Jonathan Hickman has been at the forefront of some of the most creative books coming out in the last 5 years no matter the publisher.  Whether creator-owned or work for hire Hickman’s books stand out as inventive and innovative.  East of West; his latest book coming from Image is perhaps the best book he is writing at the moment, even among stalwart books such as the Avengers and the Manhattan Projects.

The book begins with Hickman rewriting history and revealing simultaneous prophecy.  And as prophecy is slowly revealed, called the Message, history changes all that much more.  But what does the message reveal?  Simply the end times, the end of the world and how it is to all come about.  And so we are introduced to the Chosen, those who are tasked with aiding and abetting such a feat, people who are usually devout and faithful believers to the Message.  They will do anything to make the Message a reality.  But the true harbingers are the Four Horsemen, the biblical calamities made form.  When we first meet them, they are newly reborn, as children, as they seem to live their life in cycles.  On their latest regeneration they realize something is wrong as Death has not joined them.

Death it seems has sustained himself from the last purge of their beings and is now on the hunt for that which he longs for.  Accompanied by two witches, one who can transform into a flock of ravens and one who can transform into a pack of wolves, Death seeks out the only thing that could keep him from his prophetic purpose – revenge.  Thus it is revenge that keeps him going, decimating, killing and destroying until he finds renewed purpose with the information that the only person to have ever conquered him, the only purpose to have ever beaten Death – his wife – is alive.  But what of his comrades, the other three horsemen and the Chosen, and how will the Message come to fruition if Death does not follow it?

Hickman explores these situations to the fullest in grandiose fashion.  His contrast of themes such as life told through the living embodiment of Death and peace talked about in the midst of military might all through a story about the world soon to end is some of the best in the science-fiction field.  He has some truly novel ideas and it seems his imagination knows no bounds.  His United States has fractured into seven different nations with the rest of the world just as messed up is interesting to think on.  The Chosen who rule and yet fight amongst each other echo the politicians of today and shows that Hickman gets his inspiration from many places.  The weaving of the civil war and the aboriginal people, technology, themes from the bible, the end times, eastern philosophy and more makes for one of the most thought-provoking and thematically interesting books one could hope to read.

Nick Dragotta, his sometime artistic collaborator joins Hickman on this journey and they make a perfectly matched pair.  Dragotta’s pencils are tight, slick and beautiful making every page and panel pop right off the page.  He makes the birth of the harbingers foreboding and the old west motifs so familiar it is like watching an old John Wayne or Glenn Ford western.  The range of emotions that play upon Death’s face through the series is scary as you never know quite well what he will do.  Xiaolian is a flower under his pencils and yet terrifying in her anger.  The Chosen are appropriately sneaky and crafty and you feel a little dirty watching them.  The action is gorgeous in its violence and the situations and locales perfect in every scene.  Some really exceptional artwork from a really talented penciller and an artist one should look out for in the future.

Reading this story as a trade paperback also shows just how well each issue flows into the next.  It is as if there is no break in the story whatsoever as each ending and each beginning simply merge right into the next creating an unending tapestry, which most books do not, or cannot do.  The pacing is well thought out as there is never a dull moment whether in a moment of conversation between characters or an act of war, the reader is hooked from the first words of the book until the very last.  In single issue format it might not be as apparent, but together the reader is able to see just how nuanced the book can be in every aspect.

To read a book as fantastical and epic as East of West, shows Hickman and Dragotta are true storytellers in every sense of the word as they have crafted one ingeniously, superb tale.  It seems similar in scope to another Image book, Saga, as it has that bigger picture in mind while being two totally dissimilar books in content, yet both telling a love story underneath it all.  As a genre, science-fiction has literally unlimited storytelling possibilities and as a genre was done proud with the publication of East of West.  One can only hope it continues on for some time.

5 out of 5