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Scalped #3
Scalped: Dead Mothers
Fifteen years ago, Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse ran away from a life of abject poverty and utter hopelessness on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation searching for something better. Now he's come back home armed with nothing but a set of nunchuks, a hell-bent-for-leather attitude and one dark secret, to find nothing much has changed on "the Rez" — short of a glimmering new casino, and a once-proud people overcome by drugs and organized crime.
In this third volume of the acclaimed SCALPED series, on the day after the grand opening of a new casino, undercover FBI agent Dashiell Bad Horse's home reservation wakes up to find that two women have been murdered during the night. It's up to Dash to find the killers and, in the process, come to grips with his relationship with his own mother.
Collects: Scalped #12–18
In this third volume of the acclaimed SCALPED series, on the day after the grand opening of a new casino, undercover FBI agent Dashiell Bad Horse's home reservation wakes up to find that two women have been murdered during the night. It's up to Dash to find the killers and, in the process, come to grips with his relationship with his own mother.
Collects: Scalped #12–18
168 pages, Paperback
First published October 21, 2008
14 people are currently reading
653 people want to read
About the author
Jason Aaron
2,352 books1,680 followersJason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.
In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.
Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.
After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.
In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.
Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.
After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
July 8, 2025
(A-) 83% | Very Good
Notes: On coping, seething, much bequeathing, lashing out in rage, how death affects in grief to wreck, obsess or disengage.
*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #12-13 ◦ Issues #14-16 ◦ Issues #17-18
Notes: On coping, seething, much bequeathing, lashing out in rage, how death affects in grief to wreck, obsess or disengage.
*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #12-13 ◦ Issues #14-16 ◦ Issues #17-18
March 26, 2023
This superbly crafted and very much a human interest tale, with its no holds barred look at the downside of the modern Native American communities that have been set-aside by the 'Americans'. In this volume veteran and recently returned 'home' Dashiell is investigating murders ( yes plural) and trying to come to terms with some... mummy issues. 8 out of 12, Four Star read.
2017 and 2013 read
2017 and 2013 read
August 20, 2018
A grim, miserable, yet powerful volume that brings the death of two mothers to Dash, one of them the meth-addicted mother of several children. Dash, who himself has had a complicated relationship with his mother, has to tell the kids their mother is gone, in several wordless panels. His developing relationship with the oldest boy, who insists on Dash's helping him to revenge, is touching. He teaches the boy to shoot, gives him his arrowhead collection (as he never expects to have a son), but the boy trades it for a gun, which leads to tragic results.
Dash learns that Diesel, the wanna-be Indian and a-hole, is something different than any of us knew, and this complicates his investigation.
Dash also finds another dead mother, a main character in the series, which complicates his life and the life of Chief Red Crow, who benefits from her death but also grieves him. FBI agent Nitz is happy this woman is dead, for which we continue to hate him, since we really liked this woman, a one-time "dog solder" or rez activist, a lot.
This volume opens with a dream sequence recapitulating all the previous plot information without deepening or advancing anything, which disappointed me a bit, and we have two new artists helping Guera do the artwork, which also unsettles/disappoints me, but the volume is great, one of a series of great Western comics series such as Preacher (but this one is without laughs).
Dash learns that Diesel, the wanna-be Indian and a-hole, is something different than any of us knew, and this complicates his investigation.
Dash also finds another dead mother, a main character in the series, which complicates his life and the life of Chief Red Crow, who benefits from her death but also grieves him. FBI agent Nitz is happy this woman is dead, for which we continue to hate him, since we really liked this woman, a one-time "dog solder" or rez activist, a lot.
This volume opens with a dream sequence recapitulating all the previous plot information without deepening or advancing anything, which disappointed me a bit, and we have two new artists helping Guera do the artwork, which also unsettles/disappoints me, but the volume is great, one of a series of great Western comics series such as Preacher (but this one is without laughs).
February 19, 2025
Outstanding!
October 2, 2011
Phew, made it through another dark, misery drenched volume of Jason Aaron and RM Guera's "Scalped", the story of undercover cop Dash Bad Horse trying to bring down Red Crow, head of the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and owner of the newly opened Casino. The complex story gets more complicated as more bodies pile up and the character of Diesel remains a mystery. Throw in an intriguing new character in the form of Franklin Falls Down and some decent back story and this series is finally getting as good as I hoped it would be.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a tough read, not least because every way you turn you see people hooked on drugs or alcohol, kids being killed or beaten or worse, people being tortured, people being beaten up, emotional and physical turmoil litter the pages - there's no humour so there's no let up and Aaron and Guera don't give a damn. It's a real barrage of human misery you've got to endure if you want to read this series.
