Nathan Stone was a legendary gunfighter who did everything he could to be a father-while still following his own violent trail of honor. Still and all, Six Guns #2 does a good job of setting up the elements of a thrill-ride with the tropes of classical Western storytelling, earning a strong 3 out of 5 stars.Two young gunslingers ride into the heart of evil in this Ralph Compton western. There’s a part of my mind that wants to know how Matt Slade & Tex Dawson are related to the Silver Age western versions (as real names wouldn’t seem to travel 150 years as easily as code-names like Black Rider & Two-Gun Kid) while a larger part of me thinks that it should even matter. Nobody has a lot of backstory yet, and the plot is driving everything, and Tarantula is little more than a MacGuffin thus far. This is a solid comic book issue, telling an interesting story with a few flaws. (A couple of characters have their heads blown entirely off on panel.) Del Fuego is killed, and the Black Rider & Two-Gun set off in search of his boss as the issue fades to black… THE VERDICT: INTRIGUING, BUT WHERE DOES IT FIT? Artist Gianfelice does really nice work throughout the issue, although I’m not entirely as enamored of the ultra-violence that ensues. The English dialogue is a bit better, but still somewhat overwrought, as the Rider discovers that Del Fuego has other enemies, notably a young man known only as the Two-Gun Kid, and the three-way gunfight that ensues is pretty entertaining. The city of Sierra del Diablo is the capital of San Diablo, which I’m certain is near San Carcharo, and now we’re cha-cha-ing. The fact that Del Fuego’s name means, basically, “on fire” identifies another problem with this issue: gratuitous Spanish. Given Marvel’s recent restructuring and reconfiguring, I wonder if the writer might not have expected more than a miniseries out of these characters… SHOT DOWN IN A BLAAAZE OF GLOORRRREEEE!Įlsewhere in San Diablo, The Black Rider seeks out a man named Del Fuego, reputed to have crafted the firebomb that killed his pals, and things quickly get out of hand. The only problem with all of this? We’re now an issue and a half into a 5 issue story, and we haven’t even completed the introduction of our dramatis personae. In the same city, we meet a new character, Matt Slade, Bounty Hunter, who has picked up the trail of the missing Tarantula, while we see the lady in question getting savagely beaten in order to get some sort of information. Ranger Tex Dawson has gone rogue, in the capital of San Diablo, searching for the men that killed his partner. It also takes place in the present, which makes the whole thing even more complicated and nuanced. This issue is a pretty good western story.
![six guns 2 six guns 2](https://www.trustedreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2012/11/Screenshot-2012-11-07-11-44-14-2.png)
I’ve always been a sucker for a good western story, especially one that crosses the line between western & superheroes, like most of Marvel’s output, including the early 2000’s revamp by John Ostrander. Growing up, I remember interacting briefly with Marvel’s western comics long before I trifled with superheroes, having read issues of what I believe to have been Rawhide & Two-Gun Kid comics at my grandfather’s barber shop back in the early 70’s.
![six guns 2 six guns 2](https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/6/90/56b8b844680ab/clean.jpg)
All we’re missing is Lou Diamond Phillips and a cameo appearance by Keifer Sutherland, and we got us a show… THE EYES OF THE RANGER ARE UPON YOOOOU…
![six guns 2 six guns 2](https://img.whaleshares.io/wls-img/valency/325238a5e851c28d607da7625ccdd060ea614888.jpeg)
(Somewhere, Rodrigo just cringed.) But her extradition involved the murder of a Texas ranger AND a biker gang, leading Tex Dawson, Texas Ranger and the mysterious Black Rider to follow her into the badlands. Previously, in Six Guns: It’s unclear how Maria “Tarantula” Vasquez got in bad with the criminals of the central American republic of San Diablo. The characters are familiar, the names ring a bell, but there’s some new elements in play… Will it last as long as Barry and his ilk? This issue seems to be something like what must have happened in 1954, before Barry Allen discovered Earth-2. Or – “The Good, The Bad, And The Vaguely Familiar…”