By Mark Rodriguez
X-53 Studios have brought out some interesting stories with fun characters like Arachna, Goshawk and Falconet. Their latest series is The Vindicators, a story about a cowboy and a vampire and their adventures. I recently got my copy in the mail, so let's check it out!
The story opens in 1865, Painted Desert, Arizona, as a cowboy with a glowing eye and a metal arm rides a horse pulling a coach tries to get away from people shooting at him. The cowboy shoots back, but one of the men shoots the gun out of his hand. With a gun pointed to his head, the cowboy gives up. The thieves check out his coach and find a casket, thinking he's some sort of undertaker.
The men find a woman inside and one of them is dumb enough to put his finger in her mouth. The woman bites his finger off and wakes up. She looks at the men and calls them breakfast. One of the men shoots her but with no avail. She leaps towards him and bites down on him. He drops the man and looks towards his friend, saying she's still hungry. The cowboy tells the man that 'Miss Brown' hasn't had blood in a while and will want more. The man shoots himself in the head.
Later on as night falls, the coach rides into town. The cowboy, Mr. Decker thanks Miss Brown for not also feasting upon him. She says she was already sated with the first bandit she attacked, for the moment anyway. The town they arrived in is called Stalegorge and Decker calls it a ghost town. They stop by the Blaze Saloon and ask where they can rest for the night. The woman there tells them the Golden Nugget Hotel is just up ahead, though the owner is busy with one of her ladies.
The travelers get a room together and Decker says he'll need a night's rest. Miss Brown goes to use her charm on the hotel owner while Decker heads out to fine some whiskey and some ladies. At the saloon, several men are flirting with the ladies and there is a movie displayed featuring a woman named Goldie. The men watching are completely mesmerized by the woman on the screen and Decker notices there's something written on the movie. Before he can get more information, Goldie herself shows up and invites the cowboy upstairs with her.
Meanwhile, Miss Brown heads to visit the hotel owner and finds a tall golem at the entrance. The owner shows up and introduces himself as Daniel Degraw, an inventor who is only several feet tall. The golem lifts him up so he can kiss her hand, as she introduces herself as Alice Brown. She says her partner will be joining them shortly and they are interested in his inventions and offer to pay him greatly. Degraw realizes she is a vampire and says the answer is no. Just then the golem picks her up by the face, as Degraw explains that he felt how cold her hand was and noted the absence of a heartbeat.
The golem tosses Alice back across the room and then sends Alice flying with a punch across the jaw. Alice flips to the air but Degraw flips a switch and the room is bathed with artificial sunlight. Alice is in pain and drops to the ground. Degraw figures her cabal sent her after him and knocks her out with garlic-infused ether.
Elsewhere, Decker has his fun with Goldie while envisioning Alice in her place. Degraw and his golem look down at the defeated vampiress. Degraw says she might be the key to tracking down the rest of her cabal. The golem says she is pretty and Degraw says they can try to convince her to join their cause.
We see a flashback to 1862, the Battle of Antietam at the Miller Cornfield. Soldiers shoot upon each other and in the gunfight, Decker loses his eye, his arm and both legs. As he lays on the cornfield, bleeding to death, a swarm of bats approach him, signalling Alice's arrival. Alice has a piece of one of the soldiers and bites down on it. Decker wakes up screaming and Goldie tells him he's having a nightmare. She asks him who is this Alice he was calling out to in his dreams.
Meanwhile, Alice is strapped down and has her eyelids forced open as Degraw examines her in the backroom workshop of the Ironside Emporium. Degraw explains that he seeks human unity, and can't afford to have Alice interfere, now that he's so close to achieving his goal. Alice says he has a funny way of showing it, considering she offered her cooperation. She wondered why her employers even bothered. Degraw says her employers are the cabal and they only want power. He then forces her to watch his latest 'motion picture' as the screen displays Decker and Goldie doing their thing.
Goldie tells Decker that he can't leave yet as everyone in town is their brother's keeper. Decker asks what is going on as he got reports of strange things happening in the town. Goldie explains there's something strange about the motion pictures that Degraw shows that make the people watching them only listen to him. She never watches them and says they need someone like Decker to be their ticket out of here. Decker says his partner never reported back to him.
The golem carries Alice, who is wrapped in silver chains, back towards the saloon. He apologizes for the rough treatment and explains his boss was once treated like a freak so he hates all freaks like Alice and himself. Alice tries to charm him but he says he can't betray his boss as he is his only friend.
Degraw wants to see if the brainwashed people at the saloon will be able to resist Alice's charms. He explains his plans to Miss De Bauch, the hostess of the saloon from earlier, who can only say 'Yes Mister Degraw' in her brainwashed state. He says he plans to take his motion pictures to bigger cities and take control of business owners and politicians. He feels his inventions are what are needed to survive against the upcoming war against monsters.
As Decker gets ready to head out, Goldie wants him to promise not to kill anyone. She reminds him that the people aren't themselves, they're brainwashed. Decker says they're following orders, like he once did, and it doesn't matter whether they're doing so voluntarily or by force. He says he's a killer and he even has a silver bullet for Alice in case she ever gets out of line.
Decker and Goldie go back downstairs as everyone invites them to watch the movies. Decker draws his gun and open fires. Degraw hears the gunshot and figures it's the cowboy since he doesn't trust the townsfolk with guns. The golem also hears the gunshot and takes Alice in the opposite direction.
At the saloon, we see that Decker actually shot the movie projector to bits. The townsfolk are still under Degraw's control and go after him. Decker shoots at their feet and runs off with Goldie.
The golem puts Alice in a cell at the sheriff's office while he plans to go and investigate the saloon. Alice offers to make him a vampire, but the golem is happy as he is. Alice says Degraw is only using him to help form his human armies and will discard him when he doesn't need him anymore. The golem then hears a noise.
