Loveless #17 - Vertigo

Well we've worked our way away from focusing so much on Wes and Ruth Cutter, and now seem to be focusing on Blackwater as a community. A sad little community, in the aftermath of the Civil War, trying to decide which direction it's going to go. But a few people aren't leaving that decision up to choice. The main protagonist is a Mr. Trotter. He's the one who tried to bring Wes in as the sheriff to try to get things under control. But that didn't work out exactly like he planned. Which is why he had him killed. Now he's turned to the Army. Or at least people that used to work for the Army. They're really more like mercenaries. But the still wear their Blue or Gray uniforms. One because that's the only job they know how to do now. And two because the uniform makes them feel important or respected. But the truth is that these guys are so far off the reservation that they may as well be wearing clown costumes for as close to being actual Army as they aren't anymore. And Mr. Trotter is finding out that they're just as hard, or even harder, to control than Wes was. So basically, he traded the devil he knew, for the devil he doesn't. And he seems to be working his way up the ruthless scale because he's on his 2nd or 3rd commander now, and each has been worse than the one before. In fact the only people who seem to be fighting for this town is Ruth, hidden out up in the mountains with an assassin and her dying husband, and Atticus Mann. He's a free black man, hidden out up in the hills, the only one who actually knows that Ruth is up there, who keeps killing bounties and taking them in to the city for his rewards. He may clean up the countryside all by himself. If the Army guys let him. And, in the final pages of the book, it looks like Captain Lord, the current ranking officer, has some diabolical plans up his sleeve. I have a feeling things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Fantastic story by Brian Azzarello. I didn't particularly care for the art this issue. I really wish they'd find a better artist. But that's just me. I still love this book.