DC Showcase: Jonah Hex

Nobody cowboys harder than Jonah Hex. The scarred bounty-hunter is so hardnosed, it is practically a super-power. The live-action movie did not do him justice, but this animated short did. Once again, it is an example of how DC straight-to-DVD animated films are vastly superior to both Marvel and DC live-action tent-poles. On the day of what is sometimes listed as his in-world birthday (11/1), get a taste of his cool steeliness and hot lead in Joaquim Dos Santos’s 12-minute short, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex.

In the 1980s, Jonah Hex was just about the last western comic book title that still cranked out new issues. However, there was a non-fantastical macabre vibe to Hex’s world that was far from traditional. Joe R. Lansdale’s screenplay captures that sensibility perfectly.

Hex soon blows into town hot on the heels of Red Doc, an outlaw wanted dead or alive. Unfortunately for Doc, he will soon be stone cold, thanks to the seductive treachery of Madame Lorraine, the proprietress of the salon and upstairs areas, where, you know. She is no Miss Kitty, that’s for sure. Madame Lorraine makes a practice of killing and looting horny drifters like Red Doc. She assumes she can do the same with Hex. Right, good luck with that.

Thomas Jane’s snarling voiceovers are so perfect for Hex, he deserves a chance to fully play the cowboy on film. Linda Hamilton sounds delighted with Madame Lorraine’s femme fatale villainy, while Michael Rooker appropriately expresses Red Doc’s wild unruliness.

Best of all, Jonah Hex ends in a really, really dark place. That is where Hex lives and Dos Santos and the DC animators truly show him in his element. Highly recommended as a weird and sinister (but not quite supernatural) western, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex is available as a bonus on the Batman: Under the Red Hood DVD release.