What with the soon to be arriving Jonah Hex film it seemed like a good point to stop and take stock of the current DC comics series.
Frank Quitley's Jonah Hex
In case you don’t know Jonah Hex is a Western character in the DC Comics Universe. To be more accurate he is is hideously scarred bounty hunter, an ace killing machine and one of the meanest bastards in the Wild West. His seeming lack of morals, coupled with a relentless way he revenges himself on people who have wronged him make him more an prophet of death than just another gun-slinger. However Jonah occasionally drops his hard exterior to right the odd wrong without payment which shows some sort of vulnerability underneath that mutilated face.
Hex was the creation of writer John Albano and Tony DeZuniga in the early seventies. Since his creation he’s fought his way through the West, been exiled in a post-apocalyptic future and fought zombie cowboys. The recent re-launch of Jonah Hex puts him more or less back into his old stomping ground of the dusty trail and smokey saloons.
The current series written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by a rotating cast of artistic talents, is mostly composed of one issue stories, although as the comic progresses more multi-part plots appear. This format though gives the writers great freedom in writing tales set in such far flung locations asdusty Mexico, swampy Louisiana or in the frozen wastes of Canada, but also allows them to tell tales from all periods of Hex’s life. While not tied into the increasingly complex DC continuity, other western characters such as Bat Lash crop up from time to time; the dandy gambler outlaw teams up with Hex in this collection’s The Slaughter At Two Pines. The stories though well written cover familiar western topics as child abduction, bounty hunting and writing wrongs – fairly standard fair, but Gray and Palmiotti give every character depth and manage to inject a fresh modern twist into every plot they write.
Jonah Hex, don't tell him what to do!
The first collection Face Full Of Violence collects issues 1-6, nearly all illustrated by Luke Ross. Ross has a clean almost computer generated style which coupled with his letterbox page layouts gives the stories he draws an epic feel. I’m not sure if the dramatic pauses are a result of the script of the artist’s interpretation of it, but with moody close ups and dramatic pauses the action switches easily from widescreen landscapes to spaghetti western stand-offs.
In stark contrast to the artwork of Ross is that of Tony DeZuniga. The original Hex illustratir returns in the Christmas With The Outlaws story. While Ross easily conveys the epic nature of westerns, DeZuniga has a dirty, busy style which gives his story a claustrophobic, grim feel.
Another great feature of this series is the cover art. Hex is a character who seems to bring out the best in some of the greatest artists out there; my favourite being Frank Quitely‘s startling cover from #1.
So if you fancy a well written comic that is a a welcome change from the vast majority of continuity heavy superhero stuff pick up a copy of a Face Full Of Violence.
