4 out of 5

Covers through issue #32

Damn you, Cullen Bunn.

I began a re-read of 6th Gun for a couple reasons – the Sons of the Gun mini just finished and before I read that in one go in order to review it I figured I’d better get a refresher on the whole story since I’d lost much of the what and why along the way…  Which was the realization that blossomed into the second reason, that I didn’t really look forward to the book anymore and thus maybe it was time to drop it.  Any time I stop having a basic grasp of what’s going on, it can be indicative of not actually digging the book.  Sometimes we read things out of habit and don’t stop to question if the act is still enjoyable; a similar feeling with Elephantmen led me to drop that series after a reread exposed that it was actually pretty shitty, just wrapped in an ‘intelligent’ package.

So I went into this sort of expecting to discover similar things about the book.

And for the few 2 or 3 arcs, I felt justified.  But damn you, Cullen Bunn, because you actually did what writers are supposed to do and progressively got better as things went along.  Almost all of the annoyances and hiccups and sloppiness have been eradicated, and though Brian Hurtt’s art has lost a bit of lustre during this time (perhaps in an attempt to stay more on schedule), the book is stronger than ever.  And I’m not just biding my time for the ending or caught on a twist, since Bunn’s issues aren’t exactly cliff-hangery (which it took a while to understand, and is part of the misconceptions that are easy to form about the book thanks to the way it was initially scripted) – I’ve become legitimately interested in the tale and feel invested in the characters.  It’s a long run story disguised under a lot of bluster.

Here are the initial problems Bunn had to overcome:

1. The title.  It turns out to be fitting, since the focus is on events surrounding the sixth gun, but I don’t think I’d be alone in having been misled to view the title – once you read the seeds of the tale in the first issues – as an indicator of the endpoint of a quest.  My assumption was that the goal was uniting or destroying the six guns, and it is, but we’re in possession of the 6th the whole time.  It is a not the final McGuffin, it is not the endpoint of the quest.  So yes, the book is about that gun – and we’ll see how that line keeps developing – but although the end/creation of the world is obviously part of the scheme, our every moment and issue is not about finding some lost and holy relic.

2. Putting his characters into place.  The title plus the first story arc – wherein we set things to the status that Cullen needs to move forward – are what humbled my reading down the line.  The first arc is about the guns transfer from the previous owners to our main characters (save one).  It features epic battles which are epic-ly depicted by Hurtt and introduces bad guys like they’re going to be major players.  As a reader, cool, you think you’re getting an introduction – but, instead, it’s pre-amble.  I can very clearly state that over the couple years of reading this, I kept wondering what the big deal was with the guns since our leads have them already, and though the battle is a big deal, it comes and goes in 6 issues right at story’s start, so how far away can we be from the ending?  There really wouldn’t have been a better place for this piece of the story – told in flashback would’ve seemed silly, I can agree – but I think Bunn was also excited to tell it and have his Western fantasies doodled by Hurtt, and so the pitch of it – in retrospect – is wrong.  Sure, the bad guys hang around in some fashion or other and are important in the long term, but they don’t directly affect things after this arc.  They die.  We get the guns.  Story ends.

3. Poor writing motivated by style.  I’m now tempted to re-give some of Bunn’s Marvel stuff a chance (although my wallet isn’t…) since I’m getting a better gist of how to read his writing.  But I did sample quite a few issues of a few titles when he first started dipping his pen thereabouts, and I can’t help but wonder if I didn’t sense the same fanboy ignorance there that does definitely occur in our first few arcs of 6th Gun.  Because though the focus of the story gains traction after that first tale, Bunn would hang on to a cheeky Western over-kill narrator with shitty metaphors.  He also wanted a Man-Thing-esque ‘BURNS’ mantra to accompany the guns’ use, giving us a caption every time someone fires a shot saying ‘The (whichever) gun (does this)’… which we can pretty plainly see.  The guns aren’t exactly subtle.  And I totally understand the concept for the issue-introducing paneled narration – I don’t know how often its used in actual Westerns, but it’s a very pulpy feel to it, a raspy voiced old man giving us Southern wisdom while setting the scene.  But I’m a tough sell on metaphors when they’re not clearly considered – you can’t just compare two things because they sound cool matched together.  That’s not how metaphors work.  So if something ‘coils blackly’ about something, you can’t compare it to something that coils; the purpose is to make clearer how it coils.  And he’d use these metaphors in every issue, and use them poorly in every issue, so it stuck out.  It also was a bit too obvious of a ‘here’s a recap for the boys buying this in a trade’ move.  Until he got a handle on it about 20 issues in, apparently having worked out all his kidly Western wonders to be able to focus directly on how writing can actually enhance the pictures and not just tell us what we’re seeing.

