Merciless #1 is a comic with a story by Mark Fenton and art by Alex Riegel. Two bounty hunters with sordid pasts go from town to town on the trail of a traveling brothel. This is a Western comic with plenty of grit, heavy violence, and the tense drama that plagued a land that had its original inhabitants pushed out. The less patient member of this duo is Odette, she has a very tough exterior and doesn’t mind killing. Thunder Cloud isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty either but he’ll search for other solutions before pulling the trigger. This pair argues quite a bit. Alonzo is an enforcer for the brothel and he also plays a prominent role. This story begins win Amarillo, Texas with Odette and Thunder Cloud checking the wagon trail and making plans to cut the brothel off at the Rio Grande. When they ride towards and look over a nearby cliff they see an unrelated wagon surrounded by headless bodies. This takes place in the Wild West in 1895 with scenes taking place in Texas, New Mexico, and on the border. Violence here is extremely gruesome with blood and guts everywhere. The pace here goes from steady to fast frequently with the potential for some confusion on text and panel order. There is a gritty revisionist Western tone here. This is very violently intense with some underlying drama that we get hints of along with racial interactions accurate for the time. The dialogue here is very direct with short conversations. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is an intriguing debut issue that pairs bloody, eye-catching violence with snippets of a layered vengeful story that you’ll want to see play out.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed, somewhat rough, modern watercolor style with realistic lighting and shading. Blue, gray, brown, and red are pretty much the only colors here with them usually being shown in a monochrome fashion on characters and the world. For scenery there are long stretches of desert and plains with mountains and steep cliffs. The outdoors are the primary location for this story with indoor scenes in homes and barns being very rare. Backgrounds don’t always show the immediate physical surroundings but the sky tends to be very present. The expression level here is towards the lower end of the spectrum as these hardened Western-types don’t really show how they feel. We’ll see some anger and irritation along with fear. Faces have a good level of detail with wrinkles, small hairs, and visible tiredness; the expressions usually come across clearly. Weaponry here is what you’d expect during this time period from revolvers to rifles and pitchforks to whips. Violence here is extremely gruesome with guts flying all over the place and pools of blood. There are a few action scenes that are of decent length that have a flow that could confuse you and it’s usually only a few large panels per page.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like gritty Western stories that star a White woman and a Native American man with underlying drama and gruesome heavy violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Okay, let’s see how far we can get without having to talk.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adrift2020/merciless/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 40

Violent Pages: 10, for 25% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”