East of West, Vol. 3: There Is No Us

East of West

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Nick Dragotta (Artist)

It's the third volume of the Eisner-nominated East Of West. There Is No Us sees the breaking apart of the future-scape of America as the world races forward towards the apocalypse.

Collecting: East Of West 11-15

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Westerns, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2014

About the author

Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now it's bubblin' baby! New Shanghai goes to the Nations' Conference looking for war. Will they get the war they want? Meanwhile virtually all the other Nations and their Chosen are knee deep in scheming, planning, feinting, ducking and diving ...yes all the ings! Meanwhile Death and his Witches seek The Beast, as do the Three Horsemen, but one party wants him dead, the other want to save him!

With a now more rounded idea of the the characters and reality (spread across seven nations and two opposing factions!), what's actually happening (and has happened) to the characters, places and plans in this volume are hooking me in. And whilst all this is happening readers are also anticipating the initial moves of the Beast itself. Getting warmer, a great feat of multiple view storytelling! - 8 out of 12, Four Star read.

2021 read, 2019 read

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title is growing on me.
There Is No Us starts off strong and ends strong.
You really can't ask for much more than that when reading a sci-fi western apocalypse comic.



The more I get to know all the players, the more interested I become in this world. What the hell even happened here? How did that kid end up hooked up to a machine, why is Mao so mad at Death? How did they meet and fall in love to start with?



And the villains are delicious. That wrinkly old hag is seriously creepy. I don't want to give anything away but things seem to really start to come together in this volume.



Recommended for fans of cowboy dystopias.

[Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read: February 9, 2016

After giving this one a re-read, right after re-reading volumes 1 & 2, I'm going to raise this up to a 4 star because it really is so great. The complexity, as with the first 2 volumes, can be a bit confusing at times, but after reading it again, it's all just so well crafted and excellent that I have to give it a higher rating.

Now I can't wait to read vol. 4 because that is one I haven't gotten around to yet!
----
3.5 stars

This one was a bit more confusing and felt like filler for the next volume. It was still really good, but I need to re-read vol. 2 and this one before reading vol. 4 in order to get a grasp of everything that's happening.


What I love about this series is how many story lines there are. But that also means it can be hard to follow everything. It's worth the effort though. And I'm excited to see what happens next!

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm . . . I dunno . . . still pretty good, but so strange. I have read a couple of graphic novels recently where the story just flowed and grabbed me. This one still feels a bit like work.



I will say that I am not completely lost. But it is a case where I start to feel like I know what is going on and then the story goes on some seriously odd, hallucinogenic-fueled side trip and I am totally lost again. It’s a mental tennis match with my mind going back and forth: “AH-HA!” – “WHAT?” – “AH-HA!” – “WHAT?



The art continues to be really impressive. At least I know if I am totally confused in the story I can take a few minutes to stop and enjoy the scenery.



Am I still enjoying the series? Yes! Has my understanding of things digressed? Absolutely! Will I continue to the next issue? You betcha! Will I start to understand the story more? Not a chance!

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I never really understand fully what is going on in every scene but I guess the art style makes up for my confusion. But Death and his plot line seems to be my favourite so far.

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Hickman, what are you on? Meth? Acid? Shrooms? Can you get me some?

This series is basically what Hickman saw after reading the book of Revelation while high as an effing kite.

When will I ever learn that I'll never understand Hickman???

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

You need to be really high to understand this volume is what hickman is trying to say feels like..reading this.

Its high sci-fi dystopian thing. Death is on the hunt for his child and the nations go to war and well because of Xialing and we see the endless nation declare so and it will be interesting to watch as we move towards the apocalypse and some subplot by Archibald and some interesting revelations about the crow and his role in the world. And rise of the beast?

Its a very confusing volume and yeah its a lot of exposition feels like and the thing mission is emotion and you don't care about any characters they all feel shallow is what feels like. But with hickman he likes to build up to big moments and all that so maybe in the long term but it does set up some conflict between beast (named babylon now) and his father Death and the art is okay. So read it if you wanna continue with the series.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda slow to get back into....very political. But after pushing through I recall how good this is. Should probably not wait too long to finish this series.

[Nicholas Talty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this story has been very good. What I struggle with--and I suppose it translates well to most comic books with the exception of The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes series--is the fact that comic books don't exactly provide a template within which you can connect with the characters. In the Sandman, I desperately fell in love with Delirium and Dream, but I was already in love with Gaiman's writing before engaging those characters. East of West #1 is a fantastic story. It personifies Death, which I love. Personification of any emotion or life-event is always an automatic like in my book. But I just don't connect with any character.

