Find This Book At: Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Amazon (Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: All-Star Western 10; Weird Western Tales 14, 17, 22, 26, 29-30; Jonah Hex 2, 4 Issue Dates: February 1972 – September 1977 Creators: E. Nelson Bridwell, Elizabeth Berube, George Moliterni, Joe Orlando, John Albano, José Luis García-López, Luis Dominquez, Mark Hanerfeld, Michael L. Fleisher, Noly Panaligan, Paul Levitz, Russell Carley, Tony DeZuniga

This review contains light spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

Surprise! Classic Jonah Hex, ugly-as-cuss bounty hunter, now in color. It’s about time!

Most of the stories in this collection are also printed in black and white inside Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Vol. 1, which we just reviewed. For more discussion about the creators and general feel of the stories, check out that link.

Of the nine stories here, only those from Jonah Hex issues 2 and 4 are unique to this volume. With 23 Jonah Hex stories and 8 supplementary western tales in the showcase for a dollar less cover price, the consumer is faced with a bit of a conundrum.

Are the two extra stories here worth it for a collector? Does the color make this volume a better purchase?

And why were these particular stories chosen, when so many of Hex’s appearances remain uncollected, and so many of the stories left out are high quality – what made the editors pick these ones over simply reprinting all of his enjoyable tales in order and releasing a couple separate trades?

Let’s hit that last question first. No doubt this paperback collection was brought forth as one half response to the continued success of Hex’s contemporary ongoing and one half as a commercially viable tie in the Jonah Hex film.

As such, it’s designed for modern readers – not simply people interested in an archive of quality comics of the past, but new readers who generally expect comics they pick up to be in color. Plus, modern comics have plot arcs – everyone knows that, right? Or at least reoccurring characters.

In the Bronze Age, when these stories were produced, comics were generally pretty light on continuity. Jonah Hex had some, but much of it was simply based on finding more out about the man through his actions – not any sort of cast or family that built around the main character.

The few people that did have reoccurring roles were only evident every few issues – generally not even spread across sequential publications (except for Weird Western Tales 29-30, all other stories that continued to a second issue generally ended with most of the main characters except for Hex dying.)

It made sense for the time when comics were still available on the racks in non-specialty stores. A kid should be able to pick up a Western story and jump right in, perhaps just picking by a main character they liked if anything. The modern age Hex creators understand this appeal and have brought it back to an extent, but they can’t help building on the character in more concrete ways.

That brings us back to this volume. It’s an editorial attempt to squeeze together the “story” of Jonah Hex, his origins, and the climax of his conflict with the main reoccurring character. They’ve done this by simply taking every issue that deals with this story and slapping them together into a book. Does it work? Kind of.

All the stories are good, but at least one suffers from this editorial snipping. While the first issue is the same introduction that starts the Showcase trade, it jumps immediately to Weird Western Tales 14, skipping three Hex stories (good ones, too!) It’s ok that they need to condense the story for the trade, but unfortunately issue 13 introduced a character who plays an important role in issue 14 – who here just appears without any explanation whatsoever. When the plot moves onto the events that effect this character, Hex’s reaction makes almost no sense without the added context of the previous issue.

I suppose that to a reader unfamiliar with the mixed content, it may not be too jarring (we’re used to comics characters reacting in unpredictable ways) but the story loses a lot of its nuance from this omission. While there are a few other places where a character pops in who is dealt with in an unprinted story, none of the lost content is really obvious besides this example.

As for the ongoing plotline, reading it in quick succession gives it a sense of increased importance in Hex’s life.

It’s an enjoyable story overall, and all the elements we discussed last time are still there, though without the slow reveal things just don’t seem as subtle.

It’s funny, we often think of pre-crisis comics as being very heavy handed (and the dialogue certainly seems straightforward enough) but because they weren’t so focused on character building, when it happened sometimes it was just a little more organic.

