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Jonah Hex #1
Review posted: 13 Nov 2005
Writer: Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray
Artist: Luke Ross
Publisher: DC Comics
4.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Adam White
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I’m a Western fan, and a Jonah Hex fan, and quite frankly Joe
Lansdale and Tim Truman’s work on the character is a hard act to
follow. However, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Luke Ross did
exactly the right thing when they pitched this new series: they went
in a completely different direction for the style of the book.
Lansdale and Truman’s Hex evoked a gritty atmosphere of weird
Western tales, while the new series takes a more direct approach to
the harsh realities of Western life (and death, of course).
The trick is making the characters
interesting enough to follow and invest yourself in, and that’s
where Palmiotti and Gray excel.
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Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are quickly becoming the go-to guys
for DC, and they’ve experimented with a variety of concepts over
the last year or two from original creations to company mainstays such
as Hawkman.
Palmiotti and Gray really pull off a coup with Jonah Hex,
though, by making it fresh enough for the new folks while staying true
to the character. They approach Hex as the scarred, hardened bounty
hunter he is, yet give him an iconic presence that anyone who’s
ever seen or read a Western can easily identify and enjoy. Palmiotti
and Gray make Hex seem new without changing or “updating”
him at all, a pitfall many other a creator has fallen into when
dusting off older characters. They make Hex’s dialogue
appropriately terse and morbidly witty without sounding corny, and
they let Hex’s unique moral code direct the stories. Plot-wise
they don’t tread any new ground, but then there are really only
a handful of plots for a Western; the trick is making the characters
interesting enough to follow and invest yourself in, and that’s
where Palmiotti and Gray excel.
Upon looking at Luke Ross’s art for Jonah Hex, it was
immediately obvious that he based Hex’s physical appearance on
Clint Eastwood. At first I was reticent to this, thinking that the
likeness might make the reader too self-conscious about the homage to
the legendary actor/director, but after a few pages the look just
seemed so right that I now can’t imagine him any other way.
Ross employs a realistic style well-suited to the story and tone of
the book, and it feels more like you’re watching a movie than
reading a comic — very cinematic, which I think was intentional
and it works well for the series. If Hex were to be immortalized on
film, I can’t think of anyone better than Eastwood to do it, and
Ross’s likeness of Eastwood is so good that it’s hard not
to like it. Add in versatile visuals for the solid (but inevitably
short-lived) supporting cast and Ross has cemented himself as one of
the true “Young Guns” of comics in 2005 (based on his
actual talent, not baseless hype).
I had a blast reading this book and immediately wanted to see the
next installment. It left me in a mood for more gunslingin’
goodness, of which there is short supply these days (insofar as
Westerns go). These guys obviously had a blast writing and drawing
this book, and their enjoyment is so tangible that you can’t
help it rubbing off on you as you read it. It was a heck of a lot of
fun and had all the makings of a good, long-running Western. Whether
or not it lasts is up to fate (and sales), so I strongly urge everyone
to go out and pick up Jonah Hex and at least give it a try even
if for no other reason than that I want to keep reading this book.
—CCdC— Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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