That said, the story that's been set up over the first two books becomes more intriguing as the characters become more fleshed out and the world of the modern day Indian is explained further. Bad Horse goes from being a one note Wolverine archetype to a more human character, while Red Crow also remains a questionable person.
Probably Vertigo's most dark series they've put out yet, it's no "Y The Last Man" but it has plenty going for it if you're willing to stick with it - which I think is definitely worth it. "Dead Mothers" is the best book so far, let's hope Aaron and Guera can sustain the momentum and maybe throw some light into the darkness - please, guys?
Don't get me wrong, this is still a tough read, not least because every way you turn you see people hooked on drugs or alcohol, kids being killed or beaten or worse, people being tortured, people being beaten up, emotional and physical turmoil litter the pages - there's no humour so there's no let up and Aaron and Guera don't give a damn. It's a real barrage of human misery you've got to endure if you want to read this series.
That said, the story that's been set up over the first two books becomes more intriguing as the characters become more fleshed out and the world of the modern day Indian is explained further. Bad Horse goes from being a one note Wolverine archetype to a more human character, while Red Crow also remains a questionable person.
Probably Vertigo's most dark series they've put out yet, it's no "Y The Last Man" but it has plenty going for it if you're willing to stick with it - which I think is definitely worth it. "Dead Mothers" is the best book so far, let's hope Aaron and Guera can sustain the momentum and maybe throw some light into the darkness - please, guys?
December 13, 2022
If anyone needs convincing or a reason to stay with this series, Volume 3 provides plenty of evidence. This is the strongest entry so far, and that says a lot. Crime noir on an Indian Reservation with enough serious characterization to fuel a series of novels. Plus, readers can easily jump on here and pick up the story. The only missing elements are the intriguing back-story of Dash, Gina, Red Crow, and Diesel Engine from the earlier volumes.
My notes:
Issue #12 is a compelling re-cap of events and more - - - especially all the things running through Dashiell Bad Horse's head as he straddles the line between serving as a reservation cop for the corrupt casino boss/Prairie Rose reservation Chief Red Crow while trying to obtain convictable dirt on him as an undercover agent for a revenge-driven FBI field boss.
The worst case scenario replays itself as a nightmare that always wakes him as it reaches finality. Now his mother (whose body is soon to be discovered) is reaching into his dreams to warn him. Moody art by John Paul Leon is extremely effective this issue.
The most powerful single issue so far (in my opinion) is Issue #13, wherein Dashiell has to decide between two murder cases to pursue and surprises everyone with his choice. It's a heart-rending story, and with R.M. Guera back on art, the emotions just bleed from the panels. The final three pages rely on just the art to communicate the tenderness and sorrow of the moment, and it's a grim gut-punch.
Issues #13-#17 Following up on the most powerful single issue so far is the five-part Dead Mothers storyline, the most powerful story arc so far. Two mothers murdered. Which one do you think Dash will pursue the most relentlessly? Right --- the prostitute, after her newly orphaned five children tug at his heartstrings. His dislike/estrangement from his mother must run far deeper than what has been revealed so far. He holds his sorrow in check until much later, in a moment lovingly detailed in glorious cinematic fashion by R. M . Guera. Wow. So powerful. There are many moments like this throughout this story arc, where the art tells it all and far better than mere words can convey.
The introduction of the Hmongs, an Asian-American organized crime gang, occurs during this arc and is sure to play a pivotal role in issues to come.
I'm even starting to empathize with Chief Lincoln Red Crow, the former protestor and radical who later morphed into the powerful gangster and political figure he is now. He had a past with Dash's mother, Gina Bad Horse, and there were obviously feelings there.
The resolution of the side plot involving the oldest of the murdered prostitute's children and his budding mentor relationship with Dash was both sorrowful and shocking. Plus the twist ending of this storyline involving Catcher, he of the visions of doom, was stunning and disturbing. Keep reading and you'll get sucked into this saga. I am. Gratefully. This is brilliant.
Issue #18 is another stand-alone story, "Falls Down", about Officer Franklin Falls Down, the oldest member of the Prairie Rose Reservation police force and a 25-year veteran slowed down by years and miles and scars and a step behind the younger members. He's been assigned to investigate the death of Gina Bad Horse and reflects on his sorrow-filled past as he contemplates the new assignment. In the meantime his older methods prove effective in pursuit of a runaway criminal. A good story that kind of pales beside the other standalone ("Dreaming Himself Into The Real World") but there's no shame in that. The art by Davide Furno is interesting but not as effective in embracing the mood and atmosphere as Guera's work.
My notes:
Issue #12 is a compelling re-cap of events and more - - - especially all the things running through Dashiell Bad Horse's head as he straddles the line between serving as a reservation cop for the corrupt casino boss/Prairie Rose reservation Chief Red Crow while trying to obtain convictable dirt on him as an undercover agent for a revenge-driven FBI field boss.