The two additional stories are from the Jonah Hex ongoing, published after the content from the western anthology books. Perhaps it’s because these two stories are also presented without their framing issues, but they don’t seem as strong as the earlier work. In fact, they do away with the drama of the original ending to Hex’s ongoing plot, and even give him a named nemesis in the last issue – “The Chameleon!” – who seems like he will be quite a thorn in Hex’s side by the ominous “The End?” printed on the last page.

But this is a bit of a curve-ball – even in the uncollected issues of the Jonah Hex ongoing, I think the Chameleon only shows up once or twice more at most, hardly The Joker to Hex’s Batman. A protagonist like our scarred gunfighter just doesn’t need a rogues gallery or shadowy string puller, he’s got plenty of ornery characters to deal with on a daily basis.

It just seems like an awkward choice to me – sure, these last issues contain the same reoccurring character that unifies the rest of the book, but they also weaken the overall arc. The relatively self contained plots in the issues themselves are enjoyable enough, but no more so than any of the omitted issues. They could have dropped the last one in favor of Weird Western Tales 13.

My theory is that the editors wanted to include at least two issues that were before uncollected to try and encourage collectors to buy the book. For that, perhaps, I’m personally grateful, though the selection here makes it a bit harder for me to recommend this book (over the Showcase) to new readers.

Our last unanswered question is about the color, redone for this volume by Heroic Age. They do a great job, true to the original intents.

The colors are beautiful flats, with none of the anachronistic gradients modern creators sometimes add to old comics in an attempt to spruce them up. It’s the correct choice for this book, considering the strength of the inked linework.

I have a couple minor quibbles (mainly with the skin color of one character quite obviously not correct on two pages) but for the most part I think they did a great job.

I believe that the color here will make the book much more appealing to those flipping through on the shelf, where it will stand up just fine compared to other comics classics.

I don’t think that it actually makes the stories much more enjoyable (the art did its job very well in the black and white volume) but the experience was a bit different – explosions seemed to jump out more, but some punch outs weren’t as stunning as they were in the black and white volume.

The larger scenes benefit the most – big spreads where it was easy to lose the action, landscapes with lots of small detail, these illustrations are now much clearer.

You’ll be able to make your own mind up better with visual comparisons, so I’m including a couple here before my own conclusion. Click any of these to see them larger:

Black and White from Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex

Original Color from Weird Western Tales 26

Color from Welcome To Paradise

Black and White from Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex

Color from Welcome To Paradise

So, how do I feel about this book? Personally, I’m very happy to own it. I’m an obsessive collector when it comes to DC and having those two extra issues is more than enough to get me to buy this book.

As story collection, it’s kind of awkward – Hex is better served in the showcase where you can read his full early adventures in order.

As for the art, it will be a matter of preference. The black and white showcase books have really grown on me and the Jonah Hex volume is especially strong. While it satisfied my curiosity to see the colors of some people’s shirts, perhaps, it didn’t add much else for me.

One thing that may influence your decision is that even though the cover price for this book is higher than the showcase book (which has about 3 times the page count), the showcase book was printed longer ago which means it may be harder to find – if you tend to buy your books used, chances are “Welcome to Paradise” can be found quicker for cheaper.

If this was the only Jonah Hex book available, it would be a solid five stars. If it’s the only Jonah Hex book you can find, pick it up without hesitation. If you dislike black and white comics, pick it up without hesitation.

If you’re a collector or a western fan, or are good at finding cheap trades, just grab them both.

Verdict:
4 out of 5. The material here is great, and even though we spent most of our review discussing the quirks of the editorial direction of the collection, the bottom line is that these are classic comics collected here in color for the first time.

Essential Continuity:
Jonah Hex is a fairly continuity-light comic, at least the issues that are currently collected are, both modern and bronze age. (Uncollected Jonah Hex comics include some ongoing plots and strange time travel arcs, but to be honest I just don’t know too much about them. Hope they get around to putting them in trade!)

Both this and the Showcase Presents volume tell his origin and early story, either one can be considered the “first” Jonah Hex collection.