I must remember: Comic books are about telling stories. They aren't really about worldbuilding, they aren't about character development, they're about plot and story development. East of West achieves this goal superbly. It's well written, it is intricate, it has depth and emotion and character. It's a fantastic comic, and for those of you who enjoy mature content comic books, I highly suggest taking a peak at this story.

[L. McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy s***! This volume! Also: spoilers for volume 1.

What’s it about?
Do I really need to try explaining that? I’m not gonna bother with all that.

Why it gets 5 stars:
The story is still fantastic and it keeps getting better with more in depth world building and a progressing story!
The art is sofa king great! This series has so many incredible panels!
The characters continue to be interesting. I love what they do with Death’s son and the balloon!
The action scenes are are amazing in this volume! I have never seen a comic that is both as action packed and full of in depth story telling! I can’t express how fantastic the action is. There’s lots of it too and this volume has some of the best action in the series!
The suspense is still there.
Great dialogue continues to be great.
It was unexpected but there’s some pretty awesome horror stuff in this volume, I was impressed!

Overall:
This series is awesome, this volume is possibly the best one! The action scenes and story are fricking incredible! Read this series!

5/5

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wtf?

I think it's been too long since I read vols 1-2. Like over a year...

Art is fun, colour is good. Imaginative, but boring.

I read vol 4 after this so I can't recall what went where...

I think this is where there's a meeting of all the factions and hell breaks out.

Literally, it all just seems to lead to that.

['kris Pung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally Hickman throws a few answers to all those lingering questions at us and all out hell breaks out between the different nations.

[Jesse A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man this series is so good! One of my faves.

[Des Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I was reading this series monthly, cause it's a tough one to pick up after six months absence and try to remember everything that's going on. Hickman's world is huge, with a deep and rich history that might occasionally leave you scratching your head if you're not paying close attention. That said, the events in volume three are fantastic, with a sprawling story that explores new viewpoints. We get some great resolution and some exciting new groundwork as "The Beast's" arc completes, setting us up for a new one. The politic of the universe blows up as the Endless Nation marches in with fantastic machines, and Mao declares a new war. Death, Crow and Wolf take the sidelines though, arguably giving the action a janky stop while we meander around to explore other things. In that way, volume three feels a bit like side-questing. Good side-questing though.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 4 out of 5]

East of West volume 3 is a huge improvement from its previous two volumes. The build-up, particularly on the war between the nations of the Chosen has been carefully executed. The looming war is a breath of fresh air from the apocrypha plot and I am looking forward to where this would end.

Even scenes with the three lame horsemen are hauntingly weird but beautiful. Death's screentimes do not stand out in this volume but takes on an exciting route as he is on a path that might cross with the other three. But who really stood out here is Babylon. I love how Hickman establishes and shows the strength of this character while still letting the reader feel how frail he is.

East of West might have experienced a problem with its first two volumes, but this one clearly stood up and made us show that the story is still worth reading.

[Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had trouble following/enjoying this one as well as the previous two volumes. It got very political or abstract weird and felt like the plot wasn't moving.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa! This is some seriously deep, nihilistic, psychedelic saga of violence, treacherous trysts and possible end of everything.
Above all, it's unputodownable despite the excessive effort to make things seem philosophical when they could have been narrated in a more hardboiled format.
Recommended.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the background details mostly established, the plot ticks forward in the third East of West volume. Death makes minor strides towards his son (who receives a full, thrilling issue!), so the main players here are the factional leaders. They meet at Armistice to discuss unclear topics, but the topics don't matter anyway since the meeting almost immediately collapses, leading to war.

Great! Further the apocalypse. Even with Death's journey on the back-burner, I'm loving East of West so far. The political machinations are fascinating, even if every character involved seems like a terrible person. One could also question why the Texan leader, haunted by the dead Endless Nation leader, shot the Endless Nation sidekick, instigating war - or one could hope that all will be revealed in time!

Nick Dragotta's artwork continues to stun. The character designs are both disgusting and fascinating - one look at the demon merged with the high priest of the Message and you're hooked.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was about to be the weakest volume for me, and not in a bad way since it's a lot of world building....but then that last issue hit.

So this volume is a big volume of how the world leaders are dealing with everything. It's filled of a lot of politics, and while interesting, is the slower half of these stories. Then we see what Death is dealing with after someone fucked up his one lead. On top of that we're also dealing with the 3 other horsemen and their mission.

