Loveless is a comic about Confederate women and men before, during, and after the Civil War. The last western comic book I bought was . . . wait, I've never bought a western comic before. But the cover artwork on this series is awesome (particularly #7) and I was compelled to buy and read the series. Sometimes I don' t care if a comic has a good story, I buy comics sometimes just out of respect and admiration of the incredible cover artistry. With this series, the inside artistry is exceptional also.

The series is about hate - the serie's title is "Loveless." It is about how violence, war, silence, imprisonment, and prejudices bring about deep hatreds. The series emphasizes how evil is not exclusive to the male gender; rather, the women who support the violent parts of their men are complicit. And sometimes the women are as violent as the men. I work hard to avoid hate. But I must confess, if there is one thing I hate, it is the violence, war, silence, and animosity that are neverendingly borne out of the stupidity of hateful reasoning.

The title of this review is a quote by one of the gun runners, trying to comfort a woman who is worried about her imprisoned husband. He is trying to assure her that her fears, about the capacity of harm that hate can bring, are unfounded. But women are empathetic and socially intelligent, and her fears are well founded.

I recommend this book on many levels. The art has a perfect tone for the story. The visual story telling and scripting is brisk and fluent. This is an "adult" story and not for readers who are unsophisticated, or unwilling to question the protaganists' moral decisions. A critique of the story so far is that it is too fictional, almost completely excluding any characters with any high level of human decency, compassion or understanding - which may keep it within the bounds of the 'Vertigo' horror genre category, but which keeps the series from being more realistic, historical, or universal. I don't fault the story for not having regular moral endings; I fault it for erring almost exclusively with horror genre endings. There are no Macbeths here taking much time questioning the morality of their violent choices. This series is no Sandman, where at least occasionally there is a hope in hell. I still give the series 4 stars for it's cleverness, artistic beauty, & quality execution.

This series is not about hope or finding answers. In this fictional world, there are no moral 'good guys.' The characters stupidly never rise above focusing on more than themselves and their immediate loved ones - almost always choosing violence as their response to violence. It is about how hate creates hate. In this fictional world of "Loveless" there is no education, no understanding, and no mercy.

Brian Azzarello has added a new on-going series to his already excellent 100 Bullets. Already well-known for his work in Hellblazer, Brian Azzarello's Loveless is a dark and twisted take on the Old West (specifically post-Civil War Old West) is like a hearty stew combining the epic expanse of classic Sergio Leone spaghetti western, Eastwood's Outlaw Josey Wales and the rapid-fire dialogue of HBO's Deadwood. I thought he could never top his work in 100 Bullets, but Azzarello continues to impress as he's taken his gift for dark storytelling and transposed it to the Old West to create a new mythical tale of vengeance, dark secrets, death and sex.

Loveless: A Kin of Homecoming collects the first five issues of Azzarello's Loveless series. The trade paperback introduces the two main characters whose lives will be the focal point of the stories. Wes and Ruth Cutter are the husband and wife whose lives have been torn apart by the brutality of the Civil War in the Missouri territories. The story makes special mention of Bloody Bill Anderson and Quantrill's Raiders --- pro-Confederate bushwhackers whose extreme hatred for Union soldiers and pro-Union civilians brought bloodshed and banditry to a new level in the Missouri territories. It is the aftermath of this guerilla-type war during the Civil War that has forced both Wes and Ruth Carter on a journey of vengeance on all those who have wronged them.

Azzarello deftly interspersed flashback scenes of Wes and Ruth Carter's lives before the events of the Civil War reaches Missouri. They're a happy and deeply in love couple whose only aspirations were to live a modest and peaceful life. This was not meant to be as Wes soon volunteers to fight for the Confederate side and leaving his wife in the care of his brother Jonny. What happens within the story collected in this trade sets up some of the back story as to why Wes and Ruth Carter are now both harder and meaner than they were before the war came to them. Already, there's hints of familial double-cross and betrayal. Secrets kept by both main characters from each other. Loveless is a a dark tale of post-Civil Reconstruction that has never been told in the history books, but Azzarello sure makes it vivid with his storytelling and the excellent artwork by his collaborator Marcelo Frusin.

Frusin's artwork gives Loveless a cinematic look to it. One could almost wonder if he wasn't making storyboards for a new Western film production instead of just a comic book series. From scenes of sudden violence and sex to flashbacks of the same, Frusin's artwork seemlessly matches the words Azzarello has put down on page. The images could easily tell the story in itself if the words were suddenly removed. There's a simplicity and ease to the images in conveying the tale being told.

Azzarello's already mentioned that the series will end around 50 or so issues and will be collected in ten trades. Each trade will contain five-issues. These five-issues will tell a new story-arc in both Wes and Ruth Carter's journey through Azzarello's western tale. The first story-arc is now over and collected and I await for the next trade to tell me the continuation of the Carter's journey through Loveless. A series from Vertigo that fans of 100 Bullets and Hellblazer should not miss.