He was a hero to some, a villain to others...and wherever he rode people spoke his name in whispers. He had no friends, this Jonah Hex, but he did have two companions: one was death itself...the other, the acrid smell of gunsmoke...
That was the tag line of what is still one of my all time favorite characters...not just in comic books but in all of literature, television, radio, movies...he just fascinated me and to this day I don't know why. Possibly because he was Western and I had a particular fascination with Westerns growing up. Something about the mythology of the West, the courageous gunfighters, the noble and brilliant fighting of the Indians (whom I always sympathized with inexplicably, particularly since they were almost always the unimportant threat...what I mean by unimportant is they were THE threat of the story in many Westerns but were never personalized. They were like stormtroopers in the Star Wars movies...faceless, nameless, no background, no future, completely disposable, no explanation for motivation...it was not important WHY they were attacking the fort/wagon train/outlying homestead, only that they were...) and so forth. Westerns captured my imagination and, while my views have changed (for instance, I now would probably not use the word "Indian" nor view them as noble or primarily warlike, nor as fighting for the sake of a good fight as I think I probably did then) I still love Westerns.
Jonah Hex was the pinnacle of the Western. He was an anti-hero before there were anti-heroes. He was a bounty hunter living on the edge of the law, killing at the drop of a hat without hesitation, compunction, or regret. I would suspect he killed more people in his run than any other heroic character not named The Punisher, and he probably rivaled Mr. Castle. In fact, Castle reminds me a lot of Hex except whereas Castle was given a past to make him sympathetic, Hex's backstory was only ever more morbid.
I think another factor was his Confederate quote...it is a strange dichotomy that most of my "heroes" from the Civil War were on the South's side...General Lee, Stonewall Jackson come readily to mind...Grant and Sherman were far too flawed and vicious... and most of the other Northerners are bland and uninspired. The sloth of McClellan, the incompetence of the others...seriously, how can you get on board with that?
Hard to believe I got off topic again...first time THAT has ever happened...
Hex was a bounty hunter. He operated on the side of the law, but simply because it was convenient for him. He operated for personal gain and was quite open about that. He would rescue your kidnapped son, killing the kidnappers in the process, but you paid him to do so. (issue #4) He would befriend a railroad robber and ride with him and only kll him when Bill, the robber, forced him to, then collect the reward (3 issue arcabout Railroad Bill). He would defend the Chinese...for a price...and was sympathetic towards their plight.
I used to have something like 75 of the 92 issues from his self-titled series and another 12 of the 16 issue sci-fi series he later had.
How excited do you think I am they are re-printing his stuff in graphic novels? Oh, and starting a new series...might be the first subscription I will ever have for a comic book. And thus concludes todays random post.
4 years ago
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Once I started to think about the nameless faceless enemies of the old movies, I started to realize that there is a reason for that beyond the laziness of the writers. You aren't supposed to be sad when the "bad guy" dies. It's hard to root for Luke if you're thinking about the wife and 7 children that Storm Trooper #976 is leaving behind. Or for Hopalong Cassidy when you consider the sick mother of the stage coach robber he just gunned down. Considerations such as these (and other things too. Probably not wanting to encourage violence in general) were I believe, the reason that The Lone Ranger never shot to kill. His "bad guys" always had a story and a name (not to mention the millions of friends he had apparently had for years but only ever appeared in the show once.... :P) Oftentimes they were hard up and that was the only reason they were committing there crimes. Anyway, I seem to be rambling...
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