Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Lone Ranger #13
Dynamite Comics
Matthews, Cariello & Cassaday

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Lone Ranger and his return to comics. I loved the first group of issues. However, this particular issue and the first two of this arc are moving way to slow and I fear without a clear direction. The artwork is stellar as always but with many of the scenes taking place at night this issue has a tough time shining.

The issue has two components to it. The first one is that the Ranger, Tonto and the Sheriff are caught in a field on fire. The second is that Cavendish confronts Winthrop.

That is literally the whole comic. We still don’t exactly know where the Ranger and company are heading. We don’t actually know what Cavendish has in mind for Winthrop or the Ranger. Does he know the Ranger’s got family still alive? Does he really know the Ranger’s identity?

Now, the fire does give some interesting character moments. It would appear the Sheriff does nothing while the Ranger charges in full force. It would also seem that the Ranger compels Tonto to become a hero as well. It looks like the Ranger is getting to the man finally. We get a bit of symbolism with a nightmare that the Ranger’s nephew is having at the same time the Ranger battles the fire. All of this is good stuff. The problem is that it completely derails the main plot to the overall story.


Lone Ranger #13

Cavendish is subtle and it is becoming annoying. He and Winthrop get two pages where the only thing that gets resolved is that Winthrop stole all his money and Cavendish isn’t going to kill him, but instead use him.

The comic has some nice character moments in it, but they are too small and they comprise the entire issue. Ranger and Tonto almost have a moment where they get to the heart of their relationship, but again, it’s only almost. At the end we watch Tonto back away from his natural instinct of killing when he’s out hunting. Okay, fine, but we just saw him changing when he raced into the flames. Did we need to see it again?

One cool element was the Ranger getting a costume. It’s a nice touch.

The artwork is great, but as I mentioned because the scenes are at night and involve a fire we don’t get the full story telling we’ve seen in previous issues. This story is big on close ups of the eyes and the art here drains every last possible drop of drama from them.

In all, I enjoyed the issue, but I was frustrated at the seeming lack of plot movement. I mean, I love getting to know characters but I feel like I need more than just some symbolism here and there for 22 pages. I need something I can chew on and savor. I found myself for too much of the comic wishing someone would open their mouths and say, “hey man I just love you for completing me.” I liked it but I need more interaction verbally and more plot.

3 out of 5 geek goggles