Before Django
The second part of the 'Brother versus Brother' story arc in The Kents maxi-series is perhaps the darkest issue yet - not surprising given that it deals with one of the darkest chapters of American history, 1862-1863, the bloodiest years of the Civil War.
The issue opens with Nate Kent returning to Lawrence with bad news. He found Joshua's mother, Sarah Freeman the former slave, now a slave again, maimed by her new master and dying. In a rage, Nate kills the slave owner and burns the farm, sparing only the man's wife and child who curse him.
Others with less savory intentions return to Lawrence as well. First Jim Lane returns to Lawrence and vows to make Mary Glenowen his, regardless of her wishes. And later, Jeb Kent leads Quantrill's Raiders back to Lawrence to raze and loot the town in one of the worst civilian massacres of the war.
Get the picture? This is not a sanitized singin' cowboy type Western here. My only beef with the comic is that, perhaps due to some last vestige of power of the Comics Code Authority, or maybe just D.C.'s weak skin, the entire series has avoided using the word 'nigger' throughout. It just doesn't square with the authenticity of the rest of the book. It was easy to overlook in the beginning, but when you have a slave like Sarah Freeman referring to the "House Nigras", it just becomes too painfully obvious that Ostrander is going through verbal gymnastics to satisfy some arbitrary editorial decision.
Highly Recommended.