Comic Book / Marshal Bass

Marshal Bass is a series of western comic books written by Darko Macan and drawn by Igor Kordey, in which the life of Bass Reeves, first black US marshal west of the Mississippi, is heavily romanticized. The first volume was released in 2017.

Freed slave, ex-soldier, ex-vagabond, River Bass, now a farmer and a father, is the first African-American sheriff. When he accepts the star, he does it for respect and equality, but he will actually be confronted by a truly cruel world. During the troubled period of the Western, the story River Bass is mainly that of a very lonely man.

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Works in Marshal Bass:

• Black and White (2017)
• Family Murders (2017)
• His Name is Nobody (2018)
• Yuma (2019)
• The Angel of Lombard Street (2019)
• Los Lobos (2021)
• Master Bryce (2022)
• The Miserable and Lonely Death of Mindy Maguire (2022)
• Texas Rangers (2023)
• Hell Paso (2023)

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Marshal Bass provides examples of:

• Agonizing Stomach Wound: Pork suffers one of these at the hands of Hammer.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • The Cuban dog master may be an horrible man, but seeing his "sons" killed so brutally makes him break into tears. After this, it's hard not to feel a little bad about him when he gives up the hunt before being killed by Doc Moon.
  • Seeing the sad smile on Corpse's face as Samson prepares to shoot him in the chest can be quite moving when some of your relatives suffer from lung problems.
  • The Professor and his friends may have been ruthless killers, but their genuine friendship was quite beautiful, and seeing them unknowingly kill each other feels appropriately tragic.
• Attack the Mouth: The Cuban dog biting on River's arm ends up with his tongue torn out of his mouth.
• Badass Native: Samson, the child River had with Immokalee, may not be smartest character in the series, and he has a tendancy to end up with his head badly inured, but he is shown to be an excellent fighter once he gets up close, using his skills with a knife to easily slay the hunting dog trying to kill him, while his father struggles to survive when faced with with another.
• Big Good:
  • Beef is among the only genuinely good people in the whole series, even though he was in a gang.
  • Doc Moon comes close, but she can be much more ruthless. Of course, that comes with her profession.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: While River Bass and his allies are almost always up against the worst of humanity, they are in no way good people either, though some of them become better along the way.
• Blind Without Them: The Professor and his two friends have one pair of glasses they share when they read or shoot a gun. In the end, the Professor loses them and shoots his companions.
• Boom, Headshot!: River Bass's favored method of killing. It is telling that he rarely fight multiple gunfighters, often confronting isolated opponents one by one before moving on with the rest.
• Brother–Sister Incest:
  • Defied with Sabien and Janwillem. If the brother is eager to perpetuate their family's tradition, his simbling prefers the embrace of River Bass.
  • ZigZagged with Samson and Delilah. They are first introduced running of together, but Samson refuses to touch her. It turns out he faked being infatuated with her to force their father to come after him. When she realizes it, she tells him to never speak to her again. However, Delilah is actually River's adopted daughter, and she reacted like this out of anger from being manipulated; she would have no problem with it had he not lied to her and actually loved her.
• The Bus Came Back: 6 volumes after her first introduction, Doc Moon reappears in Texas Rangers, though she spends the whole book away from Bass.
• Cannibal Clan: The hillbilly family in volume 2 kill those they invite in their home and sell their clothes on the marketplace to make a living.
• Cain and Abel: After becoming a jay-hawker, Bryce kills his more responsible and emphatic brother.
• Consummate Professional: During the climactic chase of volume 5, Angel hijacks a tram while River barely catches up to it. As soon as he gets on, the ticket inspector stops Bass, pointing out that climbing into the tram between stations is forbidden. Immediately after Angel inevitably derails the tram, the ticket inspector's first words are for Bass:
  "Right, if I am not mistaken, we were talking about a fine..."
• The Chessmaster:
  • Colonel Helena has a tendency to use River to further his own political ambitions, as well as to make sure that everyone get their comeuppance. Eventually, he is revealed to use a group of (mostly) accidental murderers the exact same way.
  • Lorenzo manipulated almost everyone in the prison to make sure he came out on top.
• Creepy Child: Hope, the baby that Doc Moon is taking care of. Far from any town, the only food that she has access to is small quantities of Doc's own blood, and as they arrive in El Paso, her first word is "Blood".
• Cruel Mercy: River refuses to kill the now-paralysed Lionel Defoe, claiming that he doesn't shoot disarmed men... and lets him die of cold in the snow.