The worst case scenario replays itself as a nightmare that always wakes him as it reaches finality. Now his mother (whose body is soon to be discovered) is reaching into his dreams to warn him. Moody art by John Paul Leon is extremely effective this issue.
The most powerful single issue so far (in my opinion) is Issue #13, wherein Dashiell has to decide between two murder cases to pursue and surprises everyone with his choice. It's a heart-rending story, and with R.M. Guera back on art, the emotions just bleed from the panels. The final three pages rely on just the art to communicate the tenderness and sorrow of the moment, and it's a grim gut-punch.
Issues #13-#17 Following up on the most powerful single issue so far is the five-part Dead Mothers storyline, the most powerful story arc so far. Two mothers murdered. Which one do you think Dash will pursue the most relentlessly? Right --- the prostitute, after her newly orphaned five children tug at his heartstrings. His dislike/estrangement from his mother must run far deeper than what has been revealed so far. He holds his sorrow in check until much later, in a moment lovingly detailed in glorious cinematic fashion by R. M . Guera. Wow. So powerful. There are many moments like this throughout this story arc, where the art tells it all and far better than mere words can convey.
The introduction of the Hmongs, an Asian-American organized crime gang, occurs during this arc and is sure to play a pivotal role in issues to come.
I'm even starting to empathize with Chief Lincoln Red Crow, the former protestor and radical who later morphed into the powerful gangster and political figure he is now. He had a past with Dash's mother, Gina Bad Horse, and there were obviously feelings there.
The resolution of the side plot involving the oldest of the murdered prostitute's children and his budding mentor relationship with Dash was both sorrowful and shocking. Plus the twist ending of this storyline involving Catcher, he of the visions of doom, was stunning and disturbing. Keep reading and you'll get sucked into this saga. I am. Gratefully. This is brilliant.
Issue #18 is another stand-alone story, "Falls Down", about Officer Franklin Falls Down, the oldest member of the Prairie Rose Reservation police force and a 25-year veteran slowed down by years and miles and scars and a step behind the younger members. He's been assigned to investigate the death of Gina Bad Horse and reflects on his sorrow-filled past as he contemplates the new assignment. In the meantime his older methods prove effective in pursuit of a runaway criminal. A good story that kind of pales beside the other standalone ("Dreaming Himself Into The Real World") but there's no shame in that. The art by Davide Furno is interesting but not as effective in embracing the mood and atmosphere as Guera's work.
November 7, 2018
My favorite of the series so far. This continues to be really dark and gritty and violent, but it's also really powerful story telling. Oh, the poor children of dead mothers. I really like the shifting POVs, as the story gets more fleshed out without lots of repetition. Every single character is complicated and nothing is ever as it seems.
I'll review the complete series here when I'm done: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'll review the complete series here when I'm done: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
September 27, 2011
So, we already have a comic where there isn’t a lot of subtext. Characters tend to say what they mean and do what they say. So I don’t know why Aaron chose to open this next story arc with a long dream sequence where the backstory is reiterated and all of the character conflicts are stated outright by dream figures. Whenever characters are sitting around discussing what has already happened and what it all means, that’s a sign that the author does not have confidence that they are getting their story across. In this case, it’s hardly warranted because, despite all the jump-cuts through time, the story is hardly difficult to keep track of.
Choosing to reveal all that subtext through a dream sequence is even worse, because a dream sequence is already a convenient, artificial way to try to tie things together. It might be alright if the dream sequenced added new subtext, but just using it to review events means it’s not contributing anything new to the plot.
It also plays into the ‘mystic dream vision’ cliché, and we could hardly have a story about Native Americans without hitting that one. I mean, can you even be a Native American if you aren’t magically clairvoyant? As with the other Native tropes in the series, we don’t get any kind of original take on the vision. It plays out about as expected, except it’s less concerned with creating strange, hallucinogenic connections and more concerned with plainly explicating any subtext which had not already been reiterated (and some that had).
Though Aaron refrains from time switching, the prophetic nature of dream visions allows him to once again reference things that the audience already knows about but which the characters have yet to figure out. The problem with this technique is that it relies on there being some unknown outcome for the audience to wonder about. If all that happens is ‘the character finds out something unpleasant happened’, that isn’t building any tension, because nothing specific is dependent on that revelation. Without that tension, all Aaron is doing is providing spoilers to his own story, and it’s already a fairly simple story to begin with, so telling us what is going to happen next hardly helps to create the tense mood that crime stories thrive on.
But after the opening story, we get back into plot development, and I'm happy to say Aaron has stopped trying to be cute. We leave behind the scattered, overlapping, time-jumping structure and get into a simple, straightforward relation of events as they happen. If a story doesn't have fathoms of depth, mixing up the form isn't going to do anything to change that, and there's nothing wrong with an unadorned, transparent structure.