Read first:
You will have to decide which seems more appealing to you:

More story with a slower (possibly more satisfying) reveal – Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1

Story in color, condensed for a quick read – this volume!

Read next:
My next stop will be the 1993 Vertigo series collected in Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo, which seems to be widely considered as out of continuity. I’ll let you know my thoughts on that soon.

Since that book is hard to find, you may wish to skip ahead to the start of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti‘s critically acclaimed 2006 series collected in Jonah Hex Vol. 1: Face Full Of Violence.

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I’ve updated all 8 Sandman Mystery Theatre books, added a header and description for Sandman Wesley Dodds.

I’ve also updated the description for the all purpose “Sandman” tag, which already had a header image I made from a picture of Dodds and Dream.

I’ve created a “The Endless” tag to be used to indicate any member of that pantheon. Dream and The Endless now both have header pictures.

Most of these tag lists are in no way complete right now, but they’ll fill in. I’ve tagged Dream and The Endless on all the Neil Gaiman ongoing collections, at least.

I uploaded a picture for Neil Gaiman‘s header, which makes him the first creator with a picture up! Creator lists are a long way from being done (once enough books are fully tagged and hit up with the chronological sorting info, the creator lists will be chronological by collected contents, instead of by the recommended reading order as they are now.)

Perhaps those sandman books will be my next update. I’ll see how much I can get into tonight. (decided to save the next Jonah Hex review for sometime tomorrow.. although I guess it’s this morning now!)

Totally unrelated image, but I liked it.

I think I’m going to pull in another review tonight for the next Jonah Hex book, since it shouldn’t require too much additional reading or deliberation – being mostly material already in the showcase I just reviewed.

So just doing a few quick updates.

The Batman: The Return reading order has had a couple other issues added, mainly the post Batman Inc tie ins.

Thanks to the advice of my pals on Reddit, I’ve added Hellblazer: Fear and Loathing to the Swamp Thing tag list, with cover and full publication information complete. Not sure how I missed that one – can’t wait until I find the time to finish the whole Hellblazer list. Obviously I’ve got a soft spot for these vertigo titles.

I also noticed that there were two tags for one character – “The Phantom Stranger” and “Phantom Stranger” – I haven’t decided what I like better, but I’ve changed all the books to just have “Phantom Stranger” for now since more were tagged with that one making it an easier switch – we can change them all to either at a later date.

Find This Book At: Amazon (Softcover) Amazon (Hardcover) Half.com (Softcover) Half.com (Hardcover) Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) Ebay (ISBN/Hardcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: Green Arrow: Year One 1-6 Issue Dates: September – November 2007 Creators: Andy Diggle, David Baron, Jared K. Fletcher, Mark “Jock” Simpson, Mike Carlin, Tom Palmer Jr.

This review contains light spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

I was introduced to Green Arrow through a mutual friend, Jack Kirby. More specifically, The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby, now reprinted in a thin trade DC put out about 9 years ago, which contained an origin story for the emerald archer.

I’d read that story before, much earlier in my life, but I’ll never be able to exactly place when. It’s probably not the first origin for the character, who’s been around since 1941, but it was an origin that was simple, easy, and cemented early Green Arrow in my mind as that slightly goofier Batman – he had an assistant, a car, an arrow signal, and fought crime, but without the darkness that came with Batman‘s alleyway trauma.

This goofiness, the fact that his millionaire playboy personality was represented in his costumed persona as much as out of it, unlike Bruce Wayne, made his shift to social crusader in the Bronze Age all the more interesting. He really grew as a character, hit rock bottom and built his way back into his own type of hero – no longer  in Batman’s shadow, but filling a spot in the DC Universe that was entirely his own.

To me, he became a symbol, the first real Modern Age hero. This was what happened when a cookie cutter bad guy basher of the Golden Age opened his eyes and saw the real problems in the world around him.

Now, Green Arrow’s origin gets a retelling courtesy of writer Andy Diggle and artist Mark Simpson (most commonly credited as the monosyllabic “Jock.”) They’re here to bring Green Arrow to a new audience, give a clear modern starting point to this contemporary Robin Hood.

