The alternate timeline of East of West shows the United States divided into six different, distinct nations, each with its own form of government and ideology. They’ve been living in some sort of detente with each nation having believers in the Apocalyptic Message.
Now it looks like that detente is over and war is declared.
As Death, the gunslinger, continues his quest for his son by a descendant of the original Chairman Mao, the six nations gather for talks, and when the newest Mao accuses the president of the Union of plotting the death of everyone out of belief in the Message, things escalate and some people end up dead.
The fact that the Union President is actually all the things Mao said is immaterial. Heck, she set one of the bombs off herself.
But the fact is that the other three Horsemen, still in the form of children, are looking to get to Death’s son before he does. As it is, the boy has some secrets of his own that may very well lead to the end times that it is uncertain anyone wants to avoid at this point.
Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s very weird Western continues to throw curveballs into an increasingly complex setting. The native Americans of the Endless Nation step out into the spotlight for a bit this time, showing that while their nation has the smallest population due to some rather extreme views on reproduction, they are also the most technologically advanced and not above selling weapons to other nations in the group. But there’s some dark magic running through the center of the country, and now a pale little boy whose never been on his own is out, and his one companion may not be as honest as the boy assumes. Things are getting scary out there.  Nine out of ten sniper dogs.
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