Scalped is an American comic book by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera. The main focus is on Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse, who left the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation as a teenager, only to come back, violently resisting all attempts at reconciling with his mother, and joining up with the police force.
Only the police force is full of dirty cops and run by Chief Red Crow, a vicious crime boss. And the Reservation (or The Rez) is a complete drug-addled gang-run hellhole.
Scalped provides examples of:
- Anguished Declaration of Love Shunka gives one to Red Crow right before Red Crow shoots him.
- Anti-Hero: Dash. He has all the tools to be a pretty great action hero (cool name, cool signature weapon, muscle, martial arts skills), but is constantly held back by his personal problems with addiction, paranoia, and his own identity.
- Anti-Villain: Red Crow. He genuinely wants to do right for the Rez and seemed to really love Dash's mother. He is also willing to do absolutely anything to preserve his power over the reservation, from blackmail to murder and all points between.
- Anyone Can Die: Expect at least one major death per story arc.
- Subverted in the finale, though. It would seem fitting for such a violent and tragic story to end with the death of either or both of its two main protagonists, Dash and Red Crow. But surprisingly enough, they both survive. There's even a fake-out funeral scene, where we are lead to assume Red Crow has died, until we find out it's someone else in the coffin.
- Artistic License – Law Enforcement: Dashiell is an FBI agent yet he doesn’t have a college degree. In real life, anyone aspiring to become an FBI special agent must possess at least a Bachelor’s degree.
- Ax-Crazy: A lot of people verge into this on occasion but Catcher takes the cake. Shunka briefly verges into this at the conclusion of his character arc.
- Bad Boss: Cross him and Red Crow will be this. Nitz, on the other hand? Working for him SUCKS.
- Badges and Dog Tags: Prior to joining the FBI, Dashiell Bad Horse served in the U.S. Army and saw combat while on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
- The Beard: Shunka hires prostitutes to convince Red Crow he's straight.
- Benevolent Boss: Red Crow can be this at times.
- Berserk Button: Diesel does not like his very white, non-Indian-looking skin tone pointed out to him.
- Dash insulting his mother's honor or implying Red Crow had her killed is this for Red Crow.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Maggie Rock Medicine is notably more plump than many women in the series and more so after the Time Skip. That doesn't seem to bother Dash at all, as he starts a relationship with her when he returns to Prairie Rose, eventually leaving her pregnant.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between, of all people Shunka and Red Crow. Shunka plants a huge kiss on his boss after being exiled from his service, leaving Red Crow stunned. In the moment it seems like a Kiss of Death, but Shunka is merely finally expressing his feelings.
- Bittersweet Ending: Very close to being a Downer Ending as the series ends with the old generation largely being replaced with the new. Dino Poor Bear is corrupted by his experiences and becomes the new gang leader who may be more ruthless than Red Crow, Nitz and Catcher die in a fire that burns the casino, and Dash, though coming to terms with himself and the reservation, leaves for an unknown destination, unknowingly leaving Maggie as a single mother. On the other hand, Carol becomes Granny Poor Bear's replacement as the mother figure for the reservation, Red Crow leaves his old life behind lives on the land (effectively being a much saner version of Catcher), and Officer Falls Down looks to be a more effective Sheriff than his predecessor.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Between Johnny Tongue, Sheriff Karnow, and Agent Nitz; Red Crow might actually be the most moral authority figure in the book.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Subverted Shunka is set to turn on Red Crow, but at the last second turns on his compatriot assassins. He saves Red Crow, but Red Crow's trust in him is gone forever.
- Broken Pedestal: Subverted with the two agents who were scalped. Nitz practically views them as saints who helped him immensely as a young agent but his ex wife notes they were terrible people who even their wives aren't sad they're dead. Nitz is fully aware of this, having participated in one of their murders of a suspect who got off but doesn't care, still seeing their bond as agents as the most important thing.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: This comic loves to take a sledgehammer to some of The Western genre's favorite character types.
- Dashiell Bad Horse is a gritty Anti-Hero and Cowboy Cop, back on the rez in an effort to bring Lincoln Red Crow to justice for murder. We also get to see he's a mess of trauma and addiction problems, constantly paranoid that he's going to be discovered and murdered by Red Crow's crew. His antics as a tribal officer also tend to cause friction with the locals and his own FBI handler, and ultimately cause his downfall When he kills Diesel and the body is eventually discovered.
