“Jonah Hex, and this volume, are a great example of what you can do when you’ve got a couple stories to tell and a character that nobody really cares about.
In that way, I think Jonah Hex is my dream character to write.
If you know anything about Jonah Hex, it’s probably that he fought for the south in the Civil War. But it’s more complicated than that.
Born in 1838, Hex had a real dickhead of a dad who sold him into slavery to some Apache people.
Now, this is probably mostly bullshit, I don’t think there are a lot of cases of a white person being sold into slavery to American Indians, however American Indians did often make war captives into slaves, and different American Indian groups participated in the enslavement of African slaves to different degrees, running the gamut from taking part in giving African slaves sanctuary to enslaving them themselves.
That said, it’s a fiction probably meant to demonstrate that Hex Sr. was a real bastard. Who sells their own son into slavery?
Hex saved some big time chief guy during his time as a young slave, and he was brought into the Apache family.
THEN, he joined up during the Civil War…for the South.
And this is what makes the character a little, um, challenging. However, Hex’s fictional character biography states that Hex joined because he believed in southern independence, but as the war wore on, although he was conflicted because he believed there were a lot of good people fighting for the south, having been a slave himself, he wasn’t so hot on continued slavery.
And this is where it gets complicated. Does anyone have a taste for a Confederate soldier who has decided the Civil War was about state’s rights as opposed to slavery?
And I think this is why Hex can work and, simultaneously, can’t work.
Everyone likes a redemption story, and at the same time, we mostly like redemption stories where the redeemable character hasn’t actually done anything bad.
I always point to the movie Ant-Man on this.
In the movie, Scott Lang is a recently-released prisoner trying to work a menial job and get visitation rights for his daughter. Turning his life around after committing the terrible crime of finding out a company he was working for was ripping off its customers and essentially refunding those ripped-off customers their money.
First of all, even if he was imprisoned, he would be seen as a hero for doing this. This is like Robin Hood shit, except even more justified as the riches were stolen directly from the poor to line the pockets of the rich.
Secondly, would anyone see this as a crime that warranted being imprisoned? Who is afraid that Scott Lang is going to correctly issue refunds to more people if he’s not stopped!?
Third, I get it, maybe this is like a corporate greed/power/assholery thing, but I think a more likely outcome is that the company would discover what Lang did, DEFINITELY fire his ass, but ultimately take the L, recognizing that the alternative would be a court case where, in all likelihood, they would’ve lost more than just the money they skimmed off of customers. The smart move for a company like this is to spin it such that they’re like, “Thanks to our star employee, Scott Lang, we discovered this glitch in the system, and we’ve already issued refunds.” C’mon, guys, you don’t become a big, rich company by getting outsmarted this easily.
If you want to tell a story of redemption, Hex seems like the way to go. THAT shit is a hole to dig yourself out of. I mean, forget Spider-Man not beating the shit out of a criminal, who coincidentally kills his uncle, Hex directly participated in some shit that perpetuated slavery. He’s not blameless, it’s not just coincidence, and he’s genuinely in need of going pretty far to find redemption.
Which is why I think it’s great: the need to go pretty far, and even then, perhaps being unable to reach it. Perhaps being irredeemable.
And having no clear path. It’s not like there’s someone out there who can objectively say whether he succeeds or not. There’s not actuary table for this sort of thing. It’s going to be up to Hex and Hex alone to determine whether he’s made up for his past. And it’s a complicated past! Can he own what he did, even though his start was being sold into slavery as a boy? Does he feel responsible for his choices, and if so, to what extent?
It’s complicated. And that’s why it’s great.
It’s complicated. And that’s why nobody wants to hear it.
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