Review by Ian Keogh
Wynonna Earp is a hard woman with a chequered past who works for a government agency tasked with tracking down and ending paranormal threats. In practice, as written by Beau Smith and collaborators, the threat is established, built up, and Wynonna sorts it out, sometimes a little too easily in the early stories. Along the way her supporting cast grows ever larger, and so does the writing team. Melanie Scrofano who plays Wynonna on the TV show collaborates on one script, but Doc Holliday from the TV show, Tim Rozon, becomes a regular writing partner.
Plots were left hanging at the end of Bad Day at Black Rock, the final inclusion in this compilation, and if that had a valedictory feel, Beau Smith leaving Wynonna Earp altogether when her TV show ended seems to be confirmed by the simultaneous issue of All In.
The title’s actually a misnomer, because as the back cover states, it only collects Wynonna’s comic appearances since the TV show started. Her earlier, and frankly very poor, exploits are missing. For them you’ll still have to pick up the previously issued Strange Inheritance, although the advice is not to bother as that’s where Smith purged a lot of bad writing habits from his system. What’s left is a facility for straightforward action plots that aren’t greatly demanding, but offer respectable action thrills with a strong character leading an ensemble cast.
A trio of artists contribute, with Chris Evenhuis (sample art left) technically the best of them, but with a style far too clean to effectively sell Wynonna’s dirty world. Not as good, but improving throughout her run is Lori Innes, who has a better feel for the environment, but the artist of choice would have to be Angel Hernandez (sample art right). They’re restricted to what was Season Zero in paperback, but give the cast the necessary grit and take the wind and smoke into account when drawing them. Hernandez is also better at ensuring the action flows.
Within the brief of Wynonna’s career there’s a fair variety of genres covered ranging from the straightforward horror of what was originally released as Homecoming, to what’s pretty well war in the desert served up in Season Zero. There’s a jailbreak in Bad Day at Black Rock, while the stories originally combined as Legends are the poorest of the bunch for relying too much on convenient twists instead of something that’s been foreshadowed or consistent human behaviour. Also poor throughout is the dialogue, which never convinces as realistic, instead transmitting as people reading forced lines. Later plots are hampered by the writers having a large cast always having to comment in every scene. The series would be better for fewer people.
It may not apply to the entire cast, but Wynonna herself occupies a world of certainties, so when she hits the action button, she serves up what we want to see. Utter bastards get what’s coming to them, and there’s no wishy washy hand-wringing about it.
