Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s “Southern Bastards” continues its beer battered journey into Craw County. Earl Tubb tries once again to escape town and things drag him back in whether he wants to or not, he’s the only thing that’s strong enough to set things straight.
WRITTEN BY: Jason Aaron
ART BY: Jason Latour
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: May 28, 2014
“Southern Bastards” #2 smartly touches on all the main themes from the first issue. Reminding us why Earl was gearing to leave in the first place, but as he sits down for one final game of football the town cries for help in a way he couldn’t have imagined. Jason Aaron brilliantly makes Earl care for a violence prone meth-head. Dusty wasn’t a man anyone gave a shit about, and less so now that ol’ Coach Boss has dealt with him.
The depths of the town’s corruption are exposed and Earl Tubb wants nothing to do with it. He wants to get out and go on with his life. He resents his father and seemingly everything the man he stood for. Although he seems destined to follow in his footsteps. It’s an interesting albeit familiar storyline that’s sure to spiral outwards as things go on.
Jason Latour makes the south look like a certain type of hell. Men with roided out arms and withered veins populate these pages. He makes them look menacing in a relatable way. You wouldn’t want to get between them and their fried chicken. A football game in the middle of the issue is handled with a lot of care and makes things incredibly dynamic, serving up the main action for the month. It’s as rousing as the diner fight too, handled with the same interesting insanity. Latour leaves the scene with a fantastic bookend that shows Earl he needs to get the fuck out.
In many ways this second issue doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already piece together from the first. There is death, but I assumed there was last month. Instead Aaron and Latour give a decidedly character based issue that focuses on why Craw County needs Earl now more than ever. Except Earl couldn’t give less of a shit.
The final scene of the issue is a brilliant break in Earl’s tough exterior that shows how fragile his relationship with his father has made him. It’s the one thing that cuts the stone faced man to the core and exposes him. Yet, through this exposure we learn that he’s almost destined to become the man he hates. Then lightening strikes. In a plot point that is eerily similar to an amazing episode of The Simpsons. Earl gets his weapon and it seems like next month he’ll be hitting the town swinging.
“Southern Bastards” has the right mix of heart n’ grit, it’ll get under your skin and compel you to read on. The South has never been so ugly but Jason Aaron and Jason Latour vow to clean it up, they’re just going to make a bloody mess of it first.