Jonah Hex #9


Writers: Justin Gray &
Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Tony DeZuniga
Colors: Rob Schwager
Letters: Rob Leigh


Jonah Hex must deal with the guilt and consequences of the death of a little girl who was killed during a shootout between Hex and a trio of outlaws.

With this latest issue writers Gray and Palmiotti continue to deliver solid, gritty tales of the most hideous bounty hunter in the Old West. The book, and this issue in particular, reads like a straight-up Spaghetti Western with high action, high drama, a questionable “hero” and plenty of downright nasty bad guys. It’s the perfect formula for a comic book western, especially one starring the physically and emotionally scarred Jonah Hex.

This issue, however, is far from being my favorite. For one thing, aside from the beautiful cover, I wasn’t big on the art by Tony DeZuniga. While it’s interesting to note that DeZuniga actually co-created Hex with writer John Albano in the early 70’s, I found the majority of the art in this issue to be a little too scratchy and almost unfinished in appearance, especially compared to regular series artist Luke Ross’ clean, solid style. There were parts of this issue that were a little hard to follow, a combination of the artwork and the disjointed way with which the timeline was presented. I also found myself growing somewhat tired of Hex’s constant threats towards every single person he meets. Yeah, I get that he’s a hard man with a seriously messed up past, but does he have to threaten everyone with death? I get the point already.

But don’t let any of that fool you into thinking I don’t dig on this book. After all, there are only so many nice things I can say before I start repeating myself and sounding like a suck-up. Complaints aside, this is still a darn good comic and well worth your time if you’re a fan of Hex or westerns in general.
 

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.

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