As we’ve mentioned before (in our Teen Titans: Year One review) this is a fairly monumental task, not only to create a work that respects continuity enough to encourage readers to move on to the other existing titles, but also to stand up to the Year One label and the inevitable comparisons it draws to the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s legendary Batman revitalization. Diggle and Jock are quick to rise to the challenge, both talented and experienced creators coming fresh off a large project together (The Losers.)

What they’ve come up with is sure to draw in new readers and please many Green Arrow fans. Here, Oliver Queen (already sporting a hint of the facial hair that will come to be a bit of a trademark) is taken forcefully from his life of unfulfilling excess and thrust into a battle for his life on an abandoned island.

The island is from the original origin, always a great excuse for him to develop his excellent skills as an archer. But unlike the earlier story, this one is tinted with intrigue and darkness from the start. Instead of simply accidentally falling overboard and having to hunt for survival, the battle here ends up being much more literal, and Queen is exposed early to horrors that plant the seeds for his latter strength of character.

The story is told at a brisk pace, hopping and skipping through Oliver’s long stay on the island and the events that follow.

It doesn’t feel rushed, but obviously a castaway story in 160 pages isn’t going to play out at the same pace for the entire book.

The climax and ending are extremely satisfying, and along the way all the pieces fall into place – including some excellent foreshadowing for “future” character development in the Bronze Age series.

Through all of it, Jock lends a vibrant atmosphere to a fairly dark tale.

The closest thing I could compare it to would be Far Cry, a videogame where you find yourself stalking through a jungle. It is, of course, much more beautifully rendered (Far Cry is probably quite dated now), but those who have played the game should get an immediate idea of what I’m referring to – a world that’s brutal and bloody, yet also unyielding beautiful.

Take that and pass it through Jock’s talented hands and you get a stylized rendering of fight sequences that could top any in a five star action movie. His work here isn’t quite as amazing as some of the covers I’ve seen him do for Batman books, but it tells the story clearly at all times – the sometimes vagueness of the backgrounds is contrasted by the perfect amount of detail on the faces to secure appreciation of expression.

It helps that David Baron has done such a spectacular job with this book’s colors. He brings just the exact right tints and shades of oranges, greens, purples and blues. It’s really beautiful work and ties the story together. When the last page is reached, just by the colors, it’s a different world, the start of a new story.

If I have any qualms about the book at all, its that it perhaps does one goal too well – with Oliver Queen built into the character he will later become, suddenly there is a large period in his (publishing history) life that becomes unexplainable. He has seen intense loss and known great debt through this journey, so how does one explain the return to playboy life between his origins and the Green Arrow / Green Lantern series?

If he is already the Modern Age crusader we love, what happens to the fall from grace and opening to a new perspective that made him so interesting? Without his Golden Age career, did he ever really have a change of heart about what a superhero should be?

If anything, the end of this book seems to leave Green Arrow closer to being a clone of Batman (maybe modern Batman this time) than he has been in years – the aforementioned last panel could be a Batman panel, just switch the costume and weapon. This is probably something that would trouble a long time fan much more than a new reader, however – because most new readers will probably skip all the pre-crisis material altogether and go into one of Green Arrow’s modern ongoings.

For them, this condensed version (where his growth as a person is also moved into his origin as a superhero, instead of coming later) may be just what they need.

Hopefully they will come to love the character as much as the rest of us, and then his historical roots will intrigue them.

There’s no wrong way to get into Green Arrow.

Verdict:
4 out of 5. A blockbuster action movie (Die Hard on the beach!) slammed into the origin of a cult favorite hero – and it works. Fantastic art and a very enjoyable story. My only misgivings are based on how this rethinking of the origin effects such a long running character, but for new readers these issues will probably be non-existent.

Essential Continuity:
Let’s say yes: this is Green Arrow’s modern age origin story.

Read first:
To get the origin I’m personally more familiar with, check out The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby, mentioned earlier. But I actually think it can be read after.

