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Acting as the big break for Aaron, the title changed the game for crime comics going forward. Keeping the cast relatively small and just to the Reservation, Aaron built a tight knit story with many connected layers. The way the story was crafted made him an all-star and shows how much dedication he gives to story. Aaron can make any cast work with any story including the likes of even the Ninja Turtles, and Scalped is no different.
Cast and Crimes on the Rez
When the story begins, Dash has come back to the Reservation with the goal of fixing it up to be a better place to live by taking down Lincoln Red Crow, but it’s not that easy. Dash is not welcomed home as expected. Red Crow is very untrusting of him due to having a past relationship with his daughter. Red Crow also majorly distrusts Dash’s mother, Gina, and Dash has issues with her on top of that. About to open his own casino, Red Crow wanted to use it as a cover to hide all of his business deals. With a unique settling and a cast with all sorts of secrets over one another we get one of the best crime comics ever.
The way Aaron crafts the tone for the series is what makes it stand up above most crime comics. Instead of the usual settings of a city or good-sized towns, the Reservation is completely different. Placing it in a drier, desert-like environment with a ton of focus on heritage isn’t something you see a ton of in other books. Sure, you get other books where you have race and ethnicity play a huge part but almost every member of Scalped’s cast is Native American. All of the cast, whether they’re protagonists or antagonists, are always under scrutiny by the white people outside of the Reservation. Dash deals with the FBI looking down on him for being Native American and the same is said for Red Crow on the crime scene. All of the characters are fighting for the respect they deserve in their respective fields.
The series is also not afraid to show our lead, Dash, have personal struggles outside of Red Crow’s influence over the Rez. A big component of the story is showing Dash try to take down all these huge drug deals and then fall into addiction himself. Showing how much our lead can struggle instead of being an unrelatable action hero is a huge shift from many crime comics and it’s refreshing. Combine that with how Aaron gives you enough details on the past with each character, it’s a vortex that pulls you in. This is particularly true for the story’s second arc, “Casino Boogie.”
