Review: Bordertown #4

DC/Vertigo“s Bordertown #4 proves once again that identity matters in storytelling and it matters even more in the visual medium of comics and graphic narratives. Border theory is its own field of study with hundreds (if not thousands) of published scholarly articles and scores of books. One key take away from the academic world is that even though we often think of borders as rigid geographical delineations, borders are actually just as much socially constructed as they appear to be regionally defined. That is, people make borders (or, rather governments do) and the meaning that we attach to the lines that divide and divvy up the world in which we live is often informed by culture, nationalism, history, and some of the most entrenched forms of xenophobia.

If this seems like too much for a monthly comic then consider crossing over into the world that Eric Esquivel, Ramon Villalobos, and Tamra Bonvillain have built. An eclectic group of teenagers and an otherworldly little monster have formed a team of sorts. Their mission ”“ which is coming more into focus through Bordertown #4 ”“ is to figure out the origins of their little monster friend and to decode the ways in which the greatest fears of humanity are situated in the psychology of hate based on the racial and/or alien other.

The borders in Bordertown are manifold. There“s the border with which we are all familiar. The “border town”“ is a small town right on the Mexico/US border and as such it contains all of the tensions and racial fears of our current anti-immigration malaise. But there are also border lines defined in the complex identity politics of each main character. These teens are a nationally hyphenated fever dream ”“ Irish-Mexican-American, Mexican-Brazilian American, illegal, undocumented, Latina . . . The racial, social, and regional identifiers proliferate, but ultimately these quirky teens are just like us. They are curious about their world, but fearful of the hate that seems to dominate it.

Maybe the most important border in border town isn“t about identity or country; it isn“t about who we hate or why we hate. The most significant border in border town is between life and death ”“ the border that separates this world from the netherworld. This is the border that has been breached in Bordertown #4 and the invasion that ensues will be the challenge that defines this series and irrevocably reshapes the lives of these super cool teen-aged protagonists and their adorable little monster sidekick. 4/5.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Eric M Esquivel (A/CA) Ramon Villalobos