The Bowmans’ World Burns To The Ground In Redneck #18

Everyone dies. No one is safe.

Aw, man. Remember when I said all that sweetness and light from the last issue wasn’t going to last? That the other shoe was due to drop? Yeah, well…It’s right in the publisher’s blurb. Everyone dies. No one is safe. Probably. There is a slight chance a few folks made it out, but Donny Cates has basically written the vampiric Red Wedding in Redneck #18. It’s not immediately clear what even happened, since this installment is written backward, with all the consequences up front, and (some of) the explanation following.

I hate to say there’s is a pattern at play here, but it really seems like every time the Bowman clutch gets comfortable, something awful happens to cull the herd and turn their situation inside out. Cates has absolutely no qualms about making you fall in love with a character, and then letting you watch them die in the most brutal, inhumane way possible.

As light as the last chapter was on the blood and gore, this chapter is chock full of it. Lisandro Estherren and Dee Cuniffe get to turn loose that hideously beautiful aesthetic that has become Redneck’s signature. Not to wander too far into spoilery territory, there might be some dismembering explosions, headshots, and disembowelment. 

If you were getting complacent, settling in and thinking this one was going to end up all sweet and flowery, then you must’ve forgotten the last turn, and the one before that. This story has always been about a clutch of vampires, trying to fight their nature and become more than the monsters they’ve been rightfully viewed as. Trying to find a little peace in a world of hate. It hasn’t worked out. Ever. Absolutely no reason it should now, right?
Redneck #18, Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment, released 02 January 2019. Written by Donny Cates, art by Lisandro Estherren, color by Dee Cuniffe, letters by Joe Sabino.