In some ways, New West is an exercise in archetypes. The tired ex-cop haunted by a mistake in his past, the powerful people who he let down and who ruined him for his mistake even the sexy young thing who is both forbidden to the cop and irresistibly drawn to him; these are character types we've seen before. However, Palmiotti and Noto put these archetypes to work in a very interesting situation which mixes elements of post-apocalypse with atmosphere and mood of a particular locale (in this case, Southern California) and they come up with a pretty interesting action-adventure with a good character-based backbone. New West reads like the noir genre transported into a Phillip K. Dick high concept, and with Noto providing the visuals, you know it looks fantastic.
In the sketches at the back, Noto mentions that Dan, the lead, is a mixture of Jake Gittes from Chinatown, Bruce Willis and a little Robert Mitchum. That's not only a good description of his look, it's a really good description of his personality. Dan is a weary warrior, someone whose combat skills haven't dulled in the least but whose will to fight has died after taking a particularly brutal and personal loss. Palmiotti opens the story by showing Dan living in a sort of shadow existence, making his way through the days but not particularly caring about it, although he's careful to also show that Dan still holds some hero's morals, including his resistance to the not-inconsiderable charms of Megan. I also like that Dan's flaws include an amusing streak of political incorrectness bordering on racism, which leads to some very funny dialogue. It's not just the lead that I like, though... the character moments in this book are terrific, from the teasing and attempted seduction by Megan to the adversarial relationship between Dan and Melinda Hirsh to a very funny little interlude with Dan and a former cop buddy named Lucky.
For all that the character interaction is really good, though, the premise is just as good. Palmiotti and Noto present the reader with a semi-post-apocalyptic setting, which is to say that it's considerably brighter, more optimistic and localized than your average post-apocalypse story. The world hasn't gone to hell, it's actually quite like the one we live in (which I suppose means that whether it's gone to hell or not is debatable), but this particular area that Dan and the rest of the cast live in has been hard hit by a shocking event. I was very pleased, though, that Palmiotti and Noto play down the societal shattering effects of the pulse bomb to a large degree, instead showing it in subtleties, like the total absence of motorized vehicles on the crowded city streets during the day, or the security around the Beverly Hills area. No roving gangs of mutants or anarchy, just a tougher, more primitive day-to-day struggle in which modern technology offers little to no comforts.
In addition, the action is terrific. Most of the first part of this book is all about exposition and character-building, although there is a particularly spectacular sequence where we see the after-effects of the bomb on Los Angeles. By the time we get into the second part, though, it's Tarantino style action, with Dan wielding a mean samurai sword against a bunch of colorful goons. Noto does some terrific storytelling here, showing off that Dan is skilled with the sword (to a superhuman level, really, even deflecting a bullet off at one point) and not shying away from the brutal after-effects of sword use (meaning lost limbs, usually).
To be honest, and this is my format whore bias showing, if they were going to do a 2-part miniseries, I'd just as soon this had been a self-contained graphic novel, which is what I'd rather have on my shelf anyway. Especially when the price ($5 for 40 pages, 6 of which are ancillary material) seems a bit crazy for serial format, but probably would seem only slightly high instead of outrageous as a collected edition. However, I can't deny that New West #1 works well in serial format, with compelling characters, a strong premise, great action and one hell of a cliffhanger that is sure to bring me back for more. 8/10