The art gets a lot cleaner, too, though we start switching artists back and forth, which hurts the overall continuity. It's hard enough to remember which secondary bit player of the ensemble cast I'm looking at without the distraction of a completely different style. The physical layout and the focus are still sometimes murky, but less often.
I suspected Aaron's been trying to play off the chief as an Al Swearengen sympathetic villain, a la Deadwood, which was confirmed in an interview I came across. Unfortunately, he isn't able to fill the page with the pure, unstoppable personality required to carry off such a character. The dialogue all tends to run together and we rarely get any surprising emotional moments, which means little depth. So, the chief ends up a pale imitation.
I'm also tired of the plotline where we see how terrible and inhuman the rez is, and one of the characters wants to give up, but then something good happens and they are utterly redeemed and they decide that the rez is good. It's not a terrible little story, but it's happened at least three times now and it's not helping the book buck predictability. Aaron has expressed a desire to show a complete little story in each issue, but he doesn't seem to have enough different stories to actually doing it without getting repetitive.
While I do appreciate that the book is getting on track, I'm just not getting much reward from reading it. Frank Miller did crime better. Garth Ennis did quirky, harsh dialogue better. Every Native novel I have read covered the same rez cliches. I just don't see anything here that I haven't seen before.
It's so hard to write a dark, violent book and take it completely seriously. Both Miller and Ennis kept their tongues in their cheeks, stepping back from the darkness now and then to keep their story from becoming a mirthless trudge through the exact same emotional territory as the last issue. A story which is so joyless, which demands that you take it seriously, and yet has the emotional depth of a crime drama is hard for me to get through without a lot of eye-rolling and laughing.
Looking through the ads in the back just started to depress me. Seeing Y: The Last Man, The Exterminators, Pride, and Fables just made me realize how miserable most comics are. I'm not going to say there aren't great comics and innovative authors out there, I'm just saying I wish I could find them and I'm tired of reading the same damn thing over and over again.
My Suggested Readings in Comics
Choosing to reveal all that subtext through a dream sequence is even worse, because a dream sequence is already a convenient, artificial way to try to tie things together. It might be alright if the dream sequenced added new subtext, but just using it to review events means it’s not contributing anything new to the plot.
It also plays into the ‘mystic dream vision’ cliché, and we could hardly have a story about Native Americans without hitting that one. I mean, can you even be a Native American if you aren’t magically clairvoyant? As with the other Native tropes in the series, we don’t get any kind of original take on the vision. It plays out about as expected, except it’s less concerned with creating strange, hallucinogenic connections and more concerned with plainly explicating any subtext which had not already been reiterated (and some that had).
Though Aaron refrains from time switching, the prophetic nature of dream visions allows him to once again reference things that the audience already knows about but which the characters have yet to figure out. The problem with this technique is that it relies on there being some unknown outcome for the audience to wonder about. If all that happens is ‘the character finds out something unpleasant happened’, that isn’t building any tension, because nothing specific is dependent on that revelation. Without that tension, all Aaron is doing is providing spoilers to his own story, and it’s already a fairly simple story to begin with, so telling us what is going to happen next hardly helps to create the tense mood that crime stories thrive on.
But after the opening story, we get back into plot development, and I'm happy to say Aaron has stopped trying to be cute. We leave behind the scattered, overlapping, time-jumping structure and get into a simple, straightforward relation of events as they happen. If a story doesn't have fathoms of depth, mixing up the form isn't going to do anything to change that, and there's nothing wrong with an unadorned, transparent structure.
The art gets a lot cleaner, too, though we start switching artists back and forth, which hurts the overall continuity. It's hard enough to remember which secondary bit player of the ensemble cast I'm looking at without the distraction of a completely different style. The physical layout and the focus are still sometimes murky, but less often.
I suspected Aaron's been trying to play off the chief as an Al Swearengen sympathetic villain, a la Deadwood, which was confirmed in an interview I came across. Unfortunately, he isn't able to fill the page with the pure, unstoppable personality required to carry off such a character. The dialogue all tends to run together and we rarely get any surprising emotional moments, which means little depth. So, the chief ends up a pale imitation.
I'm also tired of the plotline where we see how terrible and inhuman the rez is, and one of the characters wants to give up, but then something good happens and they are utterly redeemed and they decide that the rez is good. It's not a terrible little story, but it's happened at least three times now and it's not helping the book buck predictability. Aaron has expressed a desire to show a complete little story in each issue, but he doesn't seem to have enough different stories to actually doing it without getting repetitive.
While I do appreciate that the book is getting on track, I'm just not getting much reward from reading it. Frank Miller did crime better. Garth Ennis did quirky, harsh dialogue better. Every Native novel I have read covered the same rez cliches. I just don't see anything here that I haven't seen before.
