Creators: Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch
Inkers: Andrew Currie & Bryan Hitch
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Cover Artists: Bryan Hitch & Brad Anderson; Ryan Sook; Lesley “Leirix” Li
Designer: Steve Blackwell
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Publisher: Image
Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 12, 2025
Simon Pure has the luck of the Irish. A night in a saloon netted him a bag of cash. But then, like Ryder in Aint No Grave TP, Simon's competitors objected to the aces up his sleeve. Pursued by gun-toting gamblers in St Joseph, Missouri, Simon leaps aboard a passing train. As the train rumbles across a bridge, Simon believes he has gotten away with the goods. Instead, an accident befalls him, tossing Simon into the Missouri River. Has a dropped coin doomed him like Captain Jack Sparrow? Let's grab the bills escaping Simon's sack, leap into Redcoat #10, and find out!
Story
The accident and the impact from the water deliver a mortal one-two knockout. Thanks to the Founding Fathers' magic and strong currents, Simon awakens the next day on the shores of Memphis. Karma dictates that Simon loses his ill-gotten gains. So, after begging for a coin from a passing stranger, Simon enters another contest. This time, he can’t win by cheating.
Simon meets the famous Annie Oakley in Redcoat #10. His contest with the sharpshooter in 1890 gives Simon a chance to shine. Still, Simon refuses to believe that he possesses exceptional skills. Believing in his capabilities, much less that he has a gift, means Simon must also accept that more than random chance rules his life. But then, Simon received immortality by stumbling into a ceremony designed to help Benjamin Franklin escape death.
In Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch's story, disbelieving in himself lets Simon off the hook. Why strive for success when it's easier to embrace failure? As Simon’s parents rejected him, and the Church consigned him to an abusive foster father, Simon accepted what his father drilled into him during his childhood. Simon fled the Battle Of Trenton in 1776. Over a hundred years later, Simon still rejects any notion that he could belong anywhere, let alone with people who might value his skills, abilities, and (perhaps even) gifts.
Art
As Simon christens his journey with Einstein by stealing aboard a train in 1892, so Simon leaps aboard a steam locomotive two years earlier in Redcoat #10. Greenbacks flutter from his bag, and a pig regards him with curious eyes. If the Founding Fathers were to observe Simon's misadventures, no doubt the phrase "casting their pearls before swine" would come to mind. As for the pursuing gunmen clad in their dark suits, coats, and hats, their appearance and revolvers recall that Jesse James died in St Joseph, Missouri, eight years before Simon's visit.
The tall buildings, crowded streets, and lines strung between poles suggest Simon washed up in Memphis, Tennessee, rather than Memphis, Missouri. Simon's red, white, and blue attire outshines the crowd in the dirt street. Brad Anderson’s colors make Annie Oakley glow compared to her portrait on the wagon. When Annie’s assistant hurls cards into the air, it evokes how Andrew Currie and Bryan Hitch fill the first page with money and four Aces of Clubs.
Rob Leigh fills white dialogue balloons with uppercase black letters and beige scraps of parchment with their italicized cousins in Redcoat #10. Words grow bold for inflection, enlarge for volume, and rarely shrink. While many of the parchment scraps evoke the states of the union, the off-camera question in a rectangular box expresses concern Simon often hides. Thanks to Image Comics and Ghost Machine for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
After ruminating on the role chance plays in his life, an accident helps Simon Pure meet Annie Oakley. Redcoat #10 reminds us how Simon's childhood shaped him and helps us better understand why, two years later, he will try so hard to keep his distance from thirteen-year-old Albert Einstein.
Rating 9/10
For more covers see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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