There are two basic concepts behind the X-Men. The first is that they are a pun on the phrase "nuclear family," a group of mutants, outcast from their own families and lives because of their freakish nature, able to find family only with each other. The idea was reinforced by the arrival of the New X-Men in GIANT SIZED X-MEN #1 (1975), where the X-Men aren’t just a quintet of upstanding caucasians anymore, but instead ethnically diverse, with origins from Canada, Asia, Africa, Europe; with skins brown, red and blue. With no common ground, they are bound by their freakish, radiation-spawned differences.

The second concept dates back to the first issue and is part of the fabric woven into every early Marvel comic: these people, with their vast powers, are saving those who don’t appreciate the risk and the sacrifice. The Fantastic Four were instantly vilified when the skrulls set up their shape-shifting frame job, Spider-Man was constantly hounded by the press and wanted by the police, and the X-Men... well, the X-Men were hated by the public. Reed Richards saved the world from Galactus and people stopped being upset about the fact that Four Freedom’s Plaza was blocking their view. J. Jonah Jameson never backed off of Spider-Man, but most of the rest of the world saw through his editorial bias. But the X-Men will never swing the popular vote. They have to be the outcast, the underdog, the feared.

This second piece of "high concept" is the same backdrop that John Albano uses when he created the character of Jonah Hex in "Welcome To Paradise" in ALL-STAR WESTERN #10 (1972).

Jonah Hex is a DC Comics-spanning character. Despite his historical setting, which would seemingly pigeonhole him as a untouchable part of the DC Universe, Hex has appeared in various incarnations in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, ARMAGEDDON: INFERNO, BOOKS OF MAGIC and SUPERBOY. The character has been vaulted into the far future, revamped by the DC Vertigo line, and been worked on by such names as Keith Giffen, Mark Texiera, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, David Michelinie and Larry Hama.

But you never would have anticipated that by reading his initial appearance. The notes that appear on the inside front and back cover of the Millennium Edition reprint of ALL-STAR WESTERN #10 (the second known reprint of the story, as it was rerun in JONAH HEX #5 with an added framing sequence) do little to indicate the scope of the original plan for the character. It talks about the format of the title, which went on to become WEIRD WESTERN TALES, an anthology that printed mostly reprints of old Western stories, and which had previously featured the characters El Diablo and Bat Lash. But no indication is given whether or not Jonah Hex was intended to be a character who would continue to be published for the next twelve years and beyond.

When reading the sixteen-page short in isolation, it is difficult to assume that the editorial board would have looked at the script and felt that the character had more than one story in him. Part of this is likely an aspect of the writer’s style. Albano went on to write a number of stories for HOUSE OF MYSTERY, and one would guess from reading "Welcome To Paradise" that the structure and house-style suited him well. The structures in "Welcome To Paradise" are simple and declarative - somewhat of a necessity in such few pages. Expository dialogue informs us of Hex’s vast and fearsome reputation and yet shows us the charity and inherent goodness that hides beneath his dusty Confederate coat.

"Welcome To Paradise" is a simple story of Sour Grapes and Appearance vs. Interior. Hex is shown with the right side of his face perpetually in shadow for the first seven pages of the story, hiding the bizarre scarring that has become so well known. The revelation of his appearance - which, for the remainder of the story, returns to being hidden in shadow for the most part - helps to explain the reaction that people in the town have been giving him. But not completely. Why claim he would "kill a man so much as look at him," just moments after Hex defends a horse from unnecessary beating? Because no one can look past appearance, Albano tells us. Because the residents of the ironically-titled town of Paradise Corners hide fear and pettiness behind a facade of civility and manners.

Not high art, perhaps. The Millennium Edition liner notes wish us to believe that Albano was influenced by Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name from the spaghetti westerns "A Fistful of Dollars," "A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." But while The Man With No Name is clearly a drifter with history, the sort of Western ronin who would wander into a town, participate in it’s trouble and wander off to a new adventure, Jonah Hex, as Albano writes him, is a one-trick pony.

The tone of "Welcome To Paradise" is that this has happened to Hex in the past, and it’s going to continue to happen. It's established - obliquely - as one of a string of identical, mournful pearls and therefore with no reason to ever tell a Jonah Hex story again. Just as one doesn’t revisit the astronauts who landed their rocket on Hell in HOUSE OF MYSTERY, there is seemingly no reason to revisit the character of Jonah Hex.

(The El Diablo and Bat Lash stories seem to indicate no reason to ever revisit those characters again, either - but for completely different reasons.)

The Millennium Edition of ALL-STAR WESTERN #10 serves as an interesting example of the maliciousness of the serial comic format, the need to create characters that will endlessly repeat themselves until fallen ratings force a dramatic alteration or conclusion. Just before the character was the recipient of his own book in 1977, Michael Fleischer started writing the character. Hex’s origin was told in Fleischer’s WEIRD WESTERN TALES #29 and the character had great depths and complexity under his pen. Fleischer told the story of Hex’s death in 1904, dying at the hands of a younger, faster gunslinger in JONAH HEX SPECTACULAR #1 (1979). An unprecedented act, Fleischer creates a certain finalé for his doomed character. While it takes a little of the sting out of dramatic situations in later issues, it allowed Fleischer to end the character with the meaning and structure he wanted, as opposed to having to wrap things up in a choppy, hurried manner if the book was suddenly canceled. Fleischer is thereby able to reclaim what is seemingly stolen from Albano by the sheer fact that Jonah Hex appeared in more than one issue of ALL-STAR WESTERN in the first place.

Recommended with Reservations