The Lone Ranger Rides Again

The Lone Ranger rides again.

I’ve always loved Sci-fi from the first moment a Corellian Corvette flew across the screen being chased by a Star Destroyer.  That was part of why I fell in love with comics but as of late, I have been looking to get away from the flying super heroes who shoot lasers out of their eyes or are impervious to bullets.

So when Dynamite Comics released “The Lone Ranger” I had to get in on this one and I can say that I have not been disappointed.  Here is an escape from universe ending super villains who can breathe air in a vacuum.

Being a child of the 70’s, I remember Saturday morning cartoons followed by a mid-afternoon horror flick and an old western cowboy film.  One of my favorites was “The Lone Ranger.”

But the old time serials and the new comic books share only a few comparisons to each other.  The story starts out with a young John Reid getting ambushed with a group of Texas Rangers.  All but John are killed as Tonto finds young John and nurses him back to health.

But that’s where the comparison ends between the serial and the comic.  John (Lone Ranger) is still the man out for justice and refrains from killing when he has to but this is not the Tonto of old.  Tonto is a darker figure with his own internal struggles that are slowly being revealed.  Tonto has no compunctions about killing, though John keeps those urges in check.

Tonto has given up a lot in order to take his journey, which up to now has not been fully revealed.  He was chosen to be his tribe’s chief and turned it down, then he left his tribe all together and is not very welcome when he returns.

The Villains

Black Bart is exactly as his name implies.  Back in the day, he was a big white guy with a thick black mustache.  To the credit of the modern day Bart, he handles himself well in the face of a population that still looks on people of color as “less than human” (understand that this all takes place in the 1800’s and slavery was an accepted practice through most of the US).  And when the chips are down, he lets nothing stand in his way.

The main villain is a wanna-be politician named Cavendish who just gives up on trying to be nice and turns on everyone.  He is the darkest of dark with a good sense of humor to round out the terrible deeds he plans and pulls off.  He lets nothing stand in his way and leaves a wide trail of death and destruction in his wake.

The series is building to the ultimate showdown of good vs. evil and it should be interesting when virtue meets “anything goes” chaos.

The story is a bit long winded and some of the characters have not developed or their backgrounds have not come to light but it is a good break from the sci-fi where nothing can kill you and even it does, you’re not dead, you’re just lost in some “other dimension” waiting to be found and brought back.