Jonah Hex (2006-2011) Vol. 2: Guns of Vengeance

Who does not get a vicarious thrill out of reading about comic heroes who are avenging angels of death for the bad and evil people in the world. This is the reason so many people love the Punisher and Jonah Hex series. I have always been a fan of western stories and the illustrated Jonah Hex is my number one favorite with Custis Long being the second favorite of the book series.This volume, Guns of Vengeance, has six well written and well illustrated tales that fans of Jonah Hex no doubt will enjoy. They include: One wedding and fifty funerals, where Jonah is attending a wedding where he was paid to be there and of course the bad guys are coming. Never turn a blind eye, has Jonah bringing in six heads in a wood casket into a town. Getting un-haunted, is a spooky tale. The other three great stories is Gator bait, where the bad guys try and feed their gator Jonah Hex. The hangin tree, where some carny people hang Jonah, and bloodstained snow.In conclusion, this volume was full of the kind of action we all love in a Jonah Hex western adventure.Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Never trust a politician)

The Jonah Hex series continues to get better and better. With my amazon fire I only have to pause for a minute before I start the next collection.

Classic Hex.

Jonah Hex issues 7-12 put into graphic novel form makes for a fun read with our favorite Western bounty hunter, who makes his own rules about who lives and who dies -- with scripts by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.The first story One Wedding and Fifty Funerals starts with a gunfight between Jonah and several armed men, as the town of Blood Creek, Texas burns in the background. No dialogue at first -- just flying bullets causing a lot of damage.A jilted lover comes in on a wedding with a gang of hoods, catches the wedding tent on fire and start in on killing. Brian told her not to wed another. With her former husband's blood on her hands, she has Jonah hunt the guy down. "Dead or Alive?" Jonah: "When is alive an option?" Love that! Great little story, unusual and depressing ending! Luke Ross art full of large panels and action throughout.Never Turn a Blind Eye has several heads sans bodies in a wooden box. Why? What happened? Gruesome! But that's not the story! An old friend of Jonah's stumbles into a bar and tells him the Bedroll Killers are coming into town after him. He asks protection from the marshal. It seems his pal is not telling the whole story -- and a colony of Germans out for revenge, things get out of hand. Detailed art by David Michael Beck.Tony DeZunica's detailed pencils come to play in a gripping Western tale called Ambushed. A girl gets killed in an accidental shooting and her mother desires revenge -- for four long years until she meets Hex and this time there's no turning her away. Hex is the ugliest I've seen with DeZunica's pencils.Phil Noto's pastels are an interesting mix of blood and water in this tale, "Gator Bait", in Black Swamp, Louisiana, as Hex wrestles gators! A dying man asks for retribution with a knife sticking out his back. "Retribution comes at a price!", Jonah says. The hunt begins. He finds the killer family and they want him in the swamp with their gators. Jonah has other plans. This is the most graphic of the stories so far.Art Thibert draws a hideous scene of skeletons hanging by rope on a tree. And one body -- Jonah Hex! A bunch of carney (carnival) freaks witness the goings on. After they move on, El Diablo rides in and cuts Hex free. "I would stay," he says, "but vengeance calls and I must answer..." I love this kind of supernatural, suspenseful dialogue. Ironically, the carney guys are in trouble, being mauled by a gang of thugs. El Diablo (host of a vengeful spirit and all that) and Hex work well together to save them, but Hex still has to get his revenge on them-- "I'm a few bodies shy a' my quota."Luke Ross returns in "Bloodstained Snow," advertised as a Weird Western tale! A bunch of bounty hunters were hired to kill Mormons. Hex gets rescued in the snow from being thrown to the ground, starving. He is taken in by the Mormons and they explain the situation. Especially when one of the Mormons has had his tongue cut out and teeth wrenched from his mouth! Gruesome!Great collection of stories -- from the bloody Old West!Other Palmiotti Tales: Random Acts of Violence Last Resort Jonah Hex: Counting Corpses Jonah Hex: Luck Runs Out

Gray and Palmiotti have such a great handle on the character of Jonah Hex. Reading their Hex feels...right. The book is setup with different artists handling different stories issue to issue and its a perfect fit for the series. The art obviously varies but overall, its very good. While the issues are separate the same themes and elements are present. The dialogue is fun and Hex is who he is. Very fun read.

During the fall of 2015 I found myself enjoying Jonah Hex, a comicbook character in the Western genre. I like to read Hex like the way my wife like watching Steve McQueen’s TV series “Wanted: Dead or Alive:” It was fun to read of Western adventures of a bounty hunter dealing with different characters and bad guys. I did felt that this particular volume did had more moral dilemmas than the first volume that reveal Jonah Hex is not just a thoughtless killing machine. For instance there is a suspect Hex captured whom he allows to enjoy his own wedding first and the suspect insists that there’s simply a mistake and things will eventually be cleared up. It turns out the guy was innocent but then someone attacked the bridal party. Hex isn’t comfortable with that. Nor was he comfortable with the death of a little girl by one of the suspects Hex was trying to capture that reveal Hex isn’t just a calloused gunslinger. We also see the theme of the mistrust of Mormons during that time period. Hex goes against a group that wanted to hurt them for simply being Mormons. Again, an enjoyable read.