Jonah Hex #23

Issue 23 is an excellent issue of Jonah Hex. The story, 'Jonah Hex in The Massacre of the Celestials!', begins when Hex, tracks a wanted man to a town where the railroad is expanding. After killing the man he came for he is approached by a Chinese patriarch who wants to hire him to avenge the death of a group of Chinese railroad workers who were massacred by a greedy straw boss.

Though there are still a few flaws (the sound effects of gunfire as 'Vip' - and where does Hex keep finding Civil War jackets after his gets trashed each issue?), there's a lot to like here. For a while, writer Michael Fleisher has been dancing around social issues, particularly racism, and here he confronts it head on in a story about Irish vs. Chinese ('Celestials' being Irish slang for Chinese).

The art by Dich Ayers and Romeo Tanghal is also well done. But, of particular note is the coloring by Bob Le Rose. Coloring is something that a lot of time goes unnoticed because in a lot of cases colorists just add color to spaces like filling in coloring books. But Le Rose uses color to add depth and shading beyond what the inker has contributed. Take for example the following panel where he uses pale yellow to indicate the setting sun's highlight on the side of this character's body - adding a more three-dimensional look to the scene:

The art and writing throughout work in tandem in a way seldom seen in comics earlier than the Modern Age. One page is completely without dialogue, but the story is nonetheless perfectly clear as Hex, having witnessed the killing of the Chinese patriarch, for which he feels responsible, returns to his room at the Inn.

If all that weren't enough, the story really gets to some of the deeper emotional levels of the Hex character. For the first time a love interest, Mei Ling, is introduced. Though, as expected, Hex and Mei Ling part ways by issues' end, it's still a big step forward in character development.