The stuff with death is great. Watching him go head to head with someone is badass and fun. The stuff with Death's son is AMAZING. Both thrilling and scary, the "beast" as they call him is perfect. On top of that we get plenty of nice twist and turns and a big meeting filled with plenty of death. The world building is a lot though and the pace comes to a complete halt on that part.

overall, another great volume. It's easy to see why East of West is held in such high regards now. A 4 out of 5.

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better volumes so far.

Although the second volume felt a little more like filler, volume three picks up and takes off immediately. It does take a second to get to the cliff hanger from vol two, but when it does, it's pretty badass. In the meantime you get to see what the nations are willing to do to keep the upper hand and that not all nations have control of its own people. Another sweet cliff hanger at the end, I'm excited to get to volume four.

Also, has anyone actually read the back with the authors info? Freakin weird.

[RG · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this stage I haven't been obsessed with any Hickman story. However this has slowly grabbed my attention. Yes it still has the weird writing of Hickman and at times its so weird you can get a little lost. However the Death story has kept me in it. The last few issues with his son has also developed a plotline which has intrigued me. Really cool art. Ive enjoyed that element since the first couple of Volumes.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dragotta art continues to be amazingly conceptual: think Métal Hurlant meets space western. Hickman's many plot lines start to collapse and while this feels mostly like exposition: one is probably introduced to the various factions that may emerge in the universe Hickman has created. Promising and ever-expanding in intrigue and world-building, but it can be dizzying.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still have no clue what is going on....but I now have even more questions...

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is always intriguing however at times, almost completely incoherent. Consistently a roller coaster of enjoyment, East of West is something any fans of graphic novels will find entertaining as it mixes US history with dystopian mythology.

4.5 / 10

[Zoe Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one hurt. The beginning was particularity insightful. The leaders’ meeting added a lot of background to what regions get along and why. But there was also some confusion, probably intentionally, regarding the monsters that inhabit Ezra and Bel Solomon. Ezra’s was briefly explained by the President and the Horsemen, but it doesn’t elaborate on how his transformation makes him more useful to The Chosen and their message.

On the other end of this story, we are seeing Death’s son, now name Babylon, escaping his prison and the Horsemen. Babylon wears vision guards like the prophet from the Endless Nation. These vision guards skew his sight from seeing the world authentically. He ends the volume in what looks like a hell-scape when in reality it is a sunflower field. I wonder if someone from the Endless Nation is controlling his vision and learning through Balloon (The Artificial Intelligence system that he is connected to). The Endless Nation seems to be the only region with the technology that Babylon is imprisoned by, so it would make sense for them to manipulate Babylon’s learning to get an outcome that would benefit their nation and their allies (The PRA - His Mother, etc.)

[Zedsdead · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a huge gosh darned coincidence of dramatic timing, a sniper on an unrelated mission blows the head off of a key character just as he's about to reveal the secret location of a kidnapped child.

I'm done with this series.

[Inside My Library Mind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread in April, 2016: I have a lot more appreciation for this series upon rereading. It's all clicking into place and it's a really complex and clever story.

First read Aug, 2015: The story kind of picked up in this volume, because the second one was all over for me and I was a bit lost. I still can't bring myself to give any of this series a 5 star rating because it's very inconsistent. It's confusing throughout and really, really good at the end, so I am always conflicted about it. Still, really enjoyed this one

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's this Kurt Vonnegut rule of storytelling: Start as close to the end as possible.

Clearly, East of West isn't following that rule. It felt like it at first. That we were on the brink of the apocalypse. But after this volume, I'm kind of ready for shit to get started, really, for real.

And I'm one volume away from being totally screwed again. 6 issues behind, maybe a new book within the next couple months. But I don't know if this stuff will all hold together in my mind, and if it doesn't, I doubt that I'll get beyond volume 5.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series rules. The first half here is kind of a lull catch-up, sprinkling in the details that are more or less necessary for clashes down the road, but aren't the most whirlwind of scenarios. The second half brings it back to the chaos and beauty that this violent saga serves up so enthusiastically. What if it was just bucket of genres and mythos barreling through a narrative? This forever. I kind of wish I had waited in order to read this start to finish in one long weekend of wild.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastic and interesting characters and settings. And fairly amazing art. Apparently still not enough to make a readable book. This book was tiresome. And yet individual pieces, the different lands, the different characters interacting with each other, these pieces were kind of cool. But still picking up this book a battling through reading it was just plain irritating.