Scalped #4

Vertigo's gritty crime series Scalped hits its fourth issue with a cover by Jock that sets a brooding, blue-toned mood — a cigar-smoking older man looms large in the background, while a shaven-headed figure grips a pistol in the foreground alongside a dark-haired woman, with a carved totem standing between them. Written by Jason Aaron with art by R. M. Guéra, this chapter opens "Hoka Hey, Part One," promising the kind of tense, reservation-noir storytelling that made this series stand out from the Vertigo lineup in 2007. If you've been following the prairie shadows and moral compromises of this world, issue four looks ready to deepen them considerably.