Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Illustrated by Jeff Lemireonah Hex has lived through countless deadly confrontations, always emerging on the other side calm, cool and collected. But now he must face the only opponent on Earth who can potentially ruin that streak: his own father! Featuring art by SWEET TOOTH’s Jeff Lemire!
I don’t think I’ve ever read a Jonah Hex comic book before. At least, not one where he has been the star character (there was that time where Booster Gold dressed up as Woody and drinking was involved).
But I do really like Jeff Lemire’s artwork, so I guess I’ll give it a go!
Check out my thoughts after the cut.
I like westerns. Cowboys are fun. The ideals of the Old West are appealing to me. The Man With No Name? More like Man Who Should’ve Been Called Awesome. (I apologize for that joke.) With all that up front, I’m really not sure why I’ve never gravitated towards the Jonah Hex books. It’s a title that’s within DC Continuity, but not bogged down to Event A or Massive Character Shake-Up B. It’s been noted in the past that DC puts out some of it’s strongest books when it doesn’t strive to cross over with Batman every five or so issues, so I really can’t explain why it’s taken me so long to give a Jonah Hex book the time of day.
Which is my backwards way of saying: this is quite the fun comic book. It’s not explicitly ground-breaking, earth-shattering, or genre-defying in any scope of the imagination, but it is an incredibly solid tale from beginning to end. While I can’t guess that every issue features a story like this (since really, this is the kind of story you only get to tell once), it’s safe to say that the attitude that the book has, in a roundabout way of being a tribute to comics of yesteryear, is the best it possibly could have. When I was a kid, I’d buy a random comic off the shelf just because I liked Character X, Y, and Z, and a lot of my favorite stories were single-issue tales. I can’t do that anymore, unless it’s otherwise noted. If I pick-up Spider-Man #7034 or whatever, it’ll be part 3 of an epic character changing arc, and I’ll have to hunt down what came before to “get it.” So kudos to Jonah Hex, Palmiotti and Gray for letting me just come in the door.
It doesn’t take much to get what’s going on here. Jonah Hex is a cowboy with some loose mystic tie, his face is screwed up, and he likes to drink and be a grump. It’s a trope-tastic set of cowboy goodness, with Palmiotti and Gray really trying to inforce the fact that Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn should be voicing the characters here (all of the characters). This issue finds Hex overhearing a dastardly plan of some ruffians to attack an old man, and while one might assume Hex is going to stop them out of the goodness of whatever heart he has, he instead shows up to kill the ruffians and watch the old man die. Why? Oh, it’s his dad. What started as a simple cowboy tale of life in the Old West suddenly is flipped on it’s heels and instead becomes a meditation on the relationship between father and son, and from there the book takes a sharp turn – but for the best.
The relationship between parent and child is an interesting one, as there is no more influential form of relationship in human existence. One can argue that events in our lives shape us, but it’s generally our parent’s fault what happens to us in the long run. For example, if my parents had never introduced me to comics and cartoons, I might have a PhD right now (thanks, dad!). In the case of this story, it’s posited that Jonah’s father is inevitably responsible for all the bad things that happened to him, and because of that Jonah now has come to watch his father die. It’s a bit of a rough issue, delving into the psyche of the man who can leave his child behind as Jonah calmly drinks whiskey and watches as his father rants through the stages of grief on his death bed. Or, in other terms, it’s a pretty great tale for a one and done, because a) a reader like me who has never tried the book can find easy access to the story and identify with the themes and b) Jonah Hex fans will get to watch an emotional confrontation between one of their favorite characters and the man who abandoned him. Everybody wins! (Except Jonah’s father.)
Continued belowPalmiotti and Gray make a very strong team in the world of comics as the two clearly work in sync to a T. If you ever read something by one but not the other, it’s actually quite easy to see the difference between their work. Having them together is smooth, like peanut butter and jelly or Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; it just works on all levels. The only real downside to the issue is that it doesn’t take off until it’s revealed that the man is Jonah’s father, and suddenly everything is put into greater perspective. Up until then, the issue was feeling like a fairly generic Western story of good guys and bad guys, and while on some level it still supposedly is it’s that inevitable pay-off that makes the reader pause and understand what they just read, like the prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box (does that still exist, or do I need a new metaphor?).
Calling on Jeff Lemire to illustrate the issue was the real stroke of genius, though. Throughout Lemire’s creator owned work he has delved into the relationship between father and son several times, with Essex County and Sweet Tooth both dealing with this issue fairly steadily. It’s with that that Lemire handling this father/son relationship feels particularly appropraite, and Lemire’s artistic sensibilities really nail the emotional visual elements. The issue almost seems like something Lemire would write, which goes to make the issue that much more Lemire-esque, as if tailor made for him. Lemire also plays with panel format quite a bit in a similar fashion to how he does in Sweet Tooth now, and it added some interesting perspectives to the mystical elements of Jonah Hex. The final pages slowly overlayed with increasing amounts of buzzards is a coy and creepy way for Lemire to have death make it’s final call, and the final page of the issue that sees Hex pouring one out for dad is quite the last page indeed, with no words at all letting Lemire’s art do all the talking.
The most interesting aspect to it, though, is that Dave McCaig is Lemire’s colorist for the issue and not Jose Villarrubia. For those not familiar with these names, Jose Villarrubia is the color artist of Jeff Lemire’s creator-owned Sweet Tooth, and Dave McCaig is the color artist of American Vampire. Like I’ve mentioned in previous reviews with Laura Martin, it really shows that Dave McCaig is the color artist to the issue to the extent that, despite him not getting a front cover credit and not being mentioned until the last page, it’s the first thing I noticed about the issue. Colorists are generally unsung heroes of the comicbook world, but they add a whole layer of depth to the book. Without McCaig in the issue the book wouldn’t pop the way that it does, and it wouldn’t sing the Western blues the same way if it were just black and white. After proving he could light up the world American Vampire which hassimilar visual themes, it was great to see McCaig’s work on Lemire’s pencils, and was another reason that this issue’s art was fantastic.
I don’t know if I’ll come back for more Hex in the future, but there’s certainly a larger chance now that I will, especially with the DC Relaunch. Palmiotti and Gray have a good thing going with the one-shot Western format here. Pulling in a guest artist per issue as they’re doing at the moment is also a great tactic to call to new fans and get the name of Hex out there. While I can’t say how long this has been going on now (for a bit, right?), the endeavor certainly worked at least once on me. I am now certainly more willing to try out a Jonah Hex comic in the future, and no matter how you look at it that’s ultimately a win for Palmiotti, Gray, and DC – so kudos there, gents. Bring Lemire back for more issues in the future and you can guarantee a buy from me.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – I’m proud I wrote that entire review without making a 69 joke.
