Broken Frontier

A young mute boy on a doomed hunting trip with his father learns a great deal about life after Jonah Hex enters his life.

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti anger me. I doubt that they have ever been on a tragic hunting trip in the wide frozen expanses of Canada in winter. I doubt they have ever been "saved" by a larger then life bounty hunter. Yet, they convincingly write a story full of rich detail, genuine reflection and somehow, it is not light on the action.

Towards the end of this book, after all the gun fighting and a probing look at the darker side of the American West’s great mythos, the pair of scribes actually meditate on the meaning of truth in writing. Allowing their young narrator to grow up into a writer, they place this work of fiction into the realm of veiled autobiography that is discussed. By tapping into the archetypes of what will surely be referred to as the United States’ own peculiar mythology in a thousand years, they transcend their own experience. The Western is such a draw because it is an allegory to the American Dream - In the Wild West, a man could pave his own path with a horse, a gun, and the will of God. By moving their tale to the Canadian Wild, it loses none of its power or mysticism. What it gains is a new dynamic - the bitter cold is similar to the harshness attributed to a dry desert surrounded by barren canyons.

Making this change allows the authors to play with the tropes of the genre. Less than respectable marshals become scoundrel Mounties. Coyotes become wolves. The impossible to survive heat is replaced by a watery grave that is below zero. The best stories can be and are transcribed from one mythological setting to another.

With careful attention to the details along the way, Gray and Palmiotti pull off that switch and show why Jonah Hex can be just as exciting today as he was 36 years ago when he fist appeared in All-Star Western#10. Yes, they anger me because I still haven’t been able to tap into the collective unconscious in a manner even remotely like they do here. Yes, envy is a green eyed monster who lives in my pen.

Cooke, on the other hand, is the kind of master that awes me. He is one of those artists who is distinctive in style and tone. When I heard that he was doing an issue of Jonah Hex, it excited me quite a bit. Somewhere along the way I forgot to be nervous. Would ne be able to bring the grittiness to the page that is required by a Western?

That question finally hit me when I opened the book and saw snow. Panel after panel of the Great White North was laid out in drastic contrast to what was expected. Add to this an introspective narrative told in a wizened recollection and one wondered if we would even see the scarred gunman. Alas, when one turns the page the blood is first spilled and the reader realizes that, yes, indeed this is the kind of setting that could work for a tale of trouble, tragedy and harsh violent bloodshed.

What is interesting is the emotion on display, from fierce wolves to wounded and dying men. Cooke handles all that with ease and the bullets fly, the knife slashes, and the blood dances like some mad choreographer has decided that this comic is set to music. The delicate ballet that proceeds in the action sequences is proof that no matter the subject, Cooke knows no equal.

Throw in the masterful colors of Dave Stewart and you see four creators meld perfectly with tone, ability and story. It’s the kind of thing you see once in a life time - a near perfect story told with care and skill while tapping into a larger iconography than its subject would normally employ.