4. The IGNORE THIS factor.  One gun raises the spirits of the dead, one grants immortality, one let’s one see the past and future, one shoots ‘the flames of perdition,’ one spreads disease, and one shoots HUGE EXPLOSIONS.  Are they all helpful?  Sure.  Do they all have unlimited ammunition?  Yes.  The only gun that’s shown having an impact on the user when its power is applied is the 6th gun, the past and future one.  Otherwise, you can fire off shots all willy-nilly and have a gay ol’ time.  So how is any battle a problem when you can blow it to shatifuck with huge explosions?  Yes, fire and disease are helpful, but maybe work a bit slower.  Instead, see that invading army?  Just blow them to hell with your unlimited ammunition gun.  There’s some talk about defining oneself without the guns, but it’s never properly sold, so constantly when someone’s beleaguered in battle, you must whistle and overlook that there’s one gun that could solve it in one panel.  Whoops.  Also, issue one or two dropped an annoying plothole – it’s questioned how the previous owner of the 6th gun was killed, since he can see the future.  And someone prophetically says that no man can see his own death.  Except that happens like in the issue right after and every issue after that, Becky (who gets the 6th) using the gun to avoid threats along the way.  Now maybe that statement wasn’t meant to be taken as the end-all – maybe it was just a quick solution to a question Cullen had asked himself right then, writing that panel – and maybe you could b.s. the answer that you can’t forsee your actual death, and if you do see it, it means you survive… but that’s backpedaling.  Again, something you whistle and overlook.

Am I done?

Yes.  I drop all these to say that – except for the factors to ignore – that Bunn turns it all around.  He gets his narrative voice in check, and once his characters are in place, the story becomes much clearer and more focused.  While the new industry standard of keeping things easily collectible for trades sort of makes the 6-part storyline divisions a little wonky (there are one-shots worked in there as parts 4 or 5 of various storylines), Bunn’s understanding of how his world is fitting together is apparently firm enough that he can find a link to make it work.

The story – in case you really care for me to detail it at this point – is about six relics that continually reappear over time which, when applied to some mystical seal (which can shift its position, or appears in several positions), have the power to let one person recreate the universe in their vision.  Drake Sinclair is initially on a hunt to steal treasure from the previous owner of the 6th gun, the deceased general Hume, and so seeks out the preacher who prevented Hume from pursuing the recreate-the-world scenario and took ownership of the gun – the six only being able to be passed via death, anyone else but he/she bonded to the weapon trying to handle it gets a mighty burn.  The preacher has been gunned down by agents of Hume’s widow – who owns the immortality gun – but it was then taken up by Becky, daughter of the preacher.  She forges an uneasy alliance with Drake while she gets a handle on what’s what, and though his true treasure-huntin’ motivations don’t sit well with her, once it’s discovered that the ‘treasure’ is actually that mystical seal, Drake’s purpose becomes realigned to getting all 6 guns and… Well, we’re not sure.  Preventing the apocalypse, yes, but what happens thereafter we will, perhaps, see.  And on their way back to Ms. Hume, our gang (who pick up extra help along the way – the spirit of Drake’s friend, Billjohn, a mummy, a thief, and the reliable Gord) runs into all manner of foulness who also want the gun, with Becky learning more and more about the costs of being bonded to her specific weapon as she becomes more directly obsessed with revenge.

(Imagine about 80% of that front-loaded into the first arc.)

Brian Hurtt’s art is nothing less than stunning… for the first few stories.  There’s an interview with him and Tyler Crook (who does a couple guest one-shots) where Brian mentions delays in turning in his art, and when his style becomes looser as things go on, he’s still a master of his version of the craft – his paneling is excellent, and there’s this gorgeous hand-crafted feel to everything, which I realize is a dumb statement since it is hand-crafted, but meaning that you can feel his hand in each line, vs. many books where certain aspects – main characters – become formula for the artist after a while, and you only really ‘feel’ them when it comes to a splash page or a change of scenery.  But still – hand any art fan an issue from the first two arcs and you’ll find something to just blow your socks off, whereas the later issues lack some of that pizzazz.  Again, though, this might be consequence of Bunn having thoroughly wet his pants enough and focusing more on story than explosions.  (Not that there aren’t plenty of cool monsters to pop up later on.)  The design is also pretty sweet – gotta love the formalized look to the cover – and the colors pop off the page – Bill Crabtree from issue 6 on connecting fully with the bright feel of the series which was established from issue one and nailing every shade.

SO

It took a while to get here, but it’s awful rewarding to reread a series and be reinvigorated by the action.  Having reset my understanding of what’s what, I’m now amped to see what’s next.  The book isn’t perfect, of course – it nabs from cliches left and right and had that rough time shaking loose its quirks which, had I keyed to them sooner, I might’ve dropped the book before it got truly good – but I mentioned Man-Thing in passing and I can’t help but think of how Steve Gerber found his narrative style on that book.  6th Gun seems to be following a similar path for Bunn, as the book and its concepts keep getting stronger and more realized, stepping away from easily being called a ‘weird Western’ and just becoming its own thing.