Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex, Vol. 2

Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex #2

by Michael Fleisher, José Luis García-López

Jonah Hex is a tracker, a gunfighter, a hunter of men. He is the greatest master of the sixgun the west has ever known. But bloodshed and violence dog the bounty hunter's heels like a pack of starving jackals! A hero to some and a villain to others, no one can deny that Hex gets the job done, no matter the cost!

The surly gunslinger's adventures continue in this second volume, featuring the work of comics legends Michael Fleisher, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Vicente Alcazar, Ernie Chan and more! Collects Weird Western Tales #34-38 and Jonah Hex #1-22.

Genres: Comics, Westerns, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics

528 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2014

About the author

Michael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.

Reviews

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Jonah Hex has had his own comic for a very long time, he's still something of a b-lister, so I guess he counts here.

This second volume of Showcase Presents Jonah Hex was published a good nine years after the first volume. Considering how successful and rare and pricey the first volume is, I wonder what took so long? These stories are pretty good, and feature Jonah getting into all sorts of scrapes with the law, criminals, Indians, and other bounty hunters. A recurring plot deals with Jonah being framed for the death of three lawmen, and it takes a good number of issues before it gets resolved. He also gets his own recurring villain, a Vaudevillian actor who has many disguises.

As these were published in the 1970s, most stories are one-and-dones, but author Michael Fleisher usually constructs tales that are tight and to the point. There are the occasional lapses of story structure and plot, but nothing too egregious.

The art is by a pantheon of artists, most of who have a very realistic, craggy style that fits our scarred hero. They work well in black and white, unlike the super-hero Showcase Presents volumes, which seem to rely on color a lot.

There's at least another volume of Showcase Presents left of Jonah's 70s run, as well as the ill-advised 80s series "Hex." I hope it's not another nine years before it sees print.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vert nice B&W reprint collection of the classic DC western stories. Good read of this 1970s character. Recommended

[Shawn Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too many comics of this era hold up well today. Jonah Hex is one of the best examples of 70's storytelling that's still great.

[Your_Average_Magical_Girls_Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars, mainly due to the constant strapping/maiming/hanging suffered by the titular character during a lot of the stories, which after the first three-fourth times gets a bit boring. Also, I don't get why Jonah is clearly anti-racist and pro-animalist but doesn't seem to like that much women at all, except when they kiss him or want to make love with him, of course. But I suppose after the Meadow Spring Crusade found in the first book you cannot expect much sympathy towards women by him at all.
If you want to know Jonah origin story you need however to read this one out.

[Des McCartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contains the origin story of Jonah Hex. Volume 1 and 2 are equally entertaining.

[PJ Ebbrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Showcasing Jonah Hex in glorious B&W. I love these long reprints do you get to see the gorgeous line drawings. Superb.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought Fleisher had jumped the shark on Hex after revealing the secret origin of the mark of the demon, then we get to Hex’s Brazilian & Argentine adventures, & we’re so f****** back

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's one thing to really set DC"s Western reprints aside from their other genres: the Westerns seem to have always had the best artists working on them. Jonah Hex's adventures are full of good, clear lifework and it reprints beautifully into black-and-white.

Of course, these are comics, so the art is only half the story. The writing is actually decent too. Granted, Jonah Hex seems to lose his hat, shirt, and guns on a regular basis during the course of any given story, and he seems to magically get them back on occasion between stories, but there's some rough continuity going on, with an ongoing (and sometimes forgotten) plot involving Hex being framed for murder and eventually acquitted, while also being given a backstory explaining his facial scars and trying to provide him with some ongoing nemeses...most of whom don't make it to a third adventure, but that's probably more appropriate for a gunslinger as opposed to Batman. Now, he does seem to get a lot of women throwing themselves at him, which seems odd since he's the ugliest DC character this side of Two-Face, but these things don't often work out in his favor anyway.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy these.

[Lauri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klassikalise Hexi taastrükk. 5 või 6 lugu Weird Westernist ja 22 numbrit Jonah Hexi omast sarjast. Tarbetu lisada - puhas kuld, vaatamata asjaolule et taastrükk on must-valge.