Jonah Hex (2005 Series) #1

October 31, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Giving the Devil His Due

The ugliest gun in the west is back – and he’s got a new mission.

Writers: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Luke Ross
Colors: Jason Keith
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Frank Quietly
Publisher: DC Comics

Like last week’s Loveless, the new Jonah Hex #1 seems to be another entry in DC’s attempt to resurrect the western genre. Unlike Loveless, though, this is a strong, entertaining comic that may just stand a chance to bring that genre back strong.

Jonah Hex, the gruesome rider of the range, takes on another job this issue – he is charged with finding a missing boy, kidnapped from his home. The hunt leads him to a traveling show, replete with freaks and brutal sport. Although the ending isn’t really hard to figure out – Gray and Palmiotti don’t leave much room for doubt as to what happened to the boy long before Hex finds out – it doesn’t bore you either. This isn’t a mystery story, after all, it’s a western, and piecing together the clues isn’t nearly as important to the story as watching Hex at work. He’s a hard, cold man, and his methods are as nasty as those of the people he hunts, and by the end of this done-in-one premiere issue, he’s left a man pondering what he always thought was his purpose in life.

The issue isn’t perfect — there’s a narration at the beginning and end that’s clearly intended to mimic an old-fashioned western yarn. The writers do their job almost too well, the purple prose gets a bit tedious, but fortunately the narrator is mostly absent. If you can get through the heavy narration on the first two pages, you can get down to really enjoying the story as it unfolds.

Luke Ross’s artwork is spot-on. He’s got a good handle on Hex and the freaks, and does beautiful women as well. On some pages, Hex’s “good” side is perhaps a little too pretty – even the half of his face that isn’t disfigured should look pretty rough and angry – but different angles work better. Jason Keith’s colors are absolutely perfect. It looks like he employs a painted color technique similar to Richard Isanove, and in fact the artwork in this series very much evokes Marvel’s Origin miniseries from a few years back, and I mean that as a compliment.

Is the western back? Well, that really comes down to you – will you buy it, will you enjoy it? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I certainly intend to keep an eye on this title. The Gray/Palmiotti writing team is really rising in my estimation, with their fantastic work on Hawkman, the underappreciated Twilight Experiment and the late, lamented Monolith series – this looks like another strong entry from the two of them.

Rating: 8/10

Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #1

March 25, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good

To protect Wonderland, Alice sets out to the other realms of the imagination.

Writers: Mike S. Miller & Ben Avery
Art: Hector Sevilla
Colors: Simon Bork, David Curiel & Ulises Arreola
Letters: Bill Tortolini
Editor: Mike S. Miller
Cover Art: Hector Sevilla
Publisher: Image Comics/Alias Enterprises/DB Pro

This book really succeeded for me. It’s a fabulous mixture of fairy tales and great children’s literature, a sort of younger cousin to the likes of Fables or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, throwing together all of the fantastic characters we read about as children into one book together.

Alice is a young girl from another world who was mysteriously transported to Wonderland and raised until she was the right hand of the Queen of Hearts. As a war hero, Alice is much beloved, but troubled by dreams of her former life, and by words of disturbances in neighboring fairylands. She sets out to travel from land to land to find the truth behind the disturbance.

In a neighboring land, a young pirate lad named Jim Hawkins is tossed from his ship by a captain who fears he’ll one day take command away from him. Jim and his mate,, a little wooden boy who once was human, decide to set out on an adventure of their own.

This issue is largely set-up. We’re introduced to many of our main characters and many of the fantastic settings this title will use, but things aren’t brought together yet. Alice is on her own, and while Jim and Pinocchio are together, they’re all worlds apart.

I love children’s fantasy. I think the worlds of L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll are among the richest and most incredible ever dreamed by the human mind, and it’s incredibly exciting for me to see all of them pulled together in a title that’s written this well.

And the art, by creator Hector Sevilla is absolutely outstanding. There is a little of a Manga feel to it, particularly in the clothing designs, but it’s not so much as to turn off someone who doesn’t care for that style. Mostly, it’s just a very well-drawn, well-designed and beautifully colored fantasy comic book.

I picked this up because, as I said, I love children’s fantasy, and because I’ve become quite a fan of Mike Miller. I’m not disappointed in the least. This gives me a lot of hope for Alias’s future projects, both through Image and on their own.

Rating: 8/10

She-Hulk (2004 Series) #1

March 15, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Girl From Gamma Gamma Gamma

When the She-Hulk’s hard-partying ways get out of hand, how do her fellow Avengers deal with it?

Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Juan Bobillo
Inks: Marcelo Sosa
Colors: Chris Chuckry
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Adi Granov
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Although this first issue of the She-Hulk’s new ongoing series (her third go-around, by my count) doesn’t quite live up to the sheer enjoyment of John Byrne’s run, writer Dan Slott writes an amusing story about the classic good girl who, when she rebels, goes way overboard. The difference, of course, is that this particular good girl has gamma-irradiated muscles and green skin.

This issue is basically a quick character study of Slott’s She-Hulk, setting pieces in motion for the real story, which we get to in the last few pages. This is girl who hooks up with models, makes ten times as much work for Jarvis at Avengers Mansion and really behaves like she’s running away from herself because she doesn’t know who she is. This isn’t exactly an original story, even for She-Hulk, but Slott manages to inject a good bit of humor and satire into the story as he goes along, and that makes a somewhat rehashed message a lot easier to swallow.

This She-Hulk, surprisingly enough, not only has the ability to restore her human form of Jennifer Walters, but has been known to spontaneously switch back and forth in her sleep. This is a new development for the character, as previous incarnations (since her “savage” days, anyway) have kept her in the seven-foot-tall green form all the time. It’s not a big problem, though, since her more famous cousin has frequently gone through mutations between the Hulk and Bruce Banner and what triggered the transformations. Furthermore, giving her the ability to transform at will is not at all arbitrary, but suits the story that gets set up at the end perfectly.

Juan Bobillo, the penciller, is a new name to me, and I’m back-and-forth on his contributions to the title. He does action scenes very well, as evidenced by an outer space battle between the Avengers and Blizzard. The problem is, action is a scarce commodity in this book, which is set up more like an office comedy, and Bobillo’s style doesn’t work as well there. A lot of his “everyday” poses are awkward, his rendition of Captain America’s costume looks really hokey, and all of his “beautiful people,” male and female, have almost the same face with a microscopic nose and no chin.

This is a funny book that fans of the character will probably take to. The only problem is, it’s been so long since this character really got a spotlight (save for a recent Avengers story arc) that I worry there may not be enough She-Hulk fans to sustain the title. This is a book that will need to grab new readers in order to survive. I just hope it can do that.

Rating: 7/10