While it’s nice to know Goodwin’s seen Bad Day at Black Rock and maybe Man in the Shadow (or some variation of crime boss running small town with townspeople’s de facto permission), it sort of makes this Corrigan storyline boring.
The only interesting thing about it—once it becomes clear we aren’t going to find out about a former FBI agent turned rural newspaperman—is how the crime boss’s estranged girlfriend all of a sudden decides she wants to be a good guy. Her character has a clear arc. She starts the story trying to get back at him for neglecting her and ends it wanting to make the world a better place.
Unfortunately, the strip’s not about her. It’s about some lengthy fights, lots of scenes lifted from the aforementioned movies and Phil Corrigan getting out of trouble–once again by luck alone.
It’s inoffensive, but dreadfully unoriginal.
CREDITS
Writer, Archie Goodwin; artist, Al Williamson; publisher, King Features.
