survive the horrors they face.  Highly recommended.