Tired of Living in This One-Horse Town

Just a reminder that as Jonah Hex Two-Gun Mojo comes to a close that it is a lead up to the motion picture coming out this summer. Essentially it’s to get the audience familiar with a character who is mostly overlooked and barely known. This seems to be the most successful format for Hex thus far as his most famous appearance has been in the time traveling episode in the animated series Justice League Unlimited.

It’s a long day for Jonah Hex. He’s in a hole shooting Apaches, and fighting alongside Doc Williams and his undead carnival. If he hadn’t grown up with a tribe of Apaches he wouldn’t have survived this episode, but survive he does.

As we meet the end of this motion comic series, writer Joe R. Lansdale pulls out all the stops and paints a realistic, gritty picture of the west. The language and violence have also intensified as the complex relationships of the people who are trying to survive in this new nation are being negotiated in this post civil war landscape.

There are also many satisfying moments particularly when Hex finally meets up with Doc. And the one-liners are a tribute to the romanticized old west. Still as far as animations go it paints a realistic picture of what the west was – frightening, feral and the outcome of the sins attributed to racism. Between the commentary on the Apaches and Hex’s complicated history it goes to show that he’s a microcosm of all the injustices and the wrongs of manifest destiny.

“He was a hero to some, a villain to others and wherever he rode people spoke his name in whispers.” As Hex rides out of yet another one horse town, and onto one more wild adventure, we come to fully understand what this moniker means. There are many names given to him, but one wonders how will a little known character in the DC universe fare on the big screen.

About Donna-Lyn Washington 639 Articles
Donna-lyn Washington has a M.A. in English from Brooklyn College. She is currently teaching at Kingsborough Community College where her love of comics and pop culture play key parts in helping her students move forward in their academic careers. As a senior writer for ReviewFix she has been able to explore a variety of worlds through comics, film and television and has met some interesting writers and artists along the way. Donna-lyn does a weekly podcast reviewing indie comics and has also contributed entries to the 'Encyclopedia of Black Comics,’ the academic anthology ‘Critical Insights: Frank Yerby’ and is the editor for the upcoming book, ‘Conversations With: John Jennings.’

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