It's so hard to write a dark, violent book and take it completely seriously. Both Miller and Ennis kept their tongues in their cheeks, stepping back from the darkness now and then to keep their story from becoming a mirthless trudge through the exact same emotional territory as the last issue. A story which is so joyless, which demands that you take it seriously, and yet has the emotional depth of a crime drama is hard for me to get through without a lot of eye-rolling and laughing.
Looking through the ads in the back just started to depress me. Seeing Y: The Last Man, The Exterminators, Pride, and Fables just made me realize how miserable most comics are. I'm not going to say there aren't great comics and innovative authors out there, I'm just saying I wish I could find them and I'm tired of reading the same damn thing over and over again.
My Suggested Readings in Comics
February 22, 2018
Bir kitap, seri her seferinde daha da iyi olur mu? Üstelik ilk ciltte problem yaşayıp sonrasında böylesine keyifle takip etmek? "Scalped"ın üçüncü cildi "Ölü Analar" işte bu katman katman gelişen, büyüyen serinin değerli basamaklarından. Jason Aaron'un yazdığı, R.M. Guera, John Paul leon ve Davide Furno'nun çizdiği ciltler her anlamda güzel. İlke Keskin editörlüğünde, Egemen Görçek'in çevirisi ile "Çizgi Düşler"den çıkan kitap bir üst basamağa taşıyor bizi. Matruşka gibi iç içe bir kurgusu var. Bu serinin en büyük sıkıntısı birinci ciltte gösterilmesi gereken sabır. O kadar ki ilk kitapta anlayamamanın sıkıntısıyla "Acaba sıkıntı çeviride mi?" diye düşünürken şimdi Egemen Görçek'in çevirisi, orijinal dili ile olan uyumuna hayran kalmamak mümkün değil. Şu an, dördüncü cilde geçmeyi sabırsızlıkla beklerken o sesin, çevirinin tonu, anlatımı kulaklarımda.
December 2, 2014
Dead Mothers is easily the best volume among the first three. It has so much drama and emotion that you feel like you are watching an Emmy Award-winning series (oh please make the series happen). This volume has relatively less violence (but still has plenty of it) and more touching conversations. This is where I also appreciate Guera's work more than Aaron's story.
This volume's quiet when it comes to exposition though. Nothing much has moved forward as the central theme of this volume is . Think of this as the calm before the storm volume.
This volume's quiet when it comes to exposition though. Nothing much has moved forward as the central theme of this volume is . Think of this as the calm before the storm volume.
February 28, 2018
This series is absolutely riveting.
Grimy, miserable and gloriously violent is the best way I could describe the third volume of Scalped DEAD MOTHERS and it goes in a completely different direction than its predecessor CASINO BOOGIE. I can never figure out Jason Aaron's writing and pinpoint where exactly he's trying to take me before he takes a swing at my balls with something from out the left field. Some important characters die in this one. New characters also die. It's complete freakin' pandemonium, Dash is a his most unstable, I love it.
Grimy, miserable and gloriously violent is the best way I could describe the third volume of Scalped DEAD MOTHERS and it goes in a completely different direction than its predecessor CASINO BOOGIE. I can never figure out Jason Aaron's writing and pinpoint where exactly he's trying to take me before he takes a swing at my balls with something from out the left field. Some important characters die in this one. New characters also die. It's complete freakin' pandemonium, Dash is a his most unstable, I love it.
December 17, 2024
Dark as fuck.
After Bad Horse finds out his mom's dead, he's also dealing with a kid who lost his mom to being strangled to death. But the person who does it, really is untouchable, atleast for now. Things get twisty turny but really the highlight of this volume is Bad Horse trying to sort his emotions and figure out how to deal with loss. Wonderfully done, horrible to watch, could not stop reading.
After Bad Horse finds out his mom's dead, he's also dealing with a kid who lost his mom to being strangled to death. But the person who does it, really is untouchable, atleast for now. Things get twisty turny but really the highlight of this volume is Bad Horse trying to sort his emotions and figure out how to deal with loss. Wonderfully done, horrible to watch, could not stop reading.
July 7, 2019
4.5
Vay canına. Hikaye iyice serpilmeye başladı. Hikaye serpildikçe karakterlerle de daha kolay bütünleşiyorsunuz. Kalpkıran detaylarıyla şimdilik serinin en iyisiydi ama hiç şüphesiz daha fazlasını da verecek.
Vay canına. Hikaye iyice serpilmeye başladı. Hikaye serpildikçe karakterlerle de daha kolay bütünleşiyorsunuz. Kalpkıran detaylarıyla şimdilik serinin en iyisiydi ama hiç şüphesiz daha fazlasını da verecek.
