Originally created in 1972, Jonah Hex was something of a curio in the world of comics. A decided anti-hero, the Wild West bounty hunter was generally amoral, brutal and – well – just not that nice a guy. And readers loved him, with him becoming one of the most successful comic Western characters ever. In an era when most of the superheroes where whiter than white, people were intrigued by someone who wasn’t afraid to get his hands a little dirty. But as the Western genre became passé in the mid 80s, the character was phased out, save for the occasional cameo in the DC Universe.
In an era of remakes and reboots it’s unsurprising to see the character is one of the many to make a return to a monthly comic. And as Jonah Hex – Bullets Don’t Lie, a collection of some of his recent exploits, shows the Comics Code no longer applies and the tales of the disfigured protagonist are replete with violence, more violence and – if you feel like a change of pace – some violence. Thus we have The Red Mask, which sees Hex on the trail of a master thief, in which a party of outlaw trackers are brutally murdered at the hands of our ‘hero’ or The Matador in which both humans and animals come in for a particularly rough time. And these are walks in the park compared to Birthplace Of The Ku Klux Klan – the most impressive story in the collection – which is a very nasty account of good deeds gone wrong, the confederate war and sickening revenge.
Indeed, all the stories contained here fall under the ‘grim’ and ‘gritty’ so beloved of many comic characters nowadays Certainly, it’s all very competently written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, with Hex a fascinating protagonist. But, even with its unique setting, the majority of this seems a ground that has already been well-trodden by the likes of Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis. Take a central character with skewed morals, add in lots of blood and then repeat. If you fancy a Western with a bit more ‘oomph’ than The Lone Ranger then Bullets Don’t Lie will satisfy. But just Jonah Hex to break some heads instead of new ground.
Jonah Hex: Bullets Don’t Lie is published by Titan Books and is available from Play.com, Blackwells and all good book shops.
Review by Laurence Boyce