Spoilers!
In the chasm between dreams and regrets is the choices we make. That line is inspired by the antagonist, Lincoln Red Crow, of Jason Aaron’s phenomenally gritty and gristle 2007 series, Scalped, through Vertigo Comics. Continuing my “g” words here, the grimy and grim artwork comes from R. M. Guéra. I read and reviewed the first two issues, Indian Country and Hoka Hey in August 2025. Now, I’ve read the next in the series, Casino Boogie. Red Crow is the mob boss leader of the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation, who has left a trail of blood and tears in his wake. In this edition, he’s on the cusp of opening his casino at long last and he wants everything to go swimmingly and profitably. On the first count at least, instead, all hell is breaking loose as one might expect. Red Crow, reflecting upon all the people he’s harmed and hoping they won’t have died in vain, thinks, “And for the first time in far too long … my dreams might again outnumber my regrets.” Guéra gives a red hue to the panel that brings Aaron’s striking inner monologue to bear. As with the first two volumes, I’m still heavily invested in this raw story with its unflinching dialogue, action set pieces, and examination of the underbelly of reservations.
Dash, or Bad Horse, the FBI agent undercover as one of Red Crow’s crew — the front-facing aspect of it is as a sheriff’s deputy — is next tasked by Red Crow with bringing someone known as Diesel to him. Diesel, whose real name is Britt Fillenworth, grew up on a reservation and has always wanted to be a bad-ass “Indian warrior.” Unfortunately for him, he is only one-sixteenth Native American, which causes him and his mother to be kicked off the reservation. Even so, in the present day, Diesel has taken up the mantle left behind by Gina — Dash’s activist mother who has been trying to stop Red Crow and the encroachment of the government (the precipitating event of everything is two FBI agents being gunned down by Gina’s protest group in the 1970s, for which Red Crow let a younger protester, Lawrence, take the fall for, and which Agent Nitz all these years later is still trying to avenge through Dash, ironically) — by forming the “Red Power” group. Dash has someone on the inside of the group informing for him, which allows him to capture Diesel and bring him to Red Crow. However, Diesel is able to escape when someone known as Catcher intervenes. I believe he was only a vague shadow presence in the previous volumes. But he’s someone who loves Gina and is trying to track her down and thinks Red Crow has the answer. He’s also been having visions of something bad happening to her.
Later, Gina is meeting with Lawrence in prison, much to the chagrin of his sister who blames her for his predicament, and we get a flashback to the night the two FBI agents were killed. It sure seems to me like Gina was the one insistent upon going through with killing them, whereas Lawrence was trying to stop her. I love how the final three panels of this flashback go: Gina holds the gun and angrily yells, “I’m not running away anymore!”; her finger tightens on the trigger; and a black crow is seen in the trees.
Before I continue, though, we have to talk about Dino. Dino is a young kid of the Poor Bear tribe, who works as a janitor at Red Crow’s casino and as a general fix-it-man for his family, which consists of his old grandma, “fat uncle,” who is amputated at the knees due to diabetes, his aunt, and his “mentally retarded” brother. He dreams of fixing up his car, turning it into a hot rod, and bailing from the reservation to pick up girls in California. Even when he’s given thousands of dollars from Red Crow, it seems like he’s about to do just that and instead, he’s ready to spend it on pancakes and alcohol with his friends. What was a great touch from Aaron and Guéra in this chapter was that they used yellow arrows to point out real issues on the reservation: the brother’s condition as a result of fetal alcohol syndrome; the aforementioned uncle’s diabetes; the various levels of education of his friends from middle school dropout to high school dropout; and even the soup Dino is sick of his grandmother making, “cow intestines and wild turnips.” But the other reason Dino is introduced to the story is that him and his friends are the ones who make the cliffhanger discovery at the end of this volume.
So, with the previous two volumes I read, there were two big reveals: that Dash was operating for the FBI, and his girlfriend, Carol, was killed and left in the desert. What’s fascinating from a creative direction standpoint is that Aaron essentially does both story beats again here, and it works! First, it’s revealed that Agent Nitz has a second man on the inside of the reservation, Britt! No wonder he was able to hold his own so well in a hand-to-hand fight with Dash. Secondly, Dino and his friends come upon the body of Gina at the end of the book. Oof. I think both these similar story beats work again because of all the character work, plotting, backstory, and context Aaron added in this volume. We learn so much more about Red Crow, Gina and Lawrence, the reservation itself, Catcher, and of course, Britt.
Aaron and Guéra have created such an engrossing, dynamic world where anything can and does happen, and I feel like they surely still have a few more surprises they’re holding back for future issues. I can’t wait to read those!
Milam's Musings 