Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex #62 was excellent as always, and like usual, could easily have been an awesome 2 hour movie. It’s such a freaking shame the recent Jonah Hex movie looks like such a steaming pile of shit, when they could have made something like 60 awesome movies if they used the various stories from this run.

Graypal continues to use Hex as the beacon of their writing excellence and in this story they put among traveling circus folk, which always contains an innate creepiness about it. The combination of western & creepy (which they do at least once every 10 issues or so) works incredibly well like always. I thought to myself “only in Jonah Hex”.

One of the best parts of the series is the rotating set of artists who come through and this issue had Eduard Risso of 100 Bullets fame. His artwork worked really well with Jonah Hex and he’s a natural for the tone of the series; I think he did a great job in the western setting.

Excellent, as usual.

Review: Jonah Hex 60 & 61

With a lot of recent weeks having been a little light, I took the opportunity to by the two issues of Hex that were on the shelf as I always enjoy GrayPal Hex stories when I give them a chance.

Issue 60 featured some rare Brian Stelfreeze interior art. The lines were fairly simple but moody and effective. The colors matched the tone Stelfreeze was going for with a lot of brown, gray and other dark hues. The story was pretty entertaining as it dealt with a guy who just couldn't man up to losing to Jonah at a game of cards and then goes to great lengths to get revenge. He ends up paying an extremely high personal cost but by the end still won't back off. GrayPal end the story with a rare open end that makes it obvious we'll hear from this guy again.

Issue 61 is the Mei Ling issue Cobie mentions above. It's quite distinct from any other GrayPal Hex story with its comparative lighthearted tone. Hex with Mei is just a shade less hardcore and goes to great lengths not to kill anyone to respect her request. Their relationship is kinda cute, and that's weird to say about a Hex story! The coloring here is appropriately lighter than that of the previous issue to match the tone of the story, and Bernet's art adds the appropriate touch of whimsy to the proceedings.

Hex is a book that I'm likely to start picking up regularly. I appreciate that you can pick up any issue and get a complete, satisfying tale. I wonder where Mei Ling fits in to Hex's timeline and whether he sees her occasionally while still dallying with other women, but otherwise there are few continuity concerns. It's an entertaining break from superheroes and just damn good craft in comics storytelling.

Lardy's rating for Jonah Hex #60 &61: 3 Stars (out of five)!

Really glad you'll be getting it monthly! Like you say, every issue is essentially a jumping on point! Now we can discuss each month (er, two months later since we both are so behind ).

Jonah Hex #63 was yet another masterful story, this one featuring my favorite of the Hex artists, Jordi Bernet. If I shower any more praise on Bernet’s art on Hex I really run of the risk of getting repetitive so I just recommend you reread the thread!

This story had Hex facing perhaps his most brutal foe yet! It’s a full-on serial killer and much, much worse and by the first few pages, I couldn’t wait for Hex to get his hands on this guy. There are brutal implications of rape and even child-rape but Graypal is smart enough to only make these implications; I thought this was well-done for a comic, unlike so many other modern comics. The scenes from Jonah’s own past were also well done (with a cool coloring technique combined with smoother Bernet lines used to differentiate them) which was also very sad. I’ll tell you, being a father now, crazy people going after children is something that is terrifying beyond belief. They played on that fear well here.

I wonder if Tavari, the Native American tracker who Hex hires (and who double crosses him) is from prior issues? I know Graypal does that sometimes. I can’t recall if he is.

The latest Hex was fantastic, taking a turn mid-story that caught me totally by surprise. It was Johnny Cash's 'Boy Named Sue' come to life and it was brutal and rough, but satisfying.

Jeff Lemire was the guest artist and he did a fantastic job! Though I'm a fan of writing, I'm a big unfamiliar with his art (as I dont collect Sweet Tooth). His art is both gritty and cartoony here and it ends up working really well.

Yet another top notch issue with an A+ job by the guest artist.

All-Star Western has done a fantastic job continuing the quality of a Graypal written Jonah Hex. There are some differences to what came before, but it works. I loved the Jonah Hex series, but have to admit I like how the change of pace has kept things fresh.

First, the continuing stories, whether 2 or 3 or 5 issues, ha actually been nice. I'm a fan of done in ones, but I do like how these multi-part stories have allowed for the rich dynamic between Hex and Arkham to really be explored. That has added a little something nice to Hex.

Second, I'm really enjoying the setting of Gotham City for Hex. In addition to the idea that Hex has this small period of his lifetime where he did his thing in Gotham (which is cool), it also is letting Graypal take advantage of the Bat mythos in their stories. There is no doubt the Court of Owls was behind the problems of the first story and now in the second story we see the lost Migani people that Morrison used so well in the Return of Bruce Wayne. ASW may just be the place to reconcile Morrison's Bat history with Snyder's.

Lastly, I love the art by Moritat and the coloring that goes with it. He was fantastic on the Spirit and continues to get better and better here. It's a very atmospheric look that also works well for the action sequences. And he's got the look of Hex and Arkham down pat.

I'm enjoying the series quite a bit. The back-ups have also been great, including the latest introduction of a new character, the Barbery Ghost.

So I downloaded and read the first nine issues of All-Star Western this weekend and they were pretty much awesome!

