Loveless #21 - Vertigo

Well, this seems like the end of the story, but . . I don't think it is. Especially with Brian Azzarello writing it. Ruth has taken it in to her own hands to punish Blackwater for killing her husband. In the beginning of this series, Wes had come back from the war and was a changed man. For some reason, which we didn't know, he kept Ruth, his wife, hidden in the hills around the town. Well it turns out the reason was because Wes was actually a gun-runner. I guess he thought that if anyone wanted to do him harm, they'd probably do it through Ruth. So he kept her hidden. But then, I don't think out of design, he became the town Sheriff. And, I think, he decided to use that position to try to eliminate some of his counterparts and enemies. I mean, as a gun-runner he knew where the bad guys were hidden. And as a Sheriff, it was now his responsibility to go after them. So while it looked like he was doing his job, he was actually furthering his own ends. Anyways, eventually, the Army came to town. One thing led to another and Wes ended up dead. Ruth blamed the town. After all, they were probably the ones that called in the Army and turned over her husband. But the soldiers were just as corrupt as Wes. So they replaced the devil they knew with one they didn't. And things went from bad to worse. So all this time, Ruth has been whittling away at the competition, and making plans for how she was going to make the town pay. She does so at the wedding. She dresses the assassin that was brought in, in Wes' clothes and ties him to a horse strapped with TNT. It comes strolling in to town during the ceremony, and everyone assumes it's Wes. Ruth has taken the place of the bride, hidden under the veil, and at the appropriate moment, shoots the dynamite exploding the town in to hell-fire. But she leaves the father of the bride alive as a witness. "Blackwater is dead . . . I'll leave a one-armed man to bury it." But as she leaves him, he lets her know it wasn't the town that did Wes in, it was actually his brother Johnny. He was Union. Ruth seems content as she rides out of town, but I'm wondering if this hasn't opened up some new things for her to think about. Fantastic series. I'm not really a big fan of Werther Dell'edera's, but, he does give the book a certain feel. And it's right. Brian's stories are incredible. They seem to go on and on, but you just know, at some point, everything is going to start to come together. But, with next issue, it looks like we're going to be moving in a new direction. It should be interesting.