Desperadoes: Epidemic!

Back before the pandemic shut everything down, I used to go to a few $1-only used bookstores. I'd work for a 2-4 hour shift, earn some trade credit and come home with a slew of books. That's where I got this DC/Wildstorm graphic novel. If I could get a comic book or graphic novel or trade for just a few minutes worth of organizing and shelving, I was all for it.

The pandemic is also why I held off on reading this book. Now I know that the pandemic isn't over. But in the midst of COVID being at its peak, I just didn't feel like reading a book called 'Epidemic.' 

The book takes place during the time of the Old West. A quartet of fugitives on the run for a crime they didn't commit, wind up in a quiet New Mexico town. Winter storms are blowing through making it to where these desperadoes can't quite see the warning signs to stay away. 

See, this town is in the midst of an influenza epidemic. Now under quarantine, the main characters of this book will have to make due until warmer weather comes and hopefully this outbreak will subside. One decides to help the local doc. Another decides to help rebuild the town church. The rest decide to help by hunting and gathering. Only, underneath all this death and attempts at normalcy, there's something sinister afoot. Something ancient. Something evil. And it's about to reawaken...

I was rather disappointed at this horror western. I enjoyed the western aspects of this Jeff Mariotte (Zombie Cop) and John Cassaday (Planetary) creation. I Was sorely put-off by the sinister horror sections towards the end of it. 

Some of this is my fault, based on the green thing on the cover, I was expecting the antagonists to be aliens. Not some kind of occult evil. See, demons and devils aren't really my thing. I like horror when it's monsters or madmen. But the supernatural isn't really my bag. 

I realize that I read Doctor Strange and Hellboy. I enjoy the 70s horror anthologies of DC and Marvel. But when you start getting into an area like Amityville Horror or The Exocist with demonic possession or deals with the devil, I just don't like that stuff. And that's what Desperadoes: Epidemic! morphs into. You start with a Doctor Quinn: Medicine Woman type adventures and wind up with Linda Blair and pea soup.

I think had I known that this story was not about little green men but big lime-colored demons, I probably would have passed. 

Cowboys Vs. Aliens this is not!

Not Worth Consuming!

Rsating: 3 out of 10 stars.