Aren't they? It may just be DC's best series. The chemistry between Hex and Arkham is just genius! It works so well that I think even the writers were caught off guard!

What's interesting is the stories subtly reveal bits about the recent years Batman stories (Morrison & Snyder) but it's so subtle, I think a lot of people miss it.

Graypal did all the prior stories in the solo Jonah Hex series with a variety of artists and for the most part they were also terrific.

Yeah, I kept feeling there was a bunch of references to Batman stuff that I was supposed to be getting but didn't since I'm not following Batman.

There's a bit of a Holmes/Watson vibe between Hex/Arkham which is pretty cool.

I'm definitely going to go back and pick up the rest of the previous Hex series one of these days (I think have the first two trades?).

The backups have completely rocked as well.

It really makes me wish DC had a dedicated sci-fi series that was this cool as well.

It's pretty perplexing why they haven't. They have all the great sci-fi concepts in comic books. Strange Adventures in the exact same format as All-Star Western.

I wouldn't mind seeing an Adam Strange series based on the one in Wednesday Comics. The idea of Adam continuing to age on Earth while remaining eternally young on Rann has possibilities.

Oddly enough, I don't believe Adam Strange has ever starred in Strange Adventures...

Back to Hex, though, the one character I was expecting him to encounter was Cyrus Gold. Though maybe that would create continuity headaches with Earth 2?

Adam Strange starred in the reprint issues that followed the cancellation of the Deadman feature. There may even have been a new story or two during that run.

Oh, and I am a huge fan of the current All-Star Western book too.

Is everyone else as blown away as I am by how awesome All-Star Western has been? The previous Jonah Hex series was nothing short of fantastic, and ASW has continued that level of quality while being very different in the product being delivered (longer form stories, setting in Gotham, single ongoing artist).

I'd rank it my #1 favorite DC series right now. The Jonah / Arkham dynamic is pure gold on every single panel, and the artwork by Moritat is a delicious.

And the setting in Gotham has actually worked on every level. It could easily have gone the other way, but Graypal do a fantastic job in maintaining the "Hex-tone" and giving the story just enough subtle nods to the larger Bat lore to make it pay off. (And a few not so subtle as the latest cover reads "the Court of Owls!" and "The Crime Bible!").

By shifting to Gotham, its let Moritat provide a very beautiful (even when its grimy) "gaslight" background, as opposed to the Old West open landscape backgrounds of the Jonah Hex series. It's a lot of fun to have an ongoing gaslight comic book!

All-Star Western #0 definitely had a bit of feel of "Oh, I guess we've got to participate in this zero-issue event, so let's randomly insert the story of Hex's life...", but I am *so* totally psyched for the upcoming issues with Haley's Circus and Dr. Jeckyl!

Hmm... not sure how I feel about this :

"Moritat on All-Star Western: Jonah Hex will be coming into the year 2050 and teaming up with Adam Strange."

Agree on all counts! I was actually worried this would be a retread of Jonah's origin or even worse, them changing the origin after their last go at it (which was terrific). Instead it was a steady flash through Jonah's early life that was gut-wrenching and moved forward at a strong, forceful, pace. I thought it was really good!

I'm definitely looking forward to Haley's Circus and Dr. Jeckyl too.

For the time travel thing, I'm hoping its just a one-off insane / 'may be a hallucination' / offbeat type story that doesn't actually involve Jonah time traveling. I have a feeling it will be. Plus, we know Adam Strange is in modern times, not the crazy future of 2050 where there are flying cars and nuclear powered space ships!

So, as predicted... I'm totes loving the Jekyll and Hyde storyline! Looking forward to where the Tallulah/Barbary Ghost subplot goes as well!

I'm not really feeling the Tomahawk reboot in the back-up, however.

I'm with you on both counts. The main story with Jekyll and Hyde has been really awesome. Hyde for some reason feels like a totally perfect addition to Jonah Hex's rogues gallery! And the story has really captured the horror of the character well.

I'm also digging the Tallulah / Barbary Ghost subplot in a big way and hope that develops into the next storyline. Tallulah, as drawn by Moritat and written by Graypal, is a contender for my favorite part of the series.

Meanwhile, I've disliked the Tomahawk backup from start to finish despite the fantastic art. As I'm sure I've mentioned before a few times, I love the "real" Tomahawk series and may just be the last surviving Tomahawk fan in existence. So it really sucks for me to see a “rebooted” Tomahawk character that loses just about 100% of the things that made the franchise so awesome to begin with.

Great galaxies! All-Star Western #17 is a fantastic comic!

Well...the good news is soon Jonah will be back in the old west and the nightmare that is "Hex in the modern DCU" will be over. Because frankly, it's been pretty bad.

But, did it end up killing the series? Can it ever reclaim it's momentum? I hope so.

All-Star Western *was* the only DC series besides Wonder Woman that was worth reading. I'd sure like it if the once great company had at least two really good series.

I haven't read ASW since the first issue with Booster Gold. I pretty much figured it was headed towards crapsville with that.

You figured right.

It looks like the return to the Old West will coincide with a return to more individual stories with rotating artists. I personally loved that style in the pre-ASW Jonah Hex series so I hope that's the case. I just hope they didn't kill the momentum and the title still has legs.