Frakin’ terrible, man. I don’t know Cooke’s work as well as I would like, but even still, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve consumed, and regret that which I haven’t.

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[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

For the second time in less than a week, Jonah Hex’s ugly mug has popped up on OL. I assure you, the decision to give Jonah Hex the weekly comics spotlight isn’t rooted in the fact that I tried to pimp out a promotion for the movie. (By the way, if you are still interested, the contest is still on! Rock a submission and get free stuff!). No, this issue has been deemed the best collection of panels and prose, the most bang-for-your-buck on the racks.

For the first time since its inception, Images & Words is proud to present a Western!

[Cue this shit up]

With your first glimpse at the cover, you know this comic means business. The always fantastic Darwyn Cooke offers an interpretation of Hex that draws heavily on Clint Eastwood’s most infamous character. Of course, he then disfigures Eastwood’s beautiful face, adding the scarring for which the titular character is best known. Cooke also presents his artistic license in adding a heart to Jonah Hex’s shirt; cleverly, this shape is actually a hole in the fabric, which can either suggest that he has no heart at all or that he has one but it is empty.

Looking to spruce up an apartment on the cheap? Buy Jonah Hex #56 and toss the cover on a wall. Your friends will think it’s super kawaii.

But if you like reading comic books, you’re still in luck! In fact, this issue offers two self-contained shorts — a welcome change considering the fact that most comics are incomplete sections of storylines that stretch over months. Any time that the format is fiddled with, I can’t help but allot some points. Fuck it, I have no qualms about rewarding novelty, a running against the grain that helps open minds. Two stories? I’m sold.

Fortunately, both of the tales presented in Jonah Hex #56 are rad.

In the More than Enough, we first see Jonah Hex’s loyalty being purchased by an elderly Native American trying to retain ownership of her land. Then, J. Hex’s services are sold to the three neighbors harassing the old woman. It’s impossible to figure out where the antihero’s morals lay, which is far more preferable for such a figure. I assure you, the resolution is just and ironic

First True Love takes the reader through a crash course of Jonah Hex’s history. His time being raised within an Apache tribe is chronicled, as are his first trials and tender sentiments. We see a potentially blameless youth crafted into a dark, cynical gun-for-hire. Love, in a number of forms, is given and then taken away. And at the conclusion, we see what happens when a man who has spent his entire existence fighting for his life and watching people die is threatened by hapless fools.

Jonah Hex kicks ass. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti know how to take the archetypal Western-antihero and then succeed purely in terms of narrative execution.   The team proves that well-worn character-types don’t have to be boring, but sloppy storytelling usually makes them so.

Everyone should read this comic book — whether they are dead or alive.