Jonah Hex

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Jonah Hex is the title of a comic series that the US publisher DC Comics has published since 1972.

The books are about the adventures of the eponymous, outwardly disfigured and depraved gunslinger and womanizer Jonah Hex. There are two clearly distinguishable scenic approaches to stories about the character:

  • The original and prevailing approach to this day leaves the Jonah Hex stories in the natural setting of a western hero; H. the late Frontier and Wild West times, and is clearly part of the Western comics genre .
  • The second, more unusual approach, which does not necessarily meet the expectations of readers of a comic book about a gunslinger, shifts the Jonah Hex stories into the 21st century as comic book authors envisioned it in the 1980s, i.e. H. futuristic and mixes Wild West elements with the science fiction genre and the idea of dystopia .

Publications

The first comic in which a Jonah Hex story, under the title "Welcome to Paradise" was included, was the comic book All-Star Western # 10 , which appeared in February / March 1972. The author of this story and the spiritual father of Jonah Hex was the American John Albano. The visual design of this debut story was taken over by the illustrator Tony Dezuñiga, whose optical designs for Hex and his opponents essentially exist to this day.

Since Jonah Hex became by far the most popular comics of all-star westerns within a few months of its debut , the creators of the series finally decided to raise the Jonah Hex comics to their sole content and named all-star westerns , fitting the "weird." “Sole protagonists, in Weird Western Tales .

After the Jonah Hex stories had formed the main content of Weird Western Tales until 1977 , the adventures of the disfigured cowboy were finally shifted into a separate eponymous, monthly series that ran from its start in the fall of 1977 until it was discontinued in August 1985 reached a total of 92 issues. In addition, there was a special edition published in 1978 ( Jonah Hex Spectacular # 1), which appeared parallel to the monthly series and - anticipating the end of which - deals with the murder of Hex by one of his old enemies.

A new Jonah Hex series was started back in September 1985, briefly titled Hex , and began with the protagonist being sent on a journey through time into the 21st century, where he was dealing with robots, mutants, monsters and high-tech - villains got to do, whom he put in place in the tried and tested form with his outstanding skills as a revolver shooter. This series was discontinued after 18 issues in February 1987.

Since then, DC's in-house imprint Vertigo , which specializes in "harder pace" comics for adult audiences, has released various miniseries under the title Jonah Hex , which show the character in their old Wild West setting, more or less typical Western adventures let experience. These miniseries were written by writer Joe R. Lansdale, while their illustration was commissioned to illustrator Tim Truman. The first of these miniseries, Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo , came out in 1993 and reached 5 issues. The second, Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such , was published in 1995 and also had five issues. It was finally followed in 1999 by Jonah Hex: Shadows West in three editions.

Since 2005, DC has been releasing a new monthly Jonah Hex comic series for an unlimited period. This series is currently written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, while artist Luke Ross is the draftsman. As a guest artist for issues # 5 and # 9 of this series, Tony DeZungia, the regular artist of the old Hex series of the 1970s and 1980s, was also won over. Other artists who worked as guest artists on the series included Art Thibert and Paul Gulacy.

Plot and main character Jonah Hex

The title hero of Jonah Hex is, unlike many western heroes, not a young handsome guy with an uninhibited disposition and always a loose saying on his lips, but an outwardly disfigured man in his forties, whose right half of his face is furrowed by repulsive scars. Hex is not a fighter for justice with a carefree character, but a bitter cynic who also - afflicted with all sorts of emotional wounds and trauma - wanders aimlessly through the Wild West.

Hex's past is gradually revealed in flashbacks over the course of the various Jonah Hex comics:

Learn how Hex was born the son of a settler in 1838. His mother runs away with a merchant in 1848 and Hex is sold as a slave by his father to an Apache chief as a teenager (1851). He finally adopted him after two years when Hex rescues him from a wild puma. Hex is betrayed by his adoptive brother Noh-Aunt and captured during an attack on a village of the warring tribe of the Kiowah (1854). He escapes the Kiowah and returns to white society. In 1859, Jonah Hex becomes engaged to the beautiful Cassie Wainwright, who is murdered by the Indians the day before their wedding.

The American Civil War Hex serves as a soldier in the Confederate and is taken one day captured by Union soldiers. He is held responsible for a Confederate massacre committed by Union soldiers , in which his friend Jeb Turnbull also died. Turnbull's father, Quentin Turnbull, puts a bounty on him. In 1863 he took revenge on Noh-aunt and was wounded in the face by his father, his foster father, with a red-hot tomahawk , which left him permanently disfigured by a long scar on the right half of his face ("The Mark of the Demon").

Hex later defeats an unnamed actor who Turnbull has hired to disguise as Hex to commit crimes that can be blamed on him. The actor, whose face is disfigured in the fight with Hex, seeks revenge as "The Chameleon" from now on. In search of the kidnapped girl Laura Vaden, Hex meets his foster father again and kills him. He married the Asian Mei Ling in 1875 and had a son named Jason with her. In 1904, Hex was finally shot by criminal George Barrow while playing cards. His corpse is stuffed and displayed as a sight at a traveling fair.

Film adaptations

Jonah Hex was on television in the episode "Showdown" in the animated series Batman: The Animated Series (US dubbing voice: William McKinney ) and the episode "The Once and Future Thing, Part 1: Weird Western Tales" in the Justice League Unlimited series (Dubbing voice: Adam Baldwin ) to see. The character could also be seen in a brief appearance in the series Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Das Totem ( Return of the Fearsome Fangs ) and in the entire episode Duel der Falschspiele ( Duel of the Double Crossers ). The US dubbing voice is performed by Phil Morris while the German dubbing voice is spoken by Peter Flechtner . In the series DC's Legends of Tomorrow he plays in the episode "The Magnificent Eight" with.

In 2010 an American Jonah Hex film adaptation was made under the direction of Jimmy Hayward . The western, in which Josh Brolin plays the male lead, Megan Fox the female lead and John Malkovich the adversary Turnbull, premiered in American cinemas on June 18, 2010. The US-American sludge metal band Mastodon is responsible for the film music , whose singer and guitarist Brent Hinds also has a guest appearance . For the rest of the music, director Hayward was able to win the composer Marco Beltrami . In Germany, the film was released on February 4, 2011 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

A Jonah Hex short film was also released in the DC Showcase short film series in 2010 . The dubbing voice in English is spoken by Thomas Jane . The short film can be found on the Batman: Under the Red Hood DVD .

Reprints

In the Showcase Presenst series, two volumes have been published with reprints of old hex stories:

  • Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume I, 2005. (528 pages, contains All-Star Western # 2-8, 10-12, and Weird Western Tales 12-14 and 16-33) ISBN 1-4012-0760-X
  • Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume 2, 2007. (528 pages, includes Weird Western Tales # 34-38 and Jonah Hex # 1-22) ISBN 1-4012-1561-0

Other edited volumes by Jonah Hex are:

  • Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo, 1994. (Reprint of the miniseries of the same name) ISBN 1-56389-162-X
  • Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti: Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence , Titan Books 2006. (144 pages, reprinted by Jonah Hex, 2nd series, # 1-6) ISBN 1-84576-408-0
  • Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti: Jonah Hex: Guns of Vengeance , 2007. (144 pages, reprinted by Jonah Hex, 2nd series # 7-12) ISBN 1-4012-1249-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" Return of the Fearsome Fangs! (2009). Retrieved May 26, 2010 .
  2. ^ "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" Duel of the Double Crossers (2009). Retrieved May 26, 2010 .