Jonah Hex: A Face Full of Violence

Grotesquely deformed cowboys don't die, they come back to fight another day in the hands of another batch of artists. Jonah Hex—scarred, ruthless bounty hunter with a conscience, the "thinking man's killer"—has survived numerous revivals, thanks to his enigmatic moral code and utter fearlessness. Palmiotti and Gray's version pares away some of the artistic pretense of earlier incarnations. Their Hex calls to mind young Clint Eastwood but even more world-weary and haunted, Josey Wales on a lifetime without sleep. The stories are to-the-point and delightfully un-PC doses of revenge and vigilante justice: a kidnapper who forced young boys to fight dogs meets his maker at the hands of those dogs; mass murderers who blamed their spree on a band of Apaches are handed over to them; savage, gun-toting nuns hole up in a town called Salvation. Ross's frequent use of long, narrow panels gives the stories a sort of wide-screen feel. Plot outcomes are usually apparent from page one, but the fun of getting there makes this an utterly enjoyable collection. (Sept.)