By Hunter T. Patrick
Yet another damn good time with the family. After the climatic end of the first arc, we now get to see the creative team try to one-up themselves. The last several issues felt like things moved very slowly as the main focal point were flashbacks for those issues. Issue 12 gains all the momentum that the last few issues lacked (great stuff learned in those flashbacks so no loss there). Redneck’s second story arc seemed very concerned about going bigger than the last, and this issue caps that off. After so much build up and things got so big it is to wonder if the next story arc will also keep trying to get bigger.
Cates has said he has fifty issues mapped out and I keep struggling to see how they can keep going with all the stuff that has occurred. None of this is a bad thing at all, in fact, it is amazing. Not knowing where things go next is something rare that happens and this story keeps achieving that accomplishment. The first six issues felt great as a stand-alone, and this arc felt like a part two of two (with of course a few hints at the future). I just worry one day they truly would have gone so big they can never go any bigger but knowing the creative team that won’t come for a while.
A problem I had with this issue is there is just so much stuff going on I keep getting lost with all of it. This requires another reading, much slower, just to grasp everything that happens on each page. It does not feel overstuffed, however. There is a fine line that is perfectly balanced for the right amount of content done. Speaking of perfectly balanced, the creative team works in harmony with one another. Cate’s writing mixed with Estherren’s art with Sabino’s lettering and Cunniffe’s colors all balance perfectly. Too often in comics does the writer get all the credit, with movements trying to also give the artist some as well. This book is the perfect example why you also need to mention the colorist and the letterer. All four people working together complement one another and show comics at their best. Donny Cates is a writer I have full faith in everything he writes, and it is time, even with just a few things he wrote, to list him among the greats, not just with him but this whole team.
This issue 12 felt like an issue 30 or even 50 if we think about everything that has happened. We are blessed with so much story all in one. On the day I am writing this it is 90 days until issue 13 comes out. As long as that sounds it is worth it if it means this series can get the audience it deserves. This is a review for issue 12, so not only should you get issue 12, but 1-11 if you can find them. If each comic published is of this quality, then comic shops will become the new movie theaters. This heartbreaking issue continues to be a classic in the making.
Score: 4/5
Redneck #12
Image Comics