July 23, 2014
OK so it's been 10 MONTHS since I read Vol. 2, and I wish I hadn't had to wait that long for this. (Library lost and I had to request a purchase).
We pick up where Vol 1 and 2 both left off: Dash's mother Gina's dead, scalped body. There's also a parallel running of a meth-head single mother who's murdered the same night, and the real gem of this volume is the stuff Aaron writes between the eldest son of the murdered woman and Dash. He obviously sees himself in the boy, and wants to help him, and thinks he does, but as with much here, that's up in the air...
Dash hunts the murderer for the boy, but wants nothing to do with his mother or her death/murder. His sadistic racist FBI boss tells him to change his focus or else...and promises to take care of the other case for him, since Dash isn't allowed to...because the other killer is in the same boat as him (another undercover FBI agent).
I really hate Nitz. You know you're a good writer when you can make someone feel loathing for a fictional character. He puts Dash in a lose-lose situation, and as a result, even more pain and suffering goes down.
The revelation here as well, is that Red Crow is most broken up about Gina's murder, even though in the long run it will be beneficial to his enterprises. His rage about her murder is mirrored with Dash's seeming reaction of not giving a shit.
The artwork here is superb, communicating so much with looks, body language, and also helping Aaron to do a lot without having to resort to writing long-winded monologues like so many lesser writers would do.
I enjoy the covers by Jock especially.
There's a lot of violence here, a lot of pent up anger in most of the characters, and it really seems like it's all going to build up to a severe explosion.
The reveal at the end of the main storyline is kind of what I had vaguely suspected, but forgot all about since I hadn't read in months. That will open up a whole new bunch of possibilities, and the Dash storyline with knowing the other FBI agent is there, and the after effects of Gina's murder on both Dash and Red Crow.
Bravo. Well worth the wait, but I really wish I hadn't had to.
If you're not already reading, or have read this series, DO IT.
There's a reason why this guy has been given so much to do with the big characters at Marvel. He's TALENTED!
We pick up where Vol 1 and 2 both left off: Dash's mother Gina's dead, scalped body. There's also a parallel running of a meth-head single mother who's murdered the same night, and the real gem of this volume is the stuff Aaron writes between the eldest son of the murdered woman and Dash. He obviously sees himself in the boy, and wants to help him, and thinks he does, but as with much here, that's up in the air...
Dash hunts the murderer for the boy, but wants nothing to do with his mother or her death/murder. His sadistic racist FBI boss tells him to change his focus or else...and promises to take care of the other case for him, since Dash isn't allowed to...because the other killer is in the same boat as him (another undercover FBI agent).
I really hate Nitz. You know you're a good writer when you can make someone feel loathing for a fictional character. He puts Dash in a lose-lose situation, and as a result, even more pain and suffering goes down.
The revelation here as well, is that Red Crow is most broken up about Gina's murder, even though in the long run it will be beneficial to his enterprises. His rage about her murder is mirrored with Dash's seeming reaction of not giving a shit.
The artwork here is superb, communicating so much with looks, body language, and also helping Aaron to do a lot without having to resort to writing long-winded monologues like so many lesser writers would do.
I enjoy the covers by Jock especially.
There's a lot of violence here, a lot of pent up anger in most of the characters, and it really seems like it's all going to build up to a severe explosion.
The reveal at the end of the main storyline is kind of what I had vaguely suspected, but forgot all about since I hadn't read in months. That will open up a whole new bunch of possibilities, and the Dash storyline with knowing the other FBI agent is there, and the after effects of Gina's murder on both Dash and Red Crow.
Bravo. Well worth the wait, but I really wish I hadn't had to.
If you're not already reading, or have read this series, DO IT.
There's a reason why this guy has been given so much to do with the big characters at Marvel. He's TALENTED!
February 5, 2017
God, I love this series.
I've decided that much of R.M. Guera's artwork is the best I have *ever* seen in a comic book. Incredible. His characters live and breathe, and he inserts more detail into the background of seemingly mundane scenes as mosts artists do on the "important" stuff. Love it.
There are 2 pages in the middle of this one -- for those who have read it, I'm referring to the scene in the interrogation room, when Dash tells the kids that their mother is dead -- that are nothing less than sublime. Not a word of dialogue, and yet you know everything that happened inside that room.
I've decided that much of R.M. Guera's artwork is the best I have *ever* seen in a comic book. Incredible. His characters live and breathe, and he inserts more detail into the background of seemingly mundane scenes as mosts artists do on the "important" stuff. Love it.
There are 2 pages in the middle of this one -- for those who have read it, I'm referring to the scene in the interrogation room, when Dash tells the kids that their mother is dead -- that are nothing less than sublime. Not a word of dialogue, and yet you know everything that happened inside that room.
September 30, 2013
This is really getting better and better. Recommended for all who love Noir-stories.
