Howdy, partners!
I’m here today to fulfill my promise of looking at some of
the more creative takes on classic children’s literature in comics. We’ve seen a horror-themed take on Pinocchio
and Peter Pan go to war. Now, we have
something with a much more American flavor in a lot of ways. Today we’re looking at The Legend of Oz: Wicked West.
Wicked West is a
series from independent comics publisher Big Dog Ink that reimagines the land
of Oz as the setting of a fantastical Western.
It starts with cowgirl Dorothy Gale (who prefers to just be called
“Gale”), her horse Toto and her whole barn being swept away by a twister. When we next see her she’s now been in the
land of Oz for three years and is equipped with a pair of ruby spurs and
ruby-handled six-shooters, trying to follow a road of gold bricks that’s been
picked apart for years. Along the way,
she meets some reimagined familiar faces.
There’s the Tin Man, who is a seemingly completely human axe-wielding
lawman. There’s the Scarecrow, someone
who looks like some sort of Native American woman but is revealed to be a sort
of artificial being filled with straw.
There’s also the Cowardly Lion, who now sports a face painted like a
clown’s. Not to mention other various
and sundry Oz characters like the kalidahs, winged monkeys, Dr. Pipt, Patchwork
Girl and General Jinjur (you’ll note that not all these characters are normally
from the first Oz story). And of course
there’s a Wicked Witch trying to get her hands on the ruby spurs.
Writing the Wizard of Oz as a western seems like
simultaneously the best and worst idea at the same time. The strengths of the Oz books have always
been whimsy and fantastical invention.
Westerns, on the other hand, have long emphasized grit and a certain
element of historical verisimilitude.
Not truth, necessarily, but believability. You have to at least believe that something in
a western could have happened during the days of the U.S.A.’s westward
expansion. Whether or not they’re
anything like actual history is another ball of wax. At the same time, there’s something uniquely
about both the western and the Oz books.
Both America’s westward expansion and most of the Oz books are also typified
by long journeys over vast country in search of something (a way home, brains,
heart, courage, land, prosperity, the Pacific Ocean, etc). So, how do our comic creators Tom Hutchison
and Alisson Borges manage? Well, not too
bad. Some concessions are made. For example, they pretty much tossed the verisimilitude
in favor of fantasy, as you’ve probably already figured out. The grit is there, though. And compared to other works that tried to add
grit to Oz, it does it in a more enjoyable way (I’m looking at you, Emerald City). Also, the commonalities still
exist: the long journey and the search for something.
In terms of character, it can be a bit of a mixed bag. The witch is always compelling on the page,
which is nice. Since they’re borrowing a
lot from Margaret Hamilton’s performance from the MGM movie, it makes
sense. Her performance was one of the
most dominating things in that movie.
The Tin Man seems kind of standard as the grizzled old lawman. Perhaps it would be more interesting if “the
Tin Man as a tough old lawman” wasn’t already one of the basic ideas of a preexisting
SyFy miniseries named Tin Man. Neither the Lion or Scarecrow talk, which
makes it a bit hard to get into their characters. The Lion doesn’t seem so much like a coward
as an animal that just wants to get away from its abusers, who then comes back
to help his rescuer. I’m also not sure
what the significance of him being painted up like a clown is. The Scarecrow I like a fair bit because she
seems kind of free-spirited. In fact,
sometimes she reminds me more of the Patchwork Girl (who appears in the book
but without any of her usual personality traits). She’s fun to watch as a pantomime character,
and there are some moments when she shows uncommon courage and kindness, but
that’s it. And the questionable Native
American motif makes me cringe a little.
And then there’s Gale. I’m
realizing she may be my biggest problem with all the characters, actually. For you see, we pretty much see all of them
filtered through her perceptions. For
example, it’s not so much that the Tin Man is heartless, it’s that she thinks
he’s heartless. The Lion isn’t a coward,
just a “sensitive soul” according to the Tin Man, but Gale thought he was a
coward. And the Scarecrow isn’t
brainless, it’s just that Gale can’t figure out what’s going on in her head. She is a strong character and frequently
stands up for the downtrodden, which is good.
The thing is, that and a general grumbliness are all I tend to pick up
from her. I kind of wish I was seeing a
wider range of emotions from this character.
I do think her way of taking out the Witch is rather clever, but I’m not
going to give it away. In terms of
physical depictions, there are also moments when it feels like they’re
embracing Zenescope’s attitude of “sexier is better”. There are some notable butt-shots of our
erstwhile Dorothy (including the title page) and among the variant covers shown
in the back there is one of Gale in a bikini.
But maybe this is an issue for another day.
 |
| Exhibit A: The cover page. (I'm not sure pants should physically be able to get that tight). |
In terms of movie/book ratio in terms of what’s adapted,
Hutchison and company seem to keep the movie references to the stuff that would
most easily picked out as iconic movie stuff.
So, there are ruby spurs and pistols instead of silver ones. There’s a green witch with a pointed hat and
a broom who plays a big role in the story.
There’s even a reference to a “Lollipop Guild Candy Store”. Most of the other stuff is drawn from the
book. They use the kalidahs. They use the green glasses when entering the
Emerald City (which is actually a mine in this case). They have the part where the group is
attacked by bees. You get the picture.
Now I’m not a huge western fan so maybe I’m missing
something, but I’m going to say that this one’s a good read but not necessarily
a must-read. I would like it a lot
better if the characters were a little bit more multidimensional and we could
get more out of Gale than some good shooting, some grumbling about how long her
journey is taking and misjudgments of her new friends. But hey, there are more Legend of Oz stories out there so maybe it does get better. As for volume one, I’ll say it doesn’t hurt
to read it but I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way for it.
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