Jonah Hex (2005 Series) #4

February 5, 2006

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Time I Almost Died

Jonah Hex has roped up another varmint… but has he condemned an innocent man to death?

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Art: Luke Ross
Colors: Jason Keith & Rob Schwager
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Howard Chaykin & Michelle Madsen
Publisher: DC Comics

Those of you who read my Everything But Imaginary column at Comixtreme.com know that I picked Jonah Hex for the 2005 “New Beginning” award – the best relaunch of an old property for the entire year. I stand by it with this issue.

Jonah Hex, the sharp-shootin’ist bounty hunter the DC Universe has ever seen, takes another job this issue, to capture a man accused of raping a mute girl. He catches the fugitive quite easily and drops him off for his hanging… but soon finds evidence that the man he brought in may be innocent.

This issue really exemplifies the two most important character traits of Jonah Hex – he’s hard as nails and (to borrow a term) the best there is at what he does, but at the same time, he’s got a sense of honor and justice. In other words, he don’t mind killin’ a man, but he ain’t gonna kill someone what don’t deserve it. And that goes for letting somebody else kill someone that he brought in.

The book doesn’t carry a “mature readers” label, but that doesn’t mean the writers shy away from some of the harsher depictions of life in the old west. People die, necks are snapped, blood is shed and the truth about what happened to the rape victim is actually pretty horrible. It’s not graphic, but it’s just as effective for what it does give you, because we all know enough to supply the rest.

Luke Ross does a very strong job with the art and layouts, and Jason Keith and Rob Schwager finish off the job with incredible color work. Colorists have long been the unsung heroes of comic book art, but these days their contribution is more important that ever before – for all of Ross’s strengths, the comic would be lost without good colors. Fortunately, it has great colors.

This has quickly become one of the best comics DC is putting out, which is pretty impressive for a comic without a single cape or yard of spandex to be seen. It’s a wonderful read, and if you like westerns even a little, this should be in your pull folder every month.

Rating: 9/10

Justice League Unlimited #19

February 27, 2006

Quick Rating: Great
Title: The Justice Rangers Ride Again!

When a time-travel mishap sends three Leaguers back in time, they have to race to fix the timestream!

Writer: Adam Beechen
Pencils: Gordon Purcell
Inks: Bob Petrecca
Colors: Heroic Age
Letters: Travis Lanham
Editor: Michael Wright
Cover Art: Ty Templeton
Publisher: DC Comics/Johnny DC

As Wonder Woman, Elongated Man and Vigilante go through trophies of the Justice League’s past adventures, Vigilante accidentally activates a time-travel device that sends them back to the old west where they encounter three of DC’s classic western heroes – Jonah Hex, El Diablo and Bat Lash. To get home, the heroes will have to protect an important young man from an attempt on his life by a villain from the future.

Justice League Unlimited, even in its final season (stupid Cartoon Network) continues to be one of the single greatest superhero television shows ever made, and Adam Beechen has done a really great job capturing the feel of that show in this comic. Each issue is stand-alone, but features a story that would fit in quite nicely with the chronology of the TV series, and the way he goes beyond the League itself to drawn in other parts of the DC Universe makes it even more fun. This version of the old west, of course, is a great deal more sanitized than that you would find in Jonah Hex, but in a comic aimed at kids, that’s an acceptable change. The sheer cool factor of seeing Elongated Man and Hex fighting bad guys in robot suits more than makes up for that.

Gordon Purcell’s artwork, as always, is spot-on. Each panel looks like it could have been clipped directly from the TV show, but he doesn’t sacrifice any of the storytelling language unique to the comic book form.

I really, really love this comic book, it’s the only Johnny DC title I buy every month, and even though the television series is coming to an end, I hope DC keeps this title alive for a very long time.

Rating: 9/10

Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1

January 15, 2006

Quick Rating: Great
Collects: Jonah Hex stories from All-Star Western #10-12 & Weird Western Tales #13, 14, 16-33 and assorted western stories from All-Star Western #2-8.

