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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Jonah Hex: A Face Full of Violence
Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have found a fairly effective way of writing such a larger-than-life character as Jonah Hex, the Old West bounty hunter whose unattractive flap of skin in front of his mouth presents a menacing face as well as brings up the question "how could he ever eat a big submarine sandwich?"
I grew up at a time when characters that appeared to be badasses, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Venom, all had their grandeur deflated by drawn out stories and crossover that proved to soap operatic and incomprehensible for my eleven-year-old self. All I wanted was just a cool character doing cool things. It's what Palmiotti and Gray seem to want as well. In all six of these stand alone stories Hex runs into corrupt lawmen, sexy ladies and rascals who posses hearts of gold (including fellow DC Western character Bat Lash). They all have heard of Hex and how dangerous he could be. Hex proves himself willing to dispense justice through the barrel of gun in more than one occasion but it's still justice, albeit a harsh version.
Hex is such a singular character that we only need a scene of tough guys cowering at the suggestion of the man to get what he's all about. Anything else would destroy the mystery. The stories move along like a good televising episode, with Hex dropping into a situation that's already pretty ugly but about to get uglier. Hex or his companion for that particular story always has a plan that saves the day when things look their worst. This trade read as comfort food, with every story being an interesting little morsel.
Palmiotti and Gray's ambitious are modest but artist Luke Ross and colorists Jason Keith and Rob Schwager seem to have different ideas. Ross is able to tell these stories well but that doesn't seem to be enough. Sequences must need long horizontal panels on top of each, not unlike a movie screen, with the handsome half of Hex's face being the spitting of image of Clint Eastwood. The painting-like coloring adds to the epic feel of the book's visuals. I can see the appeal but combined with the script the comic now feels like Sergrio Leone directing Eastwood in an episode of "Rawhide," not The Man With No Name trilogy. An improvement was when Hex co-creator Tony DeZuniga drew a story. He drew his character and his world in a gritty, scratchy manner more fitting the atmosphere of the book. It's a better fit for stories of good men filled with whiskey and bad men full with bullets.
Now all we need is for DC to put out a trade of Hex, where Jonah Hex ended up in the future and crrssed over with the Legion of Super-Heroes in one issue. Yes, I want to read that.
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