Broken Frontier

Jonah Hex #43 features typical wild west action with anything but typical fabulous artwork by Paul Gulacy.

The owner of the Hyde Hotel and his beautiful daughter have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Interested men from the bank hired Jonah Hex to rescue the victims from the Zane gang. There is little doubt Jonah Hex can keep his end of the bargain, but the matter of payment becomes problematic. Mr. Hyde's daughter Kate proves to be stronger and wiser than her appearance and young years indicate.

Roughly two thirds of the issue is silent. No captions or words, only gorgeous cinematic storytelling by master artist Paul Gulacy. Excellent action and beautiful rendering of the female form are Gulacy's strength and exist in abundance in the issue. Gulacy's Hex is a lean killing machine, portrayed like a demon born in hell, as he slaughters the gang as the Hotel burns to the ground. The movement and fluidity of the action capture the reader and draw him inescapably into the frenetic action. Gulacy puts on a clinic for drawing action sequences, and tops the gestures with his incredible inks. Dark in places, but with a mastery of light sources and texture. Schwager's coloring rises to the task, and makes this one of the most beautiful books artistically that I have read in a while.

Given that most of the issue highlighted the action, there was little left for plot and story, so Gray and Palmiotti settle for a standard bounty hunting tale. This is not to denigrate the tale, only to say that it was typical of the genre and not distracting. I appreciated the character of Kate for her strength and detachment from the horrible ordeal she suffered through.

I have to admit to not being a regular reader of the Hex title, so this may not be news to regular readers, but I really enjoyed the nod to the modern era both in the story and characters. I don't think its coincidence or unintended for the bankers who hire Hex to be portrayed as snivellers and swindlers.  It is not so heavy handed as to be distracting, but the writers seem to be satirizing the mortgage and financial swindlers of current America in their Old West tale. Science fiction has a long and storied history of being morality plays in the future setting, so it's nice to see the Western genre using the convention.

Overall a very satisfying issue. I hope Gulacy does more work on this title, and it's well worth picking up anything he sets his brush to.