Witness the birth of DC’s most famous gunslinger!

Writers: John Albano, Arnold Drake, Michael Fleisher & Robert Kanigher
Art: Tony Dezuniga, Noly Panaligan, Doug Wildey, George Moliterni, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Gil Kane & Jim Aparo
Cover Art: Luis Dominguez
Publisher: DC Comics

One project of Marvel’s that I’ve long appreciated are their “Essential” trade paperbacks – inexpensive volumes collecting big chunks of a comic book or a character’s appearances. I was very happy when DC recently began a similar program with the “Showcase Presents” series, and particularly happy that they chose to give one of the launch titles in the program to their western warrior Jonah Hex.

Now it’s obvious that Hex got a nod because he’s got a new ongoing series, but I don’t care, I’m just glad that he did. I’ve often enjoyed the character when he’s shown up in other comics (everything from DC Challenge to Superman and Batman: Generations 3), but I’ve never gotten to read very many of his solo adventures. Thanks to this series, it’s now simple to follow his legend from the very beginning. Jonah Hex first appears on the scene in All-Star Western #10 (1972) as a scarred, world-weary warrior, a gun for hire that comes into town to collect the bounty on a pair of dead raiders, then stays to gun down a few more. He’s a cold man, one who has no qualms about taking his enemy’s life and then taking the money for doing it. The character is a cipher, but one that immediately intrigues you.

Over the course of the next 400-plus pages of this volume, you learn more and more about Hex – his origins as a Confederate officer who pulls himself out of the Civil War after his conscience tells him he’s on the wrong side, but refuses to fight against his old friends – then gets branded a traitor anyway. We watch him face up to his past, forge an alliance with an Indian, take up arms against an old friend and gun down many, many evildoers.

It would not be unreasonable to refer to these stories as a western in its purest form. Although restrained in terms of language and violence by the Comics Code of the 1970s, these stories don’t shy away from the harsh life of a western bounty hunter or from touching on issues like racism and slavery. It’s as hard-boiled as a comic book could get at the time, and the result is some of the finest western comics you’ve ever read. Plus, throwing in art by the likes of Tony Dezuniga and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, you’ve got a book that looks as good as it reads. There are some stories where the artwork seems to suffer a little from lack of color, where the black-and-white ink work comes across a little sketchy or muddy, but you still get an enormous bang for your buck.

Instead of filling all 526 pages with Jonah Hex stories, though, DC chose to cap off this book with a few other assorted western tales. First is the four-part Outlaw story by Robert Kanigher, with art by Dezuniga, Gil Kane and Jim Aparo. This is a passable story about a young man whose own father begins to hunt him down, believing him to be a criminal. The story has a lot of plotholes, unfortunately, and ends quite abruptly, making it appear as though DC realized the story wasn’t working and wrapped it up. There’s also two tales of a female Billy the Kid (another concept that wore thin quickly) and a one-shot story, “The Night of the Snake,” that’s about as harsh as any of Hex’s adventures. I must confess, I’m not sure why they filled out this volume with these other stories – there’s plenty of Jonah Hex left and none of these stories, with the possible exception of “Night of the Snake,” are particularly memorable.

But the main feature, the dozens of Jonah Hex stories, more than make this volume worth the cash. By the 1970s the western comic was on its way out, but Jonah Hex proved popular enough to eventually graduate from a spot in this title to his own ongoing series, which lasted 92 issues and one special (followed by 18 issues of a science fiction follow-up, where Hex was transported to a post-Apocalyptic future). If you’ve tried and enjoyed the new Jonah Hex series (as I have), this book is a must-read – and I for one certainly hope that a second volume comes out soon, because there’s plenty of Jonah Hex left to tell.

Rating: 9/10

(2010 Note: To my knowledge, DC has not yet scheduled a Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 2. What’s up with that?)