The Lone Ranger #9
Written by Ande Parks
Art by Esteve Polls
Colors by Marcelo Pinto
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover by Francesco Francavilla
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 5, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The Lone Ranger #9 continues the dual tale of the present day Lone Ranger trying to get Tonto back to his tribe while three years earlier, we continue to learn the origin of Tonto and how he came to be the warrior that his is today.

Writer Ande Parks does it again! JUST when you think he’s not going to be able to top the last issue, he easily does. This issue is probably one of my favorites. About 98 percent of it continues the Tonto origin story, and man, is it a story. While I don’t want to go into spoiler territory, the whole issue is framed by a heartbreaking Native American folk tale that is almost perfectly paralleled by the events going on in Tonto’s own story here. There’s a pretty generous amount of violence and bloodshed, but it’s very tastefully done (more on that later) and if you’re on the squeamish side, I wouldn’t worry at all. What we have here is another solid, entertaining comic of the western genre. Parks knows how to turn out a very entertaining story without talking down to his audience and without falling into the standard “Cowboys & Indians” trap that most authors of today’s western comics do.

Artist Esteve Polls, yet again, turns in another stellar issue. PACKED with detail and oozing beauty, this fantastic, lush art is quickly becoming the norm in this title, and that’s fine with me…and I’m sure I speak for other readers. As I mentioned earlier, this issue has a fair share of violence and bloodshed, but Polls pulls it off in such a manner that while you miss none of the impact of the violence, there’s nobody holding their guts in or gushing blood or anything else that’s even close to gratuitous. It’s handled with class, detail, and subtlety by Polls and I, for one, am thankful for that. Delving further into the issue, you seem to realize that Polls is just a really fantastic artist. Bar none, hands down. While I don’t want to see him leave this book BY ANY MEANS, I’d love to see him take on something in the super hero genre someday. I’m betting it would be pretty spectacular.

Can we just stop and take a minute to praise this book for one thing that’s gone unsung about it for about 9 months now? It comes out every month. ON. TIME. From Dynamite. Now, I don’t know where to place the “blame” for that, but I’m giving credit to the creative team. Way to go, guys! Keep it up! You’ll never know how much fans and retailers appreciate that!