Read next:
As I said above, the Jack Kirby book can be read after, since it takes place when Green Arrow is already operative as a hero. Also, since you will probably BE a Green Arrow fan after this book, you’ll have more reason to seek it out.

After that, if you’re not already making your way down the entire Green Arrow Reading Order, you should at least pick up Green Lantern / Green Arrow: Volume 1 and Volume 2, which were extremely important Bronze Age publications, before making your way to his modern age ongoing collections.

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Find This Book At: Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Amazon (Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: All-Star Western 2-8, 10-12; Weird Western Tales 12-14, 16-33 Issue Dates: October 1970 – April 1976 Creators: Alex Sinclair, Arnold Drake, Dick Giordano, Doug Wildey, E. Nelson Bridwell, George Moliterni, Gil Kane, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Joe Orlando, John Albano, John Costanza, José Luis García-López, Luis Dominquez, Mark Hanerfeld, Michael L. Fleisher, Neal Adams, Noly Panaligan, Paul Levitz, Robert Greenberger, Robert Kanigher, Russell Carley, Tony DeZuniga

This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

Wahl, Ah’ll be doggoned! Looks laik you’n me’re jest ’bout at the Westerns!

God knows how those writers kept up that slack jawed drawl for over 500 pages (probably because they didn’t have to write it all in one sitting, like you might read it.) I’ll probably be getting pretty used to it though, because the next section of the DC Universe Reading Order is firmly set in the old west.

Tonight’s book is the 528 page Black and White Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex.

With Bronze Age work by a whole mess of talented creators, it contains the introduction and early adventures of Jonah Woodson Hex (currently starring in a modern age ongoing of some acclaim, the first book reviewed here.)

The last 100 pages or so are reprints of stories from early issues of All Star Western, starring a couple different outlaws.

There’s no El Diablo here, even though he was often in these same pages. Perhaps they’re planning another book for him somewhere down the line. Bat Lash, one of the others from these books, already has his own showcase.

This book, like other Showcase Presents volumes, is jammed pack with comics, which often makes them a challenge to review. Luckily, the Hex stories are of fairly even quality and nature. The writing is split between John Albano for the early chunk of the volume with Michael Fleisher handling most of the next 200 pages. Arnold Drake fills in a one issue gap in the middle.

The first issue included sets the tone. The title page asks us “What shocking truth made the town he saved fear Jonah Hex?”

As modern readers, you probably know. Hex is one gross looking gringo. In this first story his face remains in shadow, and it seems it’s only his reputation that makes people fear him. When it is revealed, at the flick of a match – it was probably quite exciting to the readers of the 70s – a real ugly hero, far cry from those spandex joes in DCs other books.

Beyond his features, Hex shows much of his character in that first story. While his origins remain a mystery for almost the entire collection (the slow reveal is one of the few continuing plot threads leading to the book’s climax) you can get a good measure of the man here in this very first story.

He kills without mercy, when the situation demands it. He expects no kindness and delivers none to those incapable of it.

When surprised by an act of compassion, he responds in kind – only to be rebutted once again due to his appearance. His final act of gruff dismissal is for the object of his scorn’s own good – they want to follow him in his road, and he believes that his life is one no man should be forced to lead, no matter how exciting it must seem.

Along with the classic action, there’s also an element of mystery, some spookiness that seems to follow Hex.

Those that fear him believe him to be a ghost or a monster, and playing on this is probably what resulted in the change of the publications title from “All-Star” to “Weird Western Tales”.

Of course, while Hex’s reputation is played up for drama, not much is truly the stuff of horror stories here.

Hex is the classic anti-hero, a staple of the Western genre, that dirty jerk we just know is the best of ’em all.

Believe me, he is – whether it’s gunning down a room of blood thirsty murderers, or wrestling down a man while one stabbed arm hangs limply at his side, Hex is going to come out on top.

Well, most of the time. Any hero has to go through his share of tension raising near misses and character building tragedy.

