Zeb Larson reviews Southern Bastards #9…

The Summer of the Bastards begins with a new arc, as the Runnin’ Rebs are gearing up for the big homecoming game against arch-rival Wetumptka County.

Southern Bastards #9 takes a look at one of Craw County’s biggest doormats, and what it took to make him into a hopeless pushover. As it turns out, there are many different kinds of bastards, and a man who allows evil to happen is as bad a bastard as anybody. It looks as though the big game against Wetumpka County will dominate this arc’s storyline, as well as dealing with the aftermath of Big’s suicide in Craw County. I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so consider yourself forewarned.

The big game in Wetumpka County is drawing near, and to say that the residents of Craw care is an understatement. In more than thirty years, Boss has won nineteen of those games, and he has always understood that his ability to beat Wetumpka has kept him in this position of power. Unfortunately, that has also depended on the presence of Big. Boss’s reaction to Big’s suicide is exactly the callous response we’ve come to expect from the man. Rather than mourning, he begins telling people that this was a murder perpetrated by somebody in Wetumpka.

Most of this issue is told from the perspective of the sheriff. We already knew that he was effectively in Boss’s pocket, but it’s clear that he’s there largely because he’s unwilling to stand up to Boss and not from greed. He’s not a bad man, exactly, but he’s utterly self-loathing and willing to uphold the status quo. The Sheriff used to be one of the town’s football stars, but an injury ended his career and meant that he would spend the rest of his life trying to remember his glory days. That injury came from Boss, who broke his leg to make sure he wouldn’t be able to play college football and would stay in town, dependent on Boss’ patronage. Sheriff Hardy even confronts Boss about the fact that Big killed himself because of what Boss had become. But he clearly doesn’t expect Boss to change, and he tells him that he’ll keep doing his job of looking the other way because he can’t do anything else.

Hardy is a broken man who can only be happy living in twenty year-old memories, but I think you could make a case that he’s just another kind of bastard in Craw County. Who’s a bigger bastard, the ruthless man who will do anything for power and respect, or the man who knows what he’s doing is wrong and then does it anyway? Perhaps there’s the possibility that Hardy will find some kind of redemption out there, but at least for now we shouldn’t hold our breath for any Walking Tall moments. This is part of the secret to Euless Boss’ power: you give somebody what they want, you take it away from them, and then make them dependent on you.

Still, we can see an area in which Boss is vulnerable. There’s the obvious weak spot: he has to win this upcoming football game, and his secret weapon blew a hole in his head. But we know Boss. He’s a man who will always push harder because the blood is worth it, and if there’s any way he can find to win this upcoming game, he’ll take it. So the question is whether trying to win the game will just weaken him further in the long-run, maybe by pissing off the wrong person. It’s a mystery, but the Homecoming arc is off to a good start.

Rating: 9.3/10

Zeb Larson