Most of these issues of Jonah Hex have been single issue stories. But I've noticed something happening over the last year or so. Not all of these western tales have a clean, or happy ending. Some of them don't have much of an ending at all . . things just kind of work out the way they do. Kind of like real life, in that way. But we've begun to see characters and situations creep in to current story-lines from previous ones. That's normal for any other comic book, but for this one . . that doesn't usually happen. Especially considering what a loner Jonah is. He doesn't want, or need much from anyone . . usually. But, he seems to be hedging his bets lately. Maybe it's age, but I think he's starting to realize that having an ace in the hole for a future date isn't a bad thing. It doesn't necessarily mean you're looking for help, or even asking for it. But it could mean the difference in the outcome of a situation simply because there's another option open. Anyways, in issue #58 we see some motions set into affect because of a rich man's greedy wife. He's scooping up land claims once he finds out that there's been gold discovered. Being several years younger than her husband, the wife wants the money, and property, for herself. So she manipulates one of the disgruntled land owners into killing him. Anyways, long story short . . there's an innocent woman hurt in the process. When all's said and done, everyone ends up dead except for Jonah and this woman. When she asks why he brought her along, and why he gave her the deed to the property, he replies . . ''Y're rich, ain't ya? Might be some day ah need a favor . .' It seems more and more of these stories are ending that way. The other interesting thing about this particular issue is that most of the story was told from the perspective of the bullet.
I thought that was an interesting twist on things. Issue #59 is a bit more complicated. Jonah comes riding into this dust-ball town in search of a bounty. He finds out that there's a kind of feud between him and his younger brother because of a stolen love. It's not much of a town, but it seems that everyone has picked sides. When the older brother comes into town with his gang, Jonah meets them and pretty much takes them out single-handed. But then there's also someone after Jonah . . the Grey Ghost. It's a guy who feels that it's his duty to take out the southerners that betrayed the Confederacy, leading to it's downfall. To him, the war's over but the retribution isn't. Anyways, in the cross-fire, everyone else in this town ends up dead . . including the younger brother and lover, but Jonah tells him that he'll find his brother and make him pay for what he brought down on the woman. Another story-line thread left hanging out there at the end of the story. Like I said, it's becoming pretty commonplace in these issues lately. Anyways, I think Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti do a fantastic job with this series. The look and feel of it is near perfect. And the stories are fantastic. Giancarlo Canzcuzzo is the artist for #58, with Jordi Bernet doing the art for #59. Both their styles fit this book very well.
Most of these issues of Jonah Hex have been single issue stories. But I've noticed something happening over the last year or so. Not all of these western tales have a clean, or happy ending. Some of them don't have much of an ending at all . . things just kind of work out the way they do. Kind of like real life, in that way. But we've begun to see characters and situations creep in to current story-lines from previous ones. That's normal for any other comic book, but for this one . . that doesn't usually happen. Especially considering what a loner Jonah is. He doesn't want, or need much from anyone . . usually. But, he seems to be hedging his bets lately. Maybe it's age, but I think he's starting to realize that having an ace in the hole for a future date isn't a bad thing. It doesn't necessarily mean you're looking for help, or even asking for it. But it could mean the difference in the outcome of a situation simply because there's another option open. Anyways, in issue #58 we see some motions set into affect because of a rich man's greedy wife. He's scooping up land claims once he finds out that there's been gold discovered. Being several years younger than her husband, the wife wants the money, and property, for herself. So she manipulates one of the disgruntled land owners into killing him. Anyways, long story short . . there's an innocent woman hurt in the process. When all's said and done, everyone ends up dead except for Jonah and this woman. When she asks why he brought her along, and why he gave her the deed to the property, he replies . . ''Y're rich, ain't ya? Might be some day ah need a favor . .' It seems more and more of these stories are ending that way. The other interesting thing about this particular issue is that most of the story was told from the perspective of the bullet. 
I thought that was an interesting twist on things. Issue #59 is a bit more complicated. Jonah comes riding into this dust-ball town in search of a bounty. He finds out that there's a kind of feud between him and his younger brother because of a stolen love. It's not much of a town, but it seems that everyone has picked sides. When the older brother comes into town with his gang, Jonah meets them and pretty much takes them out single-handed. But then there's also someone after Jonah . . the Grey Ghost. It's a guy who feels that it's his duty to take out the southerners that betrayed the Confederacy, leading to it's downfall. To him, the war's over but the retribution isn't. Anyways, in the cross-fire, everyone else in this town ends up dead . . including the younger brother and lover, but Jonah tells him that he'll find his brother and make him pay for what he brought down on the woman. Another story-line thread left hanging out there at the end of the story. Like I said, it's becoming pretty commonplace in these issues lately. Anyways, I think Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti do a fantastic job with this series. The look and feel of it is near perfect. And the stories are fantastic. Giancarlo Canzcuzzo is the artist for #58, with Jordi Bernet doing the art for #59. Both their styles fit this book very well.
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