4 out of 5

Rereading the first arc of Sixth Gun, it’s easy to re-experience the excitement I felt in discovering whom I thought was going to be a creator to watch: Cullen Bunn.  The skill with which he could weave a wild, wall-shaking story and set up a slew of interesting characters in a seeming snap (which also fueled the awesomeness of his other collabo with artist Brian Hurtt, The Damned) was impressive as heck, and 6th Gun seemed to arrive with a world-built confidence not many other new-ish creators new how to employ.  At the same time, retrospect allows me to spot the beginnings of the indulgences which would get more out of control – and ultimately made Bunn uninteresting to me – when the writer began his ascendancy to writing a million and one Marvel / DC / indie books at once.  But: I still respect his forever idea-tinkering brain, and 6G remains a wonderful composite representation of a lot of elements that have popped up in his subsequent titles, but given the proper room to grow.

A lot of goddamn stuff goes down in these opening six issues, which, admittedly, was always sort of my nit with it: there’s all this mythology built up around these magic guns and the dapper Drake’s attempts to nab them from the resurrected General Hume and his supernatural tuff boys, and yet by the end of the arc, Drake’s pretty much got things on lockdown – having handled guns against the “the former owner has to die before it can be yours” rule and located the seal the guns unlock that would become a continual focal point later in the series – and there hasn’t really been a price to pay.  …Except for the offing of a character that’s not really given the buildup to make such an exit that affecting.

Wow, this sounds negative!  …But this is all mostly in issue 6, which is where Bad Bunn comes to bear: throwing every idea into the pot and chuckling like a mischievous child; instead of the resultant clash coming across as an exciting slapdash of kitchen sink dynamics, it instead undercuts the weight of the whole affair, and certainly disrupts the quieter tone imparted previously.  Prior to issue 6 we can flip back to the positive elements mentioned in my opening: the seeming ease with which Bunn weaves in the guns’ powers and past; with which he ropes Becky – now owner of a gun – into events without making her a Mary Jane or helpless dame; and the way in which he makes Hume, Hume’s followers, and especially his wife, scary as Hell.  (Yeah, they lose that scary in issue 6, but again, WE’RE IGNORING THAT IN FAVOR OF HOW GOOD 1-5 ARE.)

The art and design are also second to none.  Interestingly, while Bill Crabtree would become Hurtt’s colorist mainstay, and produced some great work early on, the difference when he joins (…coincidentally issue 6) is way noticeable: Hurtt colors his own stuff prior to this, and he obviously uses the layer to sharpen up his pencils in places, which Crabtree ends up leaving looser.  So the book just looks better when it’s 100% Hurtt, but I’m sure that’s exhausting.  And Keith Wood – that designer – deserves an extra shout-out, as his amazing cover setup and general look is absolutely what had me checking the comic out on the shelf however many years ago.

So there’s some disappointment in knowing that Cullen didn’t turn out to be my new favorite writer, but there’s also immense satisfaction in confirming how durable Sixth Gun is.  It’s very much a defining work, and its impressiveness is recognizable from the get-go.