East of West #6

Six:  To Do Justly, and To Love Mercy
written by Jonathan Hickman
art by Nick Dragotta
colors by Frank Martin

"To Do Justly, and To Love Mercy" shifts East of West's focus from Death's bloody rescue of his wife Xiaolian and the destruction of her father's country the People's Republic to Bel Solomon, Governor of the Republic of Texas and doubting traitor to the apocalyptic cause and the zealous advocates of The Message.  Ezra Orion, Keeper of The Message, has assembled his fellow conspirators after Xiaolian's gift of her dead sister's hands unwittingly illuminates one of The Message's prophecies.  One among them is a traitor.

The problem is: none of them can be trusted.  So far, only the Keeper himself Ezra Orion, the recently dead Mao Hu, and the new President of the Union Antonia LeVay, chosen for her religious fervor by Death's apocalyptic siblings, have shown themselves to be demonstrably devout.  The others' loyalties, when known, are dominated either by political pragmatism, naiveté, apathy, or some combination thereof.  Chamberlain of the Confederacy, foremost among them, shows little allegiance but acute political savvy and a deft talent for survival.  Bel Solomon, to whom this issue belongs, is a wayward idealist, whose slow moral devolution comes by gradual compromise and minor concession.  The final two—Cheveyo, who similarly recognizes his fellows' duplicity and faithlessness, and John Freeman—are difficult to read.  They may remain devoted or they, like Solomon or Chamberlain, be quietly working for their own ends.

Despite being revealed as the traitor of The Message by Chamberlain, though why his fellows believe him is not entirely clear, Bel Solomon makes his escape in a gunfight from a monster summoned by Cheveyo.  He seeks help from an old friend.

The rest, ostensibly a flashback to a time when Solomon was an honorable and honest prosecutor, is a revenge fable.  Following the improper and unjust acquittal of a demonstrably guilty murderer by a corrupt judge, bought by the deep pockets of the murderer's rich family, the husband and father of the victims, having failed in his plea of mercy for their deaths, demands his own justice.  Stealing arms off the guards, he then kills both the unjust judge and the newly and erroneously exonerated murderer.  So begins an era of change, or as is claimed, "Then came a reckoning" (East of West #6: 22).  The judges and politicians were executed, and they were replaced by the Rangers, the lawmen.  There was, however, a refreshingly cynical realism in their idealistic mission.

"We quit because we realized if we went any further we stood a good chance of becoming what we hated.  There is a time for righteous action.  The season is short because given too much time, those who stand in judgement realize all men are flawed.  Spend enough time with a star on you chest and you lose the ability to see people—you stop seeing them and only see their actions and the motivations behind them."  (25)

And so, and unnamed Texas Ranger assumes the task of killing the conspirators.  By his promise for a debt owed, Bel Solomon will be last.

[September 2013]