I'm at something of a loss to deduce why this book is being published under the DC Comics banner rather than Vertigo, as there's an edgier, more mature atmosphere here that would be more at home in DC's mature-readers imprint. But Van Meter does a fine job at conveying the harsh and more adult tone of her re-envisioned title character and the violent life she leads. More impressive is that the writer manages to succeed in telling a Western story without the benefit of the Old West as a historical setting. Throw in some sharp artwork with skewed perspectives, and you've got the makings of an entertaining first issue with an intriguing protagonist.
A mysterious woman named Cinnamon finds work in Mexico as a gun for hire, someone who will protect property and people... for the right price. She travels from town to town, looking for work, making few friends along the way. She hears word that a young woman has been looking for her, and Cinnamon decides to follow that trail back to Los Angeles. What she doesn't realize that is she and this young Latina woman from L.A. share something in common... tragic pasts that haunt them.
Paronzini's style immediately evokes comparisons to the work of Eduardo (100 Bullets) Risso. He makes excellent use of shadow and unusual points of view to keep the reader off-balance and to immerse the story in tension. His characters' faces are thoroughly expressive, and he manages to communicate the title character's confidence and emotional distance with seeming ease. He also depicts her beauty quite well, and without resorting to skimpy clothing or gratuitous butt-shots. Steele's colors are unusually bright, given the darker tone of the story, but the deeper, dark hues in the backgrounds still maintain the more mature atmosphere.
A Western set in the present. It's not an easy notion to wrap one's head around, but Van Meter manages to pull it off. For a Western to work, the hero (or heroine, in this case) needs an untamed landscape to tame, and I found the writer's choice of Mexico as an interesting starting point. What I'm really looking forward to seeing, though, is how Cinnamon deals with an urban landscape. The poverty-stricken streets of Los Angeles are no less tamed, but I'm curious to see how Cinnamon's old West methods will play in the concrete jungle.
This story is shaping up to be about cycles... cycles of violence. It's clear that Cinnamon embarked on a life of violence because of a tragedy in her past, a tragedy involving the loss of a family member. But the plot here makes it clear that violence betgets violence, and the cycle is renewed. I'm guessing -- and hoping -- that over the course of this five-part limited serie, the title character will recognize a pattern, recognize herself in others. What she chooses to do about that is a question for a future issue. I plan on finding out.