September 4, 2016
Dealing with family and family history is tough. Dealing with all that when your mother dies, is even tougher.
March 2, 2014
Great series so far! Dark, gritty and twisted! Absolutely worth continuing. Vertigo rocks!
June 6, 2016
4 stars
August 4, 2017
Good detective comic. Whit this lacks in funny it makes up for with atmosphere.
July 10, 2025
4.5 Stars
Everything in this volume is elevated. With Volume 1 this started out as a slightly above average crime drama, but Aaron has piled on the layers to these characters and I'm loving the emotional complexity of the characters Vs. their environment. The pressure is mounting with each page and it feels like things are about to pop off in the next volume in a big way.
R.M Guera's art is so much better this volume. It's not nearly as muddy and smeary the faces have a good amount of detail and I can definitely follow along compared with Volume 1
Everything in this volume is elevated. With Volume 1 this started out as a slightly above average crime drama, but Aaron has piled on the layers to these characters and I'm loving the emotional complexity of the characters Vs. their environment. The pressure is mounting with each page and it feels like things are about to pop off in the next volume in a big way.
R.M Guera's art is so much better this volume. It's not nearly as muddy and smeary the faces have a good amount of detail and I can definitely follow along compared with Volume 1
April 30, 2013
Scalped is written very well, the art fits the gritty atmosphere needed, as well as the violence depicted.
I'm not sure if this series is written by an Indian, but I suspect it is (and I'm going to research that to be sure). Life on the reservation is tough; we've all heard it, seen a few movies, read a few books about it. But this graphic novel pounds the facts home. "Tough" doesn't even begin to describe the deplorable conditions, the disillusion, the disappointment our American Indians must live in. For those reasons alone, it's worth reading this series. How WE, who don't live there, can help out, remains to be seen. But opening eyes, minds, and hearts has got to be the first step.
This volume tackles the mysteries of the deaths surrounding two mothers (and any deaths or events surrounding those mysteries.) The murders will not be solved anytime soon, I suspect.
[As an aside, I didn't realize that Mount Rushmore and the sculptures of the four presidents on it was on Indian land. That's just wrong! And rubbing a conquered people's face in it forever, too, furthers the abuse. I wonder if the Indians have ever wanted it removed? Another question for Google...]
I'm not sure if this series is written by an Indian, but I suspect it is (and I'm going to research that to be sure). Life on the reservation is tough; we've all heard it, seen a few movies, read a few books about it. But this graphic novel pounds the facts home. "Tough" doesn't even begin to describe the deplorable conditions, the disillusion, the disappointment our American Indians must live in. For those reasons alone, it's worth reading this series. How WE, who don't live there, can help out, remains to be seen. But opening eyes, minds, and hearts has got to be the first step.
This volume tackles the mysteries of the deaths surrounding two mothers (and any deaths or events surrounding those mysteries.) The murders will not be solved anytime soon, I suspect.
[As an aside, I didn't realize that Mount Rushmore and the sculptures of the four presidents on it was on Indian land. That's just wrong! And rubbing a conquered people's face in it forever, too, furthers the abuse. I wonder if the Indians have ever wanted it removed? Another question for Google...]
November 15, 2008
I appreciate "Scalped" more than I love it. It's a great study in what can be accomplished in the comic book format, particularly in crime fiction. Jason Aaron and the artists involved in this book do a great job of creating a vivid world in this corrupt, isolated Indian reservation. It also has a particularly kind of organized-crime setup that I can't resist (I first started reading this series when I heard Jason Aaron say in an interview that 'State of Grace' is one of his favorite movies and partly inspired 'Scalped').
This isn't a 5-star book for me, despite how well done it is, because after 3 volumes, the characters (particularly the main character, Dashiell Bad Horse) are still pretty opaque. One issue in 'Dead Mothers' helped me with that -- it's one that's told almost entirely in Dash's dreams, and after reading that I found more of a connection to the character than I had in the past. Still, there's a bit of something missing here that keeps me from having a strong connection to the story. But I'm definitely in it for as long as this book stays around.
This isn't a 5-star book for me, despite how well done it is, because after 3 volumes, the characters (particularly the main character, Dashiell Bad Horse) are still pretty opaque. One issue in 'Dead Mothers' helped me with that -- it's one that's told almost entirely in Dash's dreams, and after reading that I found more of a connection to the character than I had in the past. Still, there's a bit of something missing here that keeps me from having a strong connection to the story. But I'm definitely in it for as long as this book stays around.
July 13, 2015
This is where this series gets brilliant. I picked this volume up, and I didn't put it down until I finished it. So much suspense, the darkness and grittiness, the feeling of something horrible just waiting to happen... This series is written incredibly well. Every issue is like a bullet, hitting its target dead center. And one after another, it is like watching a great mechanism working, masterfully unfolding into a bigger and darker story. You can almost feel the pain and the suffering the people in this story are going through. You want to cry, to weep, to mourn with and for them. I very rarely feel that way about a work of fiction.