- Baylis Earl Nitz is the Determinator, working tirelessly to avenge two federal agents he believes were killed by Red Crow. Determination isn't a good quality when it leads to outright obsession; Nitz wastes years of his life and untold man hours and taxpayer dollars trying to pin any murder on Red Crow, pisses away his own career, alienates his family, and has absolutely zero life outside of revenge. He even ends up being completely wrong, and his determination leads to him burning alive in the casino as he throttles the real murderer in the middle of a fire.
- Catcher is a Cloudcuckoolander, and in a classic Western would be a Cool Old Guy and source of humorous Native wisdom. In this one he's delusional and extremely dangerous, best shown when he murders Gina Bad Horse and after the Time Skip when he hunts down and kills the former tribal elders and their families.
- Lincoln Red Crow is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who will do absolutely whatever dirty deeds needed to provide salvation to the rez and his people. This leads to him becoming a dangerous gangster who kills, bribes, or destroys almost everyone he encounters and loses him Carol, his only family. He never finds peace until he finally gives up his goal and becomes a solitary hermit living off the land.
- Dirty Cop: Every agent or cop but Falls Down.
- The Dragon: Shunka for Red Crow.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Stone cold killers Red Crow and Shunka are horrified by Mr. Brass.
- Eye Scream: Mr. Brass is fond of removing eyes. He does this to Dino Poor Bear.
- Shunka survives the first headshot Red Crow gives him with a big bullethole where his left eye used to be. He doesn't survive the second.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Man, Sheriff Karnow loves to pretend he's a hardcore badass Vietnam vet who loves John Wayne films. When he gets his dates wrong in regards to when the Green Berets (his supposed unit) came back from combat and notes High Noon as among his favorite Wayne films, Dash calls him out on it.
- Later it even affected Karnow as he started to show a sense of his own failures, especially with the arrival of a US marshal who is actually a decorated Vietnam veteran and give him "The Reason You Suck" Speech on his conduct. Later, he explained to one of his deputies that he never served in Vietnam at all.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Dino Poor Bear goes from a janitor at the casino to Red Crow's replacement as gang leader by the end of the series.
- Evil vs. Evil: Red Crow vs. Nitz with Dash caught in the middle.
- Gayngster: Shunka.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: But Carol isn't a very good girl.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: When Granny gives Red Crow Gina's soul bundle, he legitimately tries to be a good man so that her soul can find peace. However, Red Crow soon realizes that the Hmongs will walk all over him if he is not free to be heavy handed and returns the bundle back to Granny after he kills two Hmongs and takes Mr. Brass captive.
- The Hermit: Catcher. But Red Crow becomes this at the end
- Hidden Depths: Everyone, but especially Red Crow, Carol and Shunka.
- Insistent Terminology: Dare point out his caucasian skin, or hell just say anything to the contrary to him, and Diesel will scream in your face that he's "one sixteenth, kickapoo!"
- Kick the Dog: Lots and lots of people get these moments. Diesel slaughtering Red Crow's dogs is one...and Agent Nitz gets dozens of asshole moments.
- Knight Templar: Nitz has many of the methods of one but ultimately his quest to bring Red Crow down isn't at all about justice but simple revenge for the death of two agents decades ago that Red Crow didn't even kill.
- Lightning Bruiser: Dash's specialty, using his quickness and fisticuffs to take down multiple opponents various times.
- Diesel is built like a brick shithouse and moves fast, even able to outfight Dash in a martial arts brawl.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A great deal of visions. It's left unclear if there are truly spirits. Catcher monologues how he unsure at times if he is 'prophet or madman.' Harder to explain logically is when Officer Falls Down is guided out of a boobytrapped cave by a fox heavily implied to be Gina's spirit.
- Ms. Fanservice: Deconstructed with Carol. She's a very beautiful, curvaceous woman and is often shown either fully naked or close enough, but it's also shown that her drug habit and sex addiction are making her miserable. Eventually she grows out of both with Granny Poor Bear's help and becomes responsible and mature, dressing more conservatively as she does.
- Native American Casino: The series is set in a casino rez in South Dakota owned by Red Crow.
- Necessarily Evil: Red Crow sees himself as this, willing to pay any price to make life better for his people.
