Kingsway West

This book has so much potential but the execution leaves a lot to be desired in what had a strong first issue.  This book starts off with the title character Kingsway Law who is a war hero from a war that we don’t see but only hear about through dialog.  The United States is divided up into five different empires.  Kingsway used to work for the Chinese whose capital is the Golden City in northern California; but now he is done with them and he is looking to disappear.  Kingsway comes off as an Unforgiven type of cowboy who just wants to be left alone.  But when the queen of the Golden City has put a price on his head everybody is coming out to the wild looking for him.

After a gun fight with some of the queen’s guards Kingsway wakes up next to a campfire with a Mexican woman named Sonia.  The Mexicans and the Chinese have been at war in western part of the country over the mining of Red Gold.  Red Gold is a magical type of gold that can shift the balance of power to any of the empires that are vying for control of North America.

The book jumps ahead five years, Sonia and Kingsway have been living in the wild and created a life for themselves.  The wild is a beautiful place the animals that inhabit this place remind me of the book Manifest Destiny.  Their world gets turned upside down by a Chinese woman who shows up with her dragon looking for Kingsway to save her small band of rebel miners from the Golden City.  Meanwhile the engineer of the United States of New York is coming across the country looking for the mother load of Red Gold.  Strode is introduced as a winged African American scout for the engineer.  Kingsway and Ah Toy go looking for Sonia and battling the United States forces along the way at the mine they battle the Windigo what guarding the vein of Red Gold.  Strode joins the fight with the engineer and his forces not far behind.  There is a final showdown fight with all three parties where the United States of New York’s forces take out the Golden City’s guards leaving the miners and our heroes make way to the freemen’s fort in the south.  Kingway finds his wife but the ending is expected but it wasn’t executed well.

Greg Pak’s work is hit or miss with me I really like his work on Incredible Hulk over at Marvel Comics but this could have used a lot of more to expand upon.  This type of western is a grand and new concept but it wasn’t executed very the art was okay but nothing special.  Frankly I would love to see more and I would like to know more about each of the empires the world that these characters inhabit.  I also think that (SPOILER) Sonia being a ghost that Kingsway met when he was close to death and a figment of his imagination was a cop out ending or that it could have been executed better.