Of course, there is also art, which is gorgeous and fits the story so well. There are also little things, like homages to Preacher with the graffiti "Custer died for our sins" and the scene with Dash in a bar. Or posters in Dash's room. Or chalkboard writings in one of the scenes. This comic book is just brilliantly made all throughout.
Basically, if you haven't read Scalped, you should. It is great.
Of course, there is also art, which is gorgeous and fits the story so well. There are also little things, like homages to Preacher with the graffiti "Custer died for our sins" and the scene with Dash in a bar. Or posters in Dash's room. Or chalkboard writings in one of the scenes. This comic book is just brilliantly made all throughout.
Basically, if you haven't read Scalped, you should. It is great.
December 27, 2012
It's hard to put into words how I feel after reading this book trade after trade. I want to wash my hands and tell everyone (adults anyway) to read this. Its so real and raw that it doesn't even seem possible. The art, even with three different artists, fits so well to the theme of the book. Dash Bad Horse is such an intriguing character that he could be a movie heavyweight. Jason Aaron is scary good!
June 23, 2017
It felt like a lot of setup for upcoming stories, so not very memorable/not much of an arching story.
There are two dead women, hence the title, but I can only think of ONE LINE spoken by ONE WOMAN in this book. Women in Refrigerators anyone?
There are two dead women, hence the title, but I can only think of ONE LINE spoken by ONE WOMAN in this book. Women in Refrigerators anyone?
January 3, 2015
Brutal but brilliant and overflowing with drama and tension.
January 11, 2023
Best installment yet. Can’t wait to see where the story continues to go.
October 2, 2022
(Zero spoiler review for the deluxe edition collecting this arc) 4.75/5
Please see my book one review for a more expansive look at the series in general. This will just be a shorter commentary on the developments in the story, spoiler free of course. I loved this book before, but Ii feel I am even more enamoured with it now. Those small little points of contention I'd mentioned previously, such as artwork have been well and truly ironed out. R.M Guerra has hit is strides well and truly. Honing his style to a fine point. Three issues in this run were given to a guest artist, I would assume because of tie constraints or artist fatigue, although this is one of the cases where I feel the guest artist was stronger than the original. Whilst there were the inevitable issues around character models changing, which is always a let down in my book, even if the artist is technically more proficient, it wasn't long before I was pining for Guerra to come back, which he inevitably did towards the end of the run. I don't think I mentioned it in my previous review, although the first arc of the story, despite being great, was perhaps not as grounded in reality as I would have appreciated. With Dashiel Bad Horse being written as a little too bulletproof for my taste. I only mention that, as this second book has set out to humanise Bad Horse, as well as several other of the main characters. The journey's these characters commence in this arc has ben wonderful to behold, with the sentimentality, the more toned down but no less impactful violence, and the intermittent reflection this book offers up, becomes it's greatest strength. And what made an already outstanding story go to an entirely different level, that few comic books could hope to achieve. I said I would be succinct with this one and I will. God, I hope DC pull their finger out of their arse and give this one an omni sometime in the near future. If they did, I will be the first one in line to get it. 4.75/5
OmniBen
Please see my book one review for a more expansive look at the series in general. This will just be a shorter commentary on the developments in the story, spoiler free of course. I loved this book before, but Ii feel I am even more enamoured with it now. Those small little points of contention I'd mentioned previously, such as artwork have been well and truly ironed out. R.M Guerra has hit is strides well and truly. Honing his style to a fine point. Three issues in this run were given to a guest artist, I would assume because of tie constraints or artist fatigue, although this is one of the cases where I feel the guest artist was stronger than the original. Whilst there were the inevitable issues around character models changing, which is always a let down in my book, even if the artist is technically more proficient, it wasn't long before I was pining for Guerra to come back, which he inevitably did towards the end of the run. I don't think I mentioned it in my previous review, although the first arc of the story, despite being great, was perhaps not as grounded in reality as I would have appreciated. With Dashiel Bad Horse being written as a little too bulletproof for my taste. I only mention that, as this second book has set out to humanise Bad Horse, as well as several other of the main characters. The journey's these characters commence in this arc has ben wonderful to behold, with the sentimentality, the more toned down but no less impactful violence, and the intermittent reflection this book offers up, becomes it's greatest strength. And what made an already outstanding story go to an entirely different level, that few comic books could hope to achieve. I said I would be succinct with this one and I will. God, I hope DC pull their finger out of their arse and give this one an omni sometime in the near future. If they did, I will be the first one in line to get it. 4.75/5
OmniBen
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