Jonah Hex : Guns of Vengeance (Paperback)

by Jimmy Palmiotti (Author), Justin Gray (Author), Luke Ross (Author), Paul Gulacy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist
Jonah Hex is a bounty hunter roaming the nineteenth-century West, meting out cold frontier justice with a gun and an iron will. He dispatches crooked lawmen, rival mercenaries, and ruthless outlaws alike, never looking back or farther ahead than the next bounty. His reputation for cold calculation and a fast draw looms large in territories where law is often the first casualty. The stories collected here are stand-alones and reintroduce this classic DC character well. The creators pay unmistakable homage to the early pulp Westerns and earlier penny-dreadfuls that made the original gunslingers famous by employing easily recognized, wholly forgivable cliches and over-the-top dialogue. The art clearly nods to Clint Eastwood's classic westerns, especially in the framing of action scenes. And it's hard not to notice Hex's resemblance to the wandering man with no name. Whether meeting Mr. Hex for the first time or renewing an acquaintance made with his earlier incarnation in the early 1970s, western comics fans should be impressed by his frontier-noir adventures. Tina Coleman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (April 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401212492
• ISBN-13: 978-1401212490
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #276,957 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Return with us now to those WEIRD days of yesteryear, September 22, 2006

By	Dave "babytoxie" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Jonah Hex Vol. 1: Face Full of Violence (Paperback)

JONAH HEX: A FACE FULL OF VIOLENCE collects the first six issues of the new series focusing on everyone's favorite weird western bounty hunter. Jonah Hex will never win any beauty contests, but he's got more than enough speed to quickly dispatch anyone who tells him so. Thankfully, writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, along with artists Luke Ross and Tony DeZuniga, take Hex back to his incarnation from DC's classic `70s series "Weird Western Tales" and "Jonah Hex" - gone are the days of the inexplicable futuristic adventurer "Hex", as well as the sleazy white trash version from Joe Lansdale and Tim Truman. If anything, this Hex is patterned more after Clint Eastwood from Hang 'Em High, and the influences show in Ross' beautiful painted art. These six issues are individual stories, and not a continuous arc, pitting Hex against crooked law officials, vengeful nuns, the Texas Rangers, and other interesting opponents. Another classic DC western character, Bat Lash, appears in issue # 3, hopefully foreshadowing more appearances by others. The stories move quickly, are to-the-point, and wrap up nicely, traits that are rare for an ongoing series these days.

I have to hand it to DC for resurrecting this classic character in his original form. Jonah Hex had really drifted off the mark over the past 20-odd years. This is a welcome return. While Western characters certainly helped to keep the comics industry alive during the dark days of the Kefauver hearings, I don't know if readers would take to a revival of squeaky-clean heroes like Hopalong Cassidy or Roy Rogers... but Hex, or Scalphunter, Cinnamon, or even Arak Red-Hand would certainly be welcome. DC has a rich stable of Western characters - it's about time they were dusted off and given the spotlight.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A trade that stands out from the rest, October 3, 2006

By	Patrick C. Wedge (Van Buren, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jonah Hex Vol. 1: Face Full of Violence (Paperback)

In a comic medium of decompressed stories and multi-part crossovers, Jonah Hex completely exposes an old school tradition by crafting clever, witty and meaningful stories in stand alone issues. Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Luke Ross are able to take a classic DC character, in a under appreciated genre, and captivate the audience. This collection offers readers a little taste of what the monthly title has been able to deliver on a monthly basis. Very happy that I've been getting the monthly title but this trade will sit on the bookshelf with some of my other titles.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just plain awesome, November 15, 2006

By	N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jonah Hex Vol. 1: Face Full of Violence (Paperback)

One of the most underappreciated characters in one of the most underappreciated genres in comics gets resurrected and reinvigorated thanks to the writing tandem of inker Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. A duo who worked together on a series of holiday-themed Punisher one-shots (none of which were anything if at all to write home about mind you), both writers are firing on all cylinders with Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence, which collects the first six issues of the revamped series. Instead of focusing on one continuing storyline, Face Full of Violence contains six seperate stories all involving our favorite scarred outlaw, as he pursues kidnappers, has run-ins with those from his past, and generally takes on all comers without blinking an eye. The stories themselves are gritty and violent without going over the top in terms of gore and profanity (this isn't a Vertigo title, it's under the DC banner), but it retains plenty of attitude and a mature tone that isn't seen in mainstream comics too often these days. The art by Luke Ross and original Jonah Hex artist Tony Dezuniga is nothing short of great, making an already sweet package even, well, sweeter. All in all, if you dig old western comics or have fond memories of a man named Hex, this is a must own.