THE HORSEMAN is easily the best Rippaverse book.

Dixon and Bennett should be given a budget and free reign at this point.

I just got my copy of THE HORSEMAN from Rippaverse and I’m about to do my video out in the shop. This is an awesome book and out of the six that I now own, THE HORSEMAN is hands-down the best, and right up my alley.

Ground-Level is Best

I love characters like Daredevil and Punisher because they start from a stat line of zero and have to work their way up with some modicum of credibility. In this case, you’ve got a character who could conceivably live in your town, eat demigod levels of protein, and run around at night fighting organized crime. Credibility enhances immersion and I love that in a story. I also like that his stakes are relatable; his sister is a widow and a single mom, and she’s disabled, so Hector’s got two extra mouths to feed while also out busting heads after hours. Economic strife is something we can all identify with.

Max Out In One Area…

Hector Caballero is a former Army Ranger (that’s all we get, I assume another volume can show us flashbacks to his backstory) so he knows how to fight, and he uses terrain to his advantage in addition to his tank status. Also, this might not seem too on-the-nose if you don’t speak Spanish, but “caballero” literally means “horseman.” It’s also used to mean “knight.” It is an actual surname among Latinos so it works very well for this.

Hector mentions Ranger school once or twice so you know he got his degree in Stomping Necks 101. He’s good with different weapons and different environs and he can fight smart, which brings me to my next point.

…Screw Up In Others

Just because he’s great at this aspect of the job doesn’t mean that he’s great at everything. In fact he screws up pretty much right out of the gate after moving to Texas, and ends up blackmailed by two crooked cops. He was already too well-known in his last town and he had to move to protect his sister and his nephew. If money problems are relatable, so are screwups, though we don’t like to admit that part very much. Screwing up does create conflict though, and conflict is a great story driver.

So the brunt of the story is about Hector trying to dig himself out of the hole he’s in without causing more problems for his loved ones.

Villains As Colorful As Heroes

As far as the baddies, Hector runs through the uniformed henchmen with ease, so the Big Bad calls up the Big Guns. I didn’t have “Superpowered Nazi Bikers” on my bingo card, etc etc. These two characters are bonkers, and provide a strong aesthetic counterbalance to The Horseman. They don’t operate undercover, he does. They have superpowers, he doesn’t. They’re tanks, while he takes damage, and has to play it smart. There’s a great mix of smash-up action as well as tactics, and that’s what you’d want from an Army Ranger like Hector.

No spoilers for the close of this book, suffice it to say that I’m giving this one a hard and fast five stars, and without any qualifiers, this is the absolute best Rippaverse book so far. I liked Isom and Yaira, I liked Goodyng, I loved Alphacore, and Horseman tops them all. The ending is very satisfying and I really, really freaking want Dixon and Bennett to give us another one.