This comic is an underappreciated gem.Month after month, in each issue of Jonah Hex, writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti serve up a cracking good story set in the wild west.
Using a style that would be right at home in the best Clint Eastwood westerns, we follow Hex as he fights to survive against all odds, through circumstances as grim, harsh and pitiless as the prairie sands.
In this issue, we find Hex struggling to survive after being ambushed by an unusual thief. He stumbles to a lonely cabin, where a widow lives a solitary life with her baby. As she patches Hex's wound, he tells the story of how he wound up at her door.
Alone, without ammunition, he has to find a way to survive when a vengeful family of murderers comes after him. It's a brutal tale and a darn good one. Gray and Palmiotti have crafted some outstanding Jonah Hex stories, and this is another great one to add to the list.
They're also skilled at writing stories that fit the style of the artist working on the comic. Here those duties fall to Jordi Bernet, and while his work may not be familiar to most American readers, he's done some outstanding work on several issues of Hex. He has a gritty style that's somewhat reminiscent of Joe Kubert, with some Milton Caniff and Will Eisner thrown in for good measure (which is not to say he's copying - those are just the influences my uneducated eye sees).
Jonah Hex lives in a hard, unforgiving world, and he makes no apologies for what he has to do to survive. These aren't stories for the squeamish, but they are expertly crafted and full of surprises.
If you're not reading this comic, you're missing the manliest comic on the stands.
Grade: A-
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