Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Nik Virella

I’m no western aficionado by any means, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. It’s one of the most “American” genres there is. Exploring the frontier, surviving against danger from without and within, and the idea of forgoing the shackles of established society in order to forge a new one. That said, the Western also has an auspicious legacy at Marvel Comics with characters like the Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, and the original Ghost Rider. While those characters had decidedly more interaction with the superheroes of the more famous superhero characters at Marvel, the beauty of Battleworld is being able to explore these different genres and worlds, allowing them to coexist and stay in their own corners as well. Gerry Duggan has been on a roll so far between Infinity Gauntlet and Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos, 1872 is no different in this regard.

The premise behind the book is simple. A more Marvel-inspired version of the (sort of) Western Frontier, with such notables as Sheriff Steve Rogers, Mayor Wilson Fisk, and the Red Wolf. The book does a great job of distinguishing itself from the Marvel Universe at large. While it does use a large chunk of characters we’re familiar with, it fits the character traits of those characters perfectly into the narrative of a Western. While, we’re certainly not starved for Westerns by any means, Duggan makes the case for his version, and moreover how it can fit into the broader scale of the Marvel Universe’s increased diversity.

The big hero of 1872 is Nik Virella though. A book as specific as 1872 would have handled poorly with the wrong artist. While Duggan does have a fantastic script, that can get lost in transmission with someone who doesn’t know how to communicate the iconography and the style of a Western, and Virella has all that in spades. While her characters do have some of the look and demeanor of their main Marvel Universe counterparts, they have plenty of differences to also send them off that same path. I never thought I’d be saying this, but 1872 is one of the best books to come out of Secret Wars. With any luck, we’ll be seeing more of the Valley of Doom in the months to come.

4 out of 5 Sheriff Stars.

Review by Slewo