- Neglected Rez: The Prairie Rose Indian Reservation where the comic is primarily set is a complete drug-addled gang-run hellhole, riddled with crime, drug and alcohol addiction, and poverty.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lawrence Belcourt for Leonard Peltier
, an AIM activist imprisoned for killing two FBI agents. Peltier's book Prison Writings is seen on Lawrence's bookshelf. - No Delays for the Wicked: Averted by Red Crow and his casino, which opens early in the series. Even after his "success" of getting the damn thing up and running, life as the boss is a constant stream of interruptions and complications.
- No Ending: Intentionally invoked for the fate of Lawrence Belcourt. He requests that Red Crow no longer pay for his protection in jail. Whether he is murdered at some point in the future or dies of old age is left to the imagination of the reader.
- One-Man Army: Dash is described by his fellow cops as a "one man SWAT team".
- Out of Focus: Dash appears very little "The Gravel in Your Guts," focusing more on Red Crow's issues with the Hmongs. "High Lonesome" immediately follows where Dash plays an important role but isn't really the focus of most of the issues.
- Pet the Dog: A lot of people get these moments sometimes. Red Crow giving Dino Poor Bear money to escape the Reservation, his occasional kindness towards Dash and his literal pet the dog bits reinforce he's a man who, as he says wishes for the day when his dreams outnumber his regrets.
- Porn Stash: Nitz reads so much porn, it's almost a running gag.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Quite a few, generally when silencers are used.
- Properly Paranoid: Shunka hates Dash and is convinced he's lying to Red Crow. He's right.
- Rasputinian Death: Catcher gets what's coming to him in the final issue. Shot to pieces by Dash and Red Crow, beaten to a pulp by Dash, has his hand chopped off by Red Crow's tomahawk, and finally strangled by Nitz while both of them burn to death.
- Really Gets Around: Carol, originally, before character development. She has many sex partners all around Prairie Rose, and usually uses them to get drugs.
- Redemption Equals Death: Karnow, trying to atone for his own misdeeds (not the least of which being his lies about his past), wages war on Rath's drug gang and dies doing so, though he fatally cripples the Nebraska-based crime organization along the way
- The Reveal: The murderer of the FBI agents that Lawrence went down for? Catcher is the one who murdered the two FBI agents thirty years ago. He is also Gina Bad Horse's murderer. It's revealed surprisingly early in the series.
- Spiteful Spit: Maggie Rock Medicine introduces herself to Dash by spitting in his face, enraged at his presence because he works for Red Crow. It makes it pretty funny when she eventually becomes Dash's lover.
- Stalker with a Crush: Catcher for Gina.
- Start of Darkness: We see Red Crow and Catcher's years ago. Diesel's backstory also shows his. In many way, this story is one for Dino Poor Bear, who becomes a brutal new crime lord of the Rez at the end.
- Sleazy Politician: All over the place.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very cynical.
- The Sociopath: Diesel has shades of this, but Mr. Brass is this to a terrifying degree. Also, Wesley Willeford who gets great joy out of lying to everyone and goes out of his way to manipulate and degrade a hooker that he sleeps with on multiple nights before coldly murdering her in bed.
- Stealth Pun: Catcher is eventually revealed as The Mole sent by the FBI to keep tabs on Red Crow and Gina after he served in Vietnam. He ends up entangled in Lakota mysticism and Native civil rights and turns on his handlers... so you could say he "went Native."
- Taking You with Me: As Wade slowly dies from a bullet wound, Catcher confesses he murdered Gina. Wade responds by nearly strangling him before he succumbs. Karmically fitting, Nitz finishes the job in the burning casino, literally taking Catcher with him.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The death of Diesel Engine. Dash shoots him in the legs, then shoots all his fingers off, then his elbows, his groin... and he only puts a bullet in his brain at the very end. All this because Diesel killed a kid Dash had taken under his wing when the kid came shooting at Diesel for murdering his mother.
- Torture Technician: Mr. Brass. He never asks a question twice.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Johnny Tongue and his Hmong gangsters.
- Time Skip: The final arc takes place eight months after [Dash arrests Red Crow.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Dino Poor Bear has no issues trying to murder Red Crow later on, despite Red crow having given him 2000 dollars solely to help him and his daughter.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Believe it or not, Diesel.
- Would Hurt a Child: Diesel.
- Wretched Hive: The Rez. There's very little for the denizens to do other than get drunk, high and start fights. Red Crow's apparent desire to improve the cesspit of a reservation he's nominally in charge of is a major part of his character.
- Yellow Peril: The only Asian characters in the story are the Hmong gangsters and Mr. Brass