At the saloon, two men are holding Decker still while a third punches him in the face. Two women hold Goldie still as they plan to use scissors on her, calling her a traitor. Decker's metal hand shoots off from his metal arm, allowing him to break free and kick the men off him. The men are sent flying through the windows of the saloon as the golem arrives.
The golem punches Decker and sends him flying. Goldie grabs a bottle and bashes it on the back of the golem's head, which does nothing. The golem grabs Goldie by the throat, when Decker comes back, ready to fight. The golem drops Goldie and starts fighting with the metal-armed cowboy. Alice can hear the commotion and a swarm of bats arrive at her cell. She says she has a jailbreak to plan.
As the fighting continues, Decker is able to punch off one of the golem's metal arms. He goes for a kick, but the golem catches his foot and is about to break it. Decker punches him by shooting off his metal fist towards his face. The cowboy then pulls out a metal cable from the socket in his wrist and uses it to choke the golem out.
Just then Miss De Bauch arrives with Degraw sitting on her shoulder. He introduces himself to the cowboy while his assistant shoots his metal arm with an ice gun. The golem starts getting back up but Decker uses the block of ice on his arm to punch him in the face. While the golem's face is badly damaged, Decker also shattered half of his arm in the impact. Decker picks up a sharp icicle and uses it to stab the golem on the side of the head. He then tosses it at the ice gun before De Bauch can shoot him again. The gun freezes De Bauch in a block of ice and Degraw didn't expect his gun to have a backlash effect.
Alice notices that the golem has been defeated and Decker has the advantage over Degraw, so she decides to join in. She warns the cowboy to watch out for Degraw since he is deceptive. Just then Decker suddenly stabs Alice with a silver knife.
Degraw explains that even though Decker had little exposure to the films, his trigger word still worked. Decker starts attacking Alice and she is unable to talk him out of it. She sends the swarm of bats after him and they bite him until he recovers. Degraw sees that his plans have failed and runs away. Decker is back to normal.
Later on, the Ironside Emporium is blown up, though Decker and Alice figure this isn't the last time that they'll see Degraw. Decker spends time with Goldie as Alice uses her charms to turn the townsfolk back to normal. As they ride off together, Alice asks if they should investigate the cabal that they work for. Decker admits he never dealt with them personally and it always gave him a weird feeling about it. He says it's time they ride off and meet their bosses.
We see that The Cabal consists of Dr. Jack Griffin, (The Invisible Man), Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Frankenstein, Chance Dolton (The Werewolf) and Count Graf Orlock (Nosferatu).
My opinions-
So this one is definitely the most adult-oriented series of the X-53 Studios lot. There seems to be stronger language, a lot more adult activity, and well... the major plot involves a guy brainwashing the townsfolk with adult movies of Goldie serving her clientele. They're 'bringing sexy back' to comics alright. Also there's a lot more blood, but you'd expect that from a story with vampires. There aren't complaints or nitpicks mind you, just my observations.
This comic is also a steampunk western, so it's the first of the X-53 comics to break out of the overall superhero genre. It's the kind of story where things like cybernetic implants and ice guns exist, but the concept of the motion picture still feels pretty new and innovative. Since the story takes place in 1865, I doubt Decker and Alice can bump into Arachna unless time travel is involved. Sure Alice is an immortal vampire, but if she appears in modern day, just as is and without time travel, that would take away any suspense from the stories in her own book.
You have some great characters and an interesting dynamic between Decker and Alice. Decker seems to be the 'jerk with a heart of gold', as he made no qualms about killing the townsfolk regardless of if they were brainwashed, but when the moment came, he didn't kill any of them. He still has some silver items on him in case Alice ever decides to snack on him.
Alice also seems to enjoy his company, but she also makes no guarantees should her hunger become unbearable and he happens to be the only human around. In true X-53 fashion, Alice's little outfit leaves her bottom exposed, so expect to see a lot of it. She even did the 90's X-Men Rogue pose in one of the panels. If ya know, ya know.
Degraw is also quite the character. He knows what he's doing is evil, but he's not so doing it 'for the greater good', it's more 'well at least I'm not as evil as vampires'. He does raise a good point about getting ready for whatever plans the Cabal have in store. He mentioned that the Cabal must have found out about him and feared his inventions, which is why they sent Alice after him. From Alice's perspective they were sent to Stalegorge to investigate the strange happenings. Degraw might be right about what the Cabal's motives were, even if Alice and Decker are unaware of them. He's still a little creep and you can tell he loves to be in control, probably due to how he was treated in the past due to his short stature.
Also love the pun on Miss De Bauch, since she pretty much runs a brothel from her saloon.
The golem is a tragic character. He doesn't even have a name and speaks in broken sentences. He might not have been completely evil and only following Degraw's orders because he sees him as a friend. When Goldie attacked him, he also said he thought she was his friend. The poor guy just needed a good friend.
Goldie does her thing, but she does care about the wellbeing of her fellow townsfolk. At first it seemed she went straight for Decker since he was a stranger and a potential new customer. It's implied she actually went to snatch him up before Decker could watch too much of the films to get brainwashed. Since Goldie doesn't like seeing movies of herself 'at work' so to speak, she was the only one in the town immune to the effects. The movies also had no effect on Alice, presumably since she's not human.
The story was fun, and we got to see some good bare fisted brawls. The art is nice and colorful. The only part I wasn't clear on was if the bandit in the beginning shot himself because of fear or because of Alice's charms. An extra panel of the guy being confused on why he was pointing the gun to his own head would helped.
Overall a fun read. The fun isn't over yet as we have Arachna # 3 and Goshawk # 2 on the horizon. There's also a new series on what looks to be about an all-out superhero team called The Opama.
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