• Darkest Hour: Extends from the end of book 3 to the beginning of book 6; it begins when Bass kills his firstborn in a duel in front of his adoptive daughter, then accepts a dangerous mission in which he will surely be mistreated to atone. Then, rather than coming back to his family, he stays away from them for several months, even travelling to Washington DC where he is repeatedly humiliated by the local police and fails to save either the Noble Demon he is trying to stop or the Noble Bigot with a Badge who is the only one to give him a sliver of respect. When he finally decides to own up to his actions and face the judgment of his family, he finds out that they have left him for a man who seems more caring but is actually a Child Hater and a Dirty Coward. Subsequently, the Bass family is taken hostages by the Del Lobos, and even River's rescue mission ends with him being taken as prisoner, his daughter Judith accepting to marry the leader of the outlaws being the only thing that saves his life.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Mocking an innocent Bass is trying to save will expose you to his Deadpan Snarker tendencies:
  Sheriff Lawrence: I bet you we'll find her thanks to her cheap perfume.
  River Bass: Say, you have quite a nose! I'd like to have a few hunting dogs in my lineage too...
• Death Seeker:
  • Corpse, who's slowly dying of tuberculosis, takes Samson shooting him in stride, musing that he planned to shoot himself in the chest anyway.
  • Most of Del Lobos would welcome oblivion as well, but more out of nihilism and self loathing than because their days are numbered.
• Despair Speech: Rare occurence in that it doubles as a Badass Boast
  Hungarian prisoner: Stop! Me kill five people! With my hands! Not going further!
  River Bass : You want to know what I did? I killed my own son! I looked him in the eye and I killed him like it was nothing! MY NAME IS RIVER BASS AND I KILLED MY OWN SON! So just imagine what I could do to you...
• Dirty Coward: Clifford Williams. Not only did he shoot a sheriff In the Back and pretended that he was just trying to scare him, but he reveals his true nature by shooting his boss Defoe when the situation turns bad for their team, trying to convince Samson that he was always on their side. It doesn't work.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Out of all of his children, the only one that Bass calls by her own name is the eldest. In volume six, we see why:
  River: Thank you... Ruth...
  Judith: Judith, father... My name is Judith.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Jupiter Johnston will not accept any preferential treatment because he is a kid in a prison full of grown ups. In the end, his pride will not even let him accept to be liberated under a different name than his own. Beef is not as proud.
• Driven to Suicide: Almost immediately after killing Samson and seeing Delilah go, River turns his gun on himself.
• Dropped Glasses: Played for Drama when the Professor loses his glasses and unknowingly shoots his friends.
• Enemy Compassion: Batsheba and Madame Cleopatra may show hostility to each other every chance they get, but when Sheriff Lawrence is ready to shoot one of Cleo's girls out of spite, it's Batsheba who convinces River to intervene.
• Evil Mentor:
  • Played Straight with the Blade Enthusiast of the Del Lobos gang, who teaches Ruth how to slit a throat and willingly becomes her first victim.
  • Subverted with Grandpa Tom, who teaches Batsheba's children his tricks to earn (or embezzle) money easily and how to stand up to bullies. None of the things he makes them do are outright evil, and some are even good, but he does it all out of greed.
• Eye Scream: During his fight with a Mexican boy, David, one of Bass and Batsheba's children, gets one of his eyes bashed in with a rock. He keeps an Eyepatch for the rest of the story.
• Gender Reveal: If Delilah instantly recognizes Doc Moon for what she is, she has to spell it out to her father.
  River Bass: Why do you care so much about me?
  Delilah: Because she's into you.
  River Bass: What do you mean, "she"? Doc Moon is a man, not a woman.
  Doc moon: Don't worry if you didn't notice, Sam. You're not the first.
• The Gunslinger: River is a consistently shown to be a an excellent marksman, winning prizes for his master when he was a slave, mostly shooting his enemies right between the eyes, and being still fast and accurate enough to win a duel using only his left hand, while his gun is in his right-handed holster (however, his opponent at the time was still a rather middling gunfighter, so that last one may not be that much of an achievement).
• Hands-Off Parenting: Bass initially leaves the education of his children entirely to his wife and eldest daughter, spending entire weeks away from home, and speaking almost only to Batsheba. After surviving the Del Lobos with them, he is shown participating in familial activities more often.
• Hat Damage: River Bass wears the hat of Bill Derby, a criminal he was initially mistook for. Derby was eventually shot by the colonel Helena, who offered the now-pierced hat to River as an excuse.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: River has once been forced to use his left hand during a duel, after sustaining injuries on his right hand when he was attacked by a dog.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Corpse suffers from tuberculosis. His repeated coughs make him miss his shot in his fight against Samson, allowing the younger man to come out on top.
