‘Redcoat’ #8 Advance Review: Bed And Board At The Bloody Benders
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
The Bloody Benders were a real-life family of serial killers who lived in Kansas in 1873. It’s a shame then that it’s at the Benders homestead that our hero, Simon Pure, seeks solace from the weather. The pathetic fallacy alone should have been enough of a warning for Simon. But it isn’t and all Hell ensues in ‘Redcoat’ #8 by Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch.
Overall
8.5/10After a rather emotive last issue, in Redcoat #8 we are transported back to 1873 for a done-in-one story that, like so much else informing this series, takes its inspiration from the real-life serial killer family the Bloody Benders. A family that stays together and kills together. And Redcoat is in their sights as he knocks on their isolated farmhouse seeing refuge for the evening.
In reading up on the dastardly and deadly family, you soon learn that they eventually mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth. And in Redcoat #8 writer Geoff Johns and artist Bryan Hitch explain that one in their own way. Resulting in a bloody but entertaining issue which suggests we aren’t moving in one chronological direction of travel as the first seven issues would suggest, but there will be tales to tell from Simon Pure’s 200 + years on this planet. And more darker American histories informing these stories too. Like this one, which I did like and which further increases my admiration of a series I really didn’t think could do so well, given its insistence of presenting historical drama that’s very much targeted at a predominantly American readership. But time and time again I am surprised by Johns writing. He seems to have found a mojo I felt has been missing in his work since his return to DC Comics with the mediocre Doomsday series and plans that were ultimately torpedoed.
As for Hitch? Well, I am never surprised by his skills to render a world solid enough to step into and believe in. A good deal of research has clearly been poured into this book, with the attention to period details of the day helping flesh out an America that is one part myth and another part reality. Once more America looks to mythologise its past, and once again I am reminded that for now at least it is another retelling from the colonialist’s point of view. Like so much before it. But, maybe that will change, given the last page reveal.
Regardless of my mild concerns with the perspectives being amplified in this series, Redcoat #8 is another solid issue with plenty of tension and drama running through it from cover to cover. And another part of America’s dark past informing the story and thereby informing the reader. Who said comics couldn’t be educational as well as entertaining?
Redcoat #8 is out Wednesday 25th December from Image Comics
