Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing East of West 7, originally released November 6th, 2013.

We would tell you to pray, but it wouldn’t do any good. You have earned what is coming to you.

-East of West

Shelby: What is it about stories of the apocalypse that we love so very much? It’s the end of everything, the last story, turn off the lights and lock the door on your way out; it’s scary and oppressive and anxiety-inducing. Will everyone die? What happens when you die, really? Can this be stopped? Do we really want to stop it? What is it that, despite those soul-searching questions, drives us to these grim stories? I know I eat them up; I love me a good apocalypse. Maybe it’s the chance for redemption, or the hope that this will be the moment that will bring people together, that  everyone will finally unite against the end and bring about change. Considering the character I’m rooting for the most in Jonathan Hickman’s East of West is the horseman Death, I suspect this won’t be that kind of story.

In case you’re new to the title, East of West takes place in a future where the leaders of the Seven Nations of America are working with three of the Horseman of the Apocalypse to bring about the end of the world, in accordance with The Message, a prophecy written near the end of the Civil War. The fourth Horseman, Death, is questing to find his son, taken from him the last time they tried to end the world. This issue is the story of Ezra Orion, Keeper of the Message. Currently, he is most painfully fused with the creature from the Abyss brought to find the traitor. He begs Conquest to cut off the creature, but Conquest recalls finding Ezra in the aftermath of a slaughter executed by the four when they were four. She raised him as her son to be an agent of the End Times, always seeking to truly be what the Message demands. Apparently, the Message calls for, “The hand of the Keeper [to be] the hand of the Beast,” so poor Ezra is stuck.

Parental pride seems a pretty poor consolation prize when the rest of your existence is either excruciating pain, or pleasure so “dark and repellant” it’s worse than the pain. To clarify, that young blue boy IS Ezra’s mother; when Conquest first adopted the child, she was in the form of an adult woman. She has since been reborn as a boy, and is still a child. This is just one small part of the dense mythology Hickman is unpacking in this title. Prophecy and the apocalypse (or at least the threat of the apocalypse) seem like pretty common bedfellows, but I’m most intrigued by the forced nature of this particular prophecy. The Chosen seem to have to actually work at making this prophecy come true; moreover, they have failed once, ten years ago. Or did they fail? How much of Death’s desertion, Xiaolin’s imprisonment, and their child’s capture is foretold in this Message? How much of the story we’re reading is already laid out in this prophecy?

What really strikes me about Hickman’s style is the puzzle he creates. The story is tantalizingly unclear, a mystery I almost don’t want to solve because I’m so enjoying not knowing. I had fallen a few issues behind, so I re-read all seven issues, and it was surprising to me how many things clicked into place in issue one that I had completely missed the first time through. The characters have an unexpected depth, especially considering that we’re dealing with the Horseman of the Apocalypse. These should be single-minded creatures, with a task to accomplish, right?

Conquest is showing concern, and dare I say compassion in this panel. He is witnessing one of the harbingers of the end times (which he is to bring about) but at this moment he shows a child-like worry for his own child. It’s a complicated emotion to depict, and Nick Dragotta does so masterfully. The art in this book runs the gamut from sci-fi/fantasy action to pseudo-religious symbolism to little character moments like this one, and Dragotta and colorist Frank Martin handle them all beautifully.

In my intro, I mentioned that maybe it’s the hope for redemption that draws me to apocalyptic stories. This book doesn’t offer that, because there’s no one to hope for. The only characters are the horsemen and leaders working to bring about the apocalypse and Death trying to find his son. I can hope for Death, that he’ll reunite his family and find a different life, but that’s a small pebble of hope next to the grim mountain of the world this story is set in. I almost find myself hoping for the end to come to this world instead of redemption. With that super bleak revelation, I’m going to turn things over to Patrick; do you think it’s ok that I find myself hoping this book concludes with the apocalypse?
Patrick: Oh, I’m not totally convinced the world isn’t already ending. Even the book of Revelation depicts the end of time as lasting for like hundreds of years. Also, Jesus believed he was living in the end of days. So maybe we’re just have a weird concept of how long we think it should take the world to end. The apocalypse is literally a way of life for these people — this issue makes that reality especially clear as it relates to poor Ezra Orion. He’s been asked time and time again:

Are you an agent of the end times? Have you become what the message demands?

So I can see that as a reason you’d like to see this series end in full-blown Armageddon: that way Ezra’s suffering — and by extension, everyone else’s suffering — won’t have been in vain. And that’s at least a moderately comforting thought. That Creature from the Abyss is so unpleasant, not just judging by Ezra’s description of what it’s doing, but check out its horrifying appearance and demeanor:

That’s right — it’s only line of dialogue in the whole issue is to yell “Fuck you, Horseman” in Latin. It’s like the thing takes its etiquette lessons from The Exorcist. Gross.

But it would make sense that the world has been in the process of ending all along. For starters, the Horsemen have been out in play long enough to have been born a second time. How many “life-” times should they need to actually usher in their apocalypse? Also, there’s a moment in Ezra’s story where the narrator (whose identity is unknown), says that pilgrims to the original Armistice site would vanish as though it was “an early rapture for the true believers.” But maybe it’s not “early” so much as it is a phased roll-out of the rapture. World’s a big place, it can’t all end at once.

I really liked spending a little more time with the earlier incarnations of the Horsemen. First, there’s the novelty of seeing them all working together, and the chilling realization that they were fucking great at slaughtering the pilgrims. It might just fall under the heading “fun detail,” but it was also cool to see that they were all riding those weird canon-head horses… or, however you want to describe them… these things:

Dragotta is a wizard with those kinds of universe-making details. We don’t spend a whole lot of time with Death in this issue, but we do witness him imploring some kind of mythical sea-god to allow him access to “the lady” in the lake. Is that Poseidon? Is there any connection to the Arhturian Lady in the Lake? Neither make a lot of sense, because the mythology is so steeped in Christian dogma. Dragotta gives the sea-god a face, but the way he draws the water yielding to the pedestrians is immediately evocative of Moses parting the Red Sea. And then, just to had a spark of realism to it: one orphaned fish, who’s shit out of luck.

By the way, I have no idea what Death and Co. are up to right now. I understand that he intends to rescue his son, but lord knows what that will entail. Hickman is very good about telling us what’s going on, but still totally leaving us in the dark. We, just like the characters, seem to have access to prophecy, but have no gift of understanding what any of it actually means. Shelby, I think that’s why you like this series so much — it offers so many answers, none of which make sense until after the fact. It’s like religion.

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page.  Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore.  If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to Comixology and download issues there.  There’s no need to pirate, right?