Dean Poling
The grisly-scarred Jonah Hex has been mean in the Old West for more than 30 years in comics. As comic books escaped the Comics Code Authority with many titles aimed more at adult readers, Jonah Hex has only become meaner with time. He was the subject of similar gory, mature-reader themes with a couple of mini-series runs back in the 1990s, but Western comics didn't really hit a mark then. With the recent success of HBO's "Deadwood," comics are allowing a return to gritty Westerns, with "Loveless" premiering last month and the latest "Jonah Hex" series hitting stands this month. Unlike the 1990s gore for the sake of gore, and mean for the sake of mean Jonah Hex, this new incarnation is mean but he's also got that heroic streak that made him a hit in the 1970s. He can be cruel to be cruel, but as one instance in this advanced rough cut of the first issue demonstrates, Jonah Hex can also be cruel to be kind. Writer Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey hit the right combination of brutal killer and hero with Hex. Luke Ross' art has the look of a refined Richard Corbin, visceral and full-bodied. The new "Jonah Hex" is heavy on violence but it is not the bloody guts nastiness of his more recent incarnations. This is more of the 1970s Hex with enough grit to reflect the changes in comics from the past 30 years.