Amongst all the hootin’ hollarin’ and gunplay, there are some subtle aspects to this work, signs of Hex’s depth of character that survive to this day – reasons why he’s still in print when so many other Western heroes have been forgotten. The basic intrigue is easy – does he really value money more than human life? Is he a racist confederate soldier or one of the few gents out west that thinks more highly of the indigenous people than the white men taking their land?

He’s the good guy in a relatively modern comic, so these questions probably have the answers you’d expect.

But there are moments that seem to show his bravado might really hint at something else – does he let a grieving kid take a shot at him because he’s confident the kid would miss? Or are there reasons his own life has little value to him?

Maybe being shot down by this boy fits with Jonah’s idea of justice.

Wondering about his motivations, looking for the glimmers of the hero we know is there, and cheering him on when they present themselves – that keeps the pages turning.

Of course, it would be extremely unfair to say that the story is the only thing that moves the book along.

The art explodes out of the panels, with rugged men (and women) throwing punches, staging ambushes, and firing a gun just about once a page on average. That’s usually accompanied by some poor clod’s dynamic fall of death.

I think Tony DeZuniga is my personal favorite artist featured in the Jonah Hex stories, but I never felt like any one illustrator was the bad one of the bunch.

A variety of characters populate Hex’s wildwest, with all the facial hair, grit, and riding worn apparel you’d expect. Due to their often short lifespan, not many of them are particularly memorable, but while their motivations and actions were often similar, I didn’t feel like there were any cookie cutter cowboys here.

I tried to scan a lot of art for this review, since I believe it speaks quite well for itself.

A particular bit of praise should be said for the sound effect lettering, which was constantly fun and absolutely a prime player in the book considering the volume of the gunshots (literal volume and figurative.)

While there were moments where I wondered about the color (I guess I’ll see what it’s supposed to be like in the next book), I was very happy to see the clearly inked pages.

Every so often there was a little grayscale thrown in, but for the most part the hatching and dark blacks was enough to define the action. In fact, there are many times where I am thankful for a Showcase’s ability to really feature quality linework and inking.

The last section of the book is a bit more mixed in quality. These are actually reprints of earlier issues, so maybe the creative teams hadn’t quite found their legs yet. Robert Kanigher handles the first four Outlaw stories, but the characterization is a bit clunky and forced.

The art, again by DeZzuniga, is still excellent if not quite as free as in his later stories. They were readable, but I felt cheated at first coming off of the last Hex stories in the volume (and knowing more remained uncollected.)

The second set of three is a bit better, this time starring a version of Billy The Kid (much better looking than his real life counterpart, if you’ve ever seen a picture.)

Since we’re back with John Albano, it’s not so bad, but again this is before he really hit his stride with Hex, so it’s not particularly memorable work.

In end, there’s a tiny little bonus in the form of a seven page story headed by Gil Kane, which is notable only for being the only one in the entire book that actually seems to have elements of the paranormal.

All in all, I could have done without all the “bonus material” in exchange for more Jonah Hex, but this book is very much worth the cover price just for what is contained here.

If they ever get around to releasing Vol. 2, now that would go a long way towards earning my forgiveness.

Verdict:
4 out of 5. The Jonah Hex stories are really great. Solid fun with more depth than I expected, not that it will distract you from all the action.

Unfortunately, the last hundred pages just aren’t Jonah Hex. That’s enough to drop it down a star.

Essential Continuity:
I’ve been told that one of the strengths of a Jonah Hex book is that you can pick it up without worrying about a convoluted history, but if you’re looking for the original material for this character, it’s in this volume.

Read first:
You don’t have to read anything first to enjoy this book.

Read next:
You could leap into the rest of Jonah Hex, including his modern ongoing.

Or you could check out Welcome to Paradise, a color reprint collection that includes some stories here and some not included in this volume (it’s next on my reading list.)

Finally, you might want to check out Showcase Presents: Bat Lash for other DC western material from this era. All of the western books are right near the start of our master list for the DC reading order.

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