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I will say this as a preface: If nothing else, the people at Dynamite Entertainment are very courageous. They have taken some real risks as a comic company. Publishing adult-oriented comics like The Boys, and some intelligent and thoughtful reworkings of the great icons of pulp literature like The Lone Ranger and Zorro and expanding the universes of some cult/fan faves like Battlestar Galactica and Army of Darkness takes guts. And now, we have a new icon to add to the list. He’s the archetype of just about every anti-hero of the last four decades; he’s not noble unless it’s necessary, he’s not friendly but you‘d want him as your friend, he’s not kind but he can show respect, he’s cold-blooded and he’ll kill you if you get in his way, but somehow, he ends up doing the right thing. The real trouble? No one knows what to call him. He’s The Man With No Name. First brought to our popular consciousness as the unnamed protagonist of Sergio Leone’s 1964 spaghetti western classic “A Fistful of Dollars”, he appeared out of nowhere and unwittingly but inevitably brought order to a town filled with chaos. It changed the Western genre forever and it gave cinema a new star in the form of Clint Eastwood. This character appeared, under Leone’s direction, in two more films: 1965’s “For A Few Dollars More” and then in one of the greatest films of the genre, 1966’s epic “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”. Now, he’s back with writer Christos Gage and artist Wellington Dias helming The Man With No Name #1.

For those of you who haven’t seen “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, this story picks up pretty much right after where that film left off. Good Clint, Bad Lee Van Cleef and Ugly Eli Wallach are searching for a hundred thousand dollars in Confederate gold, and along the way, Clint’s character blows up a Union bridge. They find the gold, and there’s a three-way duel. Van Cleef is blown away, Wallach is left stranded and No Name, or ‘Blondie’ as Wallach calls him, makes off with the gold. End of recap. At the beginning of this story, No Name, still in his trademark poncho and facial scruff, ends up in a small town where he runs afoul of some Union soldiers who are after him for the destruction of their supply bridge. Using his never-fail wits, he outsmarts them and his never-fail aim and speed, he outguns them. Naturally, the Confederates are after his hide too because of the gold. But it all comes to a head when he finds himself reliant on his guns again when both Union and Confederate soldiers seem to be after him. After the smoke clears, it turns out they weren’t. There’s a priest who, as he lays dying, begs for No Name to help others that are surrounded by more Blue and Grey ‘bandits’ at a mission in San Antonio. So, what’s a morally-impaired antihero to do?

What do you think he’ll do?

I really like the way that the Western is making a comeback in comics, especially the way that Dynamite is doing it. They did something wonderful with The Lone Ranger, but that does have the distinction of having a great writer/artist team with a superb art director in John Cassaday. This first issue is terrific in the way that it continues a tale over forty years old, and Gage does a great job re-establishing the atmosphere of the Man With No Name mythology. His dialogue is very true to the character, and when he speaks, you can practically hear the gravelly intonation of Eastwood’s voice coming off the page. The only two problems I have here are with the length and the art. This just seems like an incredibly short issue. I breezed through it and I didn’t want to. There’s a big splash page in the middle of the issue that just seemed like it was put there to make the comic more economical. I wanted it to have something that stuck with me a little bit more. Also Dias’ art is a little on the bland side. It doesn’t have a lot of grit to it. And the colors of Bruno Hang are a little too crisp. This is something that should have a little more of a bleached-out look to it. I’m more of a story-over-art kinda guy anyway, so I’ll keep my faith that The Man With No Name will do Sergio and Clint a little more justice.

Oh, and can we cool it with the Arthur Suydam incentive Zombie variant covers? Let’s have a bit of a moratorium on those. It’s getting really old.

The Man With No Name #1
“The Good, The Bad and The Uglier - Sinners and Saints: Chapter One”
Written By Christos Gage
Art by Wellington Dias
Colors by Bruno Hang
Letters by Simon Bowland

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