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“Some evils only end in destruction.”

In previous reviews here, I’ve professed my love for Dynamite’s reboot of The Lone Ranger. It’s been wonderful because it’s the treatment that an American icon has always deserved. The comic has been grittier, more realistic and filled with a great supporting cast. In fact, one of my single favorite issues of last year was Lone Ranger #10, in which John Reid had to deal with the moral dilemma, being someone who refuses to kill, having to bring someone to justice where the criminal will inevitably end up dead as a result of that justice. Series writer Brett Matthews handled that issue with force, gravitas, and tremendous insight. He’s also set up The Lone Ranger as something of an Old-West version of Batman; a young man seeking revenge, who has the ability to kill, shifts his beliefs to justice by the letter of the law and not his own desires for vengeance. He also has a very Commisioner Gordon-like friend in the local sheriff, and he has a cave as his headquarters!

And it’s those lines of logic that bring us to the one-shot The Lone Ranger and Tonto #1. After Reid and Tonto deal with a kindly older couple in a small town yet to be named, they come across a murdered husband and wife and their young son who appears to be in complete shock. They take the boy back to town to the kindly couple to care for and go back to bury the bodies, and while there, they make a horrific discovery as to the identity of the murderer.

Matthews and co-writer John Abrams craft a very cunning and compelling tale about an evil that has no origin and no purpose other than to cause as much suffering as possible. The ‘evil’ that is referred to in this tale is finding a taste for killing, and it follows the more modern psychological caste system of how serial killers are born. It applies as much now as it did then, perhaps. But how does one truly stop this kind of evil? And that’s the question that is posited here in this issue.

I want to take a few moments to focus on the work of guest artist Mario Guevara and colorist Marcelo Pinto. It’s just flat-out brilliant. Guevara gives great expressiveness to the characters with extraordinary focus to detail and motion, and Pinto’s colors are equally expressive and beautiful.

I have to say that so far, I haven’t come across too many comics this year that haven’t been out and out bad (other than the blight that is Ultimates 3), and even more so, I’ve been mindful of several great comics that have come out so far this year. The Lone Ranger and Tonto #1 is certainly one of them.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto #1
“Blood Relations”
Written by Brett Matthews and John Abrams
Art by Mario Guevara
Colors by Marcelo Pinto of Impacto Studio
Cover Art and Art Direction by John Cassaday

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