The days of western adventure as a viable genre in comics was well before I was even born, so I can't claim to know what those comics were like back in the day. But if I had to guess, I'd say that Jonah Hex #1 has a lot in common with them. Which is to say, this is not a modern comics reinvention of Jonah, nor even a darkly twisted Vertigo version ala Lansdale and Truman, it is a straightforward western adventure story with a grim but ultimately noble (by the standards of his time) hero, and a self-contained first issue to boot. Those seeking something more along the lines of Deadwood might want to cast their eyes to Vertigo's Loveless, but if you've got a taste for adventurous westerns that are a little bit more glammed up but not without their violent edge, you could do a lot worse than the well written and beautifully drawn first issue of Jonah Hex.
Gray and Palmiotti are not delving too deeply into the notion of the western hero as outlaw in Jonah Hex. Jonah Hex has no problem killing men, whether by the gun or more gruesome methods, but he is unquestionably the most noble character in the book, holding himself to a moral code that outranks the law in his eyes. He guns down his partner because of a rape (committed off-panel, I should mention) and submits the villain of the piece to a most horrific death, but these deaths are served up in the name of a justice so that it's clear we are meant to sympathize with Hex, and certainly I did. In the hands of these writers, Jonah Hex is like the modern flawed action hero, transported to the days of the Old West.
The flavor of the Old West is retained in this script, however. Luke Ross and Jason Keith provide a slicker, more city-fied version of the setting, so that it doesn't have the dusty realism of, say, Deadwood or Unforgiven, but the clothes, the dog fights, the guns and all the elements are there and give the book a flavor that makes it clearly a western as much as an adventure comic. That said, there's enough of a straightforward story that even those without a fondness for western stories might find something to like here, as it's a pretty straightforward hero for hire/revenge tale with western trappings. Hex gets some suitably badass moments and a few moments where we see his human side shine through, and certainly Gray and Palmiotti make him smart as well as tough in this story.
Ross is one of those guys who came on strong at Crossgen and has now returned to the DC or Marvel fold as a stunning artist. He and Keith provide a faux-painted look to the book that is packed with realism and detail, but not as stiff as a lot of the photo-referenced, realistic artists currently making waves in the industry. It's pretty clear that Ross is basing his Jonah Hex on a young Clint Eastwood, but I can't complain too much about that similarity, because it does seem about as fitting a model as you could get, even if the Truman version (or the Quitely version from the cover) seem to me to have a slightly more unique character.
Bottom line, Jonah Hex is a western for folks who don't think they like westerns. It's got a strong protagonist, a compelling plot and some gorgeous-looking artwork. Western genre diehards who like all the trappings of the genre might find it a bit tame compared to some of the western movies and television shows, but I suspect that most with a fondness for the genre will enjoy Jonah Hex quite a bit as well.
