One of the comic genres I wish they'd make more stories is in the western era. Growing up I loved watching the spaghetti westerns on TV with my grandparents; the stories were just great, and it took place in a time where the west was still expanding and it was also a place where anything goes. I saw that this week The Lone Ranger was up and I decided to give this series a shot since I don’t get a lot of this genre. Issue 22 was a one shot title called "Rainmaker", where a small rural town in Oklahoma an old Indian woman was trying to sell the townsfolk on her abilities to make rain and save all of the farmers crop since the drought was very bad and they hadn’t received much rain during the season. The old Indian Lady sells her story as that she had been very successful in the last couple of towns she had been in. The townsfolk are convinced that this woman can save their crops that they give her money in hopes that the rain comes.
Eight days pass and the people in town are upset because no rain has fallen since they gave the money to the old woman. The town led by one of its citizen finds the old woman and are about to lynch her; the sheriff is trying to convince the townsfolk that they shouldn't do this. In the mist of the discussion out of the blue the Lone Ranger with Tonto arrive and they talk to the towns lynch leader and he tells them no to lynch her, but to wait for her day to be tried before they take justice into their own hands. It’s a race against time to keep this old woman safe before the mob changes their mind.
Lone Ranger #22 was an okay issue for a one shot. The pacing of the book was fine, it read quickly, but it was the actual story that got to me a bit; primarily how the Lone Ranger was introduced to the situation, it felt forced and out of the blue. How and when did the Lone Ranger arrived to that town? What was the Lone Ranger's business? It just doesn't lend itself to show why he was there in the first place. As for the art, the art in the book was probably the weakest part of it all, it looked muddy, with not a lot of use of the colors to pop out the characters, and the art in the faces didn't look good either. I had a hard time determine who was who in the comic. Overall, for a one shot it covered the bases, it gave you a quick story that resolved itself in one issue, but the art was less than desirable.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Ande Parks Artist: Esteve Polls Colorist: Marc Rueda Publisher: Dynamite Comics Price: $3.99 Release: 2/26/14