3 out of 5

As The Sixth Gun has drawn closer to what Bunn has promised us is a definitive conclusion, it seems like the writer has tried to extend the longevity of the title through a small deluge of mini-series.  This could just be biding his time to properly finish up the story due to tons of obligations over at Marvel and DC and the ninety other indies he’s writing and not the more cynical “let’s drag this out for as long as money-makin’ possible” interpretation (as I don’t know how well that interpretation works for non-major publishers anyway).  Honestly, whatever the motivation, it’s fine by me, as I love The Sixth Gun world and I’ll be sad to see it go.  It’s been a really amazing book to see grow up, story- and character-wise, and on which we’ve seen the most direct evolvement of both Bunn’s writing and Hurtt’s art.

Now Bunn has tried some side stories before, whether as proper minis or one-shots during the actual ongoing, and while they’re topical, the way they’re written hasn’t always slotted in with the story-at-large effectively.  Meaning that the focuses are sound, but the direction the actual plot takes doesn’t really fulfill the potential promise satisfactorily.  While Days of the Dead ultimately falls to that same judgement, it’s interestingly not a tale I would’ve plucked from the sidelines to tell, and the bulk of the read turns out to be much more involving and solid than the previous side stories.  It could be expectations ruining things, or it could be that the characters highlighted here – Jesup of the Gun-huntin’ Knights of Solomon and Roberto of the Gun-destroyin’ Sword of Abraham – aren’t crazy-ass monsters that demand intricate back stories.  They’re just men.  This gives their place in things more grounding, and makes their tale – their first interaction, as detailed here – more resonant, and more easily juxtaposed to Drake’s.

But y’know what ruins things?  It’s something that Bunn – and countless other authors – has fallen prey to in other books: love.  The little summary blurb at the start of each issue ends with saying that this story would explain why these warriors are fueled by such different motivations – faith and hatred.  And it almost feels like this was written before the book itself, as the story veers more into a pre-gun save-the-world bit with Jesup and Roberto both hunting, and reuctantly teaming up to do so, a demon who seeks to bridge the gap between life and death.  (damn demons)  True, their reasons for doing so hint at that summary – for Jesup, the demon has possession of a lady he likes, and for Roberto, he’s trying to correct the mistakes of his father – but the demon is the central pursuit, here, and the first few issues really effectively build this up as a worthwhile threat.  But when the confrontation boils to a head in the final issue, Jesup’s “I’ll do anything for love” drive doesn’t feel earned: his issue one meeting with the girl and proclamation of feelings feels too clearly like a plot device; I don’t believe that it’s part of Jesup’s character makeup.  Now it’s very possible this detail has been hinted at in previous Sixth Gun issues, but regardless, it doesn’t sit well within the mini.  Perhaps adding more weight to the relationship instead of a couple page “remember how much I love you?” pastiche could’ve helped.  …And then it seems like Bunn / Hurtt are aware of this imbalance in the setup, as it begins to result in some illogical plotting hiccups in the final book which the reader is attemptedly waved away from by turning Roberto’s / Jesup’s  partnership into a buddy cop routine, which is all sorts of wrong.

Prior to all of this, though, which again, is really just the last issue, the series is very solid, with consistent art from Mike Norton – nothing too flashy, but he clearly has a grasp on what he’s capable of portraying and his pages always live up to that, never over- or under-reaching – and some fun cameos from Drake.  It stumbles in trying to make things into more than what they are.  Jesup and Roberto’s interesting futures are already somewhat defined in the ongoing; they don’t have to have overwrought tragic paths to justify their getting there, but it was good to see this aspect of their paths explored all the same.