Lone Ranger #16 – Ostinato

Here’s a question I have for you comic readers out there: can you still call a comic The Lone Ranger if the Lone Ranger doesn’t appear in the issue at all?  Well, turns out Dynamite Entertainment thinks you can.

Written by Brett Matthews.  Art by Sergio Cariello.  Cover by John Cassaday.

“I’ll be damned.”

The issue centers around Cavandash who kills a local lawman on the first page, and then, on a bit of a whim, decides to confess his sins at a nearby chapel.  Though the hero of the series doesn’t appear in a single panel this issue does give us some backstory to his nemesis as pieces of his past are unveiled including his relationship with his father and the confession of the thought which has been haunting him since the first page.

This isn’t a great issue by any stretch of the imagination, and Cavandish’s life story, though bleak, is a bit simplistic.  However the the final panel finds a way to make the entire story pay off.  It’s not a must-have on its own, but fans of the series will enjoy the peek into Cavendish’s past, and the final page alone makes it worth a look.