• Invincible Villain: Much to his chagrin, Gabriel seems to be one.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After the death of his mother and the betrayal of his trust by his own men, Helena starts to believe that everyone is just acting decent when he is watching to take advantage of his willingness to give second chances. It culminates with betting that River would save him from drowning rather than a child because he wouldn't risk losing his benefactor, before pushing Hope off their raft and jumping in the water as well. He was wrong.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: When Delilah runs away from home with Samson, Batsheba sends her husband to track them and return their daughter to her.
• Ludicrous Gibs: As Helena tries to bury his mother, El Paso comes under attack from Penn's forces, and a cannonball falls on her body, destroying it completely.
• Meaningful Name: Numerous examples can be found within the pages of these comic books:
  • River Bass was known in his youth as a great swimmer able to stay underwater for several minutes.
  • Delilah sees her lovers die one after the other.
  • Chef Powell rules over almost everyone around him.
  • Lorenzo Magnifico is the truest example of a Magnificent Bastard to appear in the series so far.
• Mercy Kill: Doc Moon is rarely employed for her talents in the medical field, but rather for her willingness to do this.
• Multiple Gunshot Death: Angel is a good shot, but picking a gunfight with a dozen of policemen armed with rifles was never going to end well for him.
• Mutilation Conga: First Samson gets a horseshoe to the head. Then a tomahawk to the head. Then several punches to the head. Then a horse kicks him in the head. Then he is shot. In the head.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Although he was already considerably shocked after killing his own son during their duel, River Bass completely breaks down when he realizes he did not even give him a name.
• The Nameless: Until Delilah decided to call him Samson, the oldest son of River had never been given a name.
• Neck Snap:
  • Having his hands restrained, River uses his legs to strangle Hammer. During their brawl, they both fall down a small hill, putting enough strain on Hammer's cervical vertebrae to finally crack.
  • Doc Moon effortlessly breaks the Cuban dog master's neck thanks to her humongous strength.
• No Sympathy: Towards the end of the third book, River, Doc Moon, Samson and Delilah light a fire and start to cook a meal while Lionel Defoe is dying of cold in the snow a few meters away.
• Offing the Offspring: Bass is riddled with guilt over the murder of his oldest son.
• Parental Neglect: For the most part, Bass cares very little for his progeny and their well-being beyond housing and meals. It changes after their escape from the Vega villa.
• Pretty Little Headshots: Bullets to the head are not always shown to make an exit wound, though this trope does not overlap with any Bloodless Carnage.
• Promotion to Parent: Delilah has had to take care of her siblings for a large portion of her life, which later motivated her to find independance.
• Roadside Surgery: Defied by Doc Moon. After being shot in the spine, when Lionel Defoe asks her if she can do anything about it, she answers that he's got nine chances out of ten of dying painfully if she tries anything. Defoe decides that it's not worth the risk.
• Secret Test of Character: Cleo determines if David is truly ready to give his life to music by seducing him after his day of work and telling him that he can either have sex with her now or play his harmonica for the patrons in a few hours. He choses the latter.
• Sex for Solace: While talking to a baby she is taking care of, Doc Moon reveals that she spent the night with River after he killed his son.
  And another time, next to a frozen lake, I slept with a black man who was very, very sad.
• Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction: River Bass is a solid type two, borderlining on type three in his worst moments. However, since his reconciliation with Batsheba, he has been shown to try and better himself.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Doc Moon stops River from shooting himself after killing Samson.
• Tongue Trauma: River ends up killing the dog who is attacking him by putting his fingers up its nose to force its mouth open, grabbing its tongue, and ripping it out.
• White Sheep: Of all the members of the Defoe family, Cameron is the only one who does not try to take advantage of others, never lies, does not want River dead and commits no crime. He explains that he still loved his brothers and has fond memories of their time spent together, but still understand what kind of person they were deep down (seeing perfectly both the good and the bad in them) and harbors no ill will towards their killer, only wishing to meet him and have a talk with him. Of course, he does not survive for very long.