Jonathan Hickman

Minor spoilers for volume one.

The second volume of East of West was a slight improvement on the first. I am less confused about where the story is going, and certain aspects of the plot are clearer to me now. There has been some more character development, and some of the characters that were on the sidelines in volume one, have now had their backgrounds revealed. The characters were a strong point for me in the first volume, so I was happy to see that. In addition, the art is still a real big plus for me.

In this volume, Death has achieved at least part of his revenge, and is continuing on his quest to get back what was stolen from him. Meanwhile, Death's enemies are still conspiring to complete what "The Message" demands from them for the apocalypse to happen.

While certain elements of the story are more clear, I am still somewhat confused on the whole apocalypse aspect of the story – why exactly are the villains trying to precipitate it? Otherwise, I did like this volume more than the first, and I really want to get my hands on the third.… (more)

Another comic I got through the Humble Bundle.

This first volume of East of West definitely has me intrigued. The art is definitely excellent, and I really am interested in the characters. The story revolves around this futuristic, alternate-history version of America: The Civil War went on for decades, and eventually split up the America we know into seven different nations. There is a mysterious religion/belief system (??) based around this apocalyptic text determining how the end times will come. The main character is basically the Grim Reaper, and he's on a quest for revenge against the people that did something horrible to him years ago. The story was still a little confusing and sometimes hard to follow in this first volume. Additionally, I do see a lot of tropes and recycled themes with the story. Despite that, I am curious to see where this series goes, and I'll be continuing it.… (more)