Jonah Hex / Yosemite Sam Special #1 Review and **SPOILERS**

A Rootin’ Tootin’ Bloodbath Massacre

Script: Jimmy Palmiotti 

Art, Interior and Cover: Mark Texeira 

Color, Interior and Cover: Paul Mounts 

Letters: Saida Temofonte 

Back-Up Script: Bill Matheny 

Back-Up Art: Dave Alvarez 

Cover Price: $4.99 

On Sale Date: June 28, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Oh these Looney Tunes crossovers are so random…”Wonder Woman and the Tasmanian Devil,” or “Lobo and the Road Runner,” or “Jonah Hex and Yosemite Sam,” why…that one actually makes sense. Of course, Yosemite Sam portrayed everything from a pirate to a spaceman in the cartoons, but he did have several episodes on the Old West. Okay, let’s see what this is all about. Jimmy Palmiotti certainly knows how to write Jonah Hex. Take a gander at my review of Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam Special #1, right here!

Explain It!

In 19^th century Cripple Creek, Colorado, Yosemite Sam strikes gold in a shared mine with three minor partners. When they collude to rub him out and split the take three ways, Sam blows them all to kingdom come and sputters off a list of appropriate expletives that set the stage for the carnage that is to come. The story is simple: needing a bodyguard to protect himself from claim jumpers, Yosemite Sam hires the infamous Jonah Hex. Said robbers are from a traveling circus run by Ringmaster Cooper, and they attempt an assault on Sam’s cabin with very bloody, one-sided results. Later, Sam strikes it rich, pays off Hex, and what you’ve got is a fairly entertaining Jonah Hex story. All of the primary trappings for Yosemite Sam are there, but these could just as well be allusions because the character is rendered as a short but otherwise human-looking dude. His professional boxing pal Foghorn Leghorn, on the other hand, looks like a strong version of the cartoon character. So I can’t call it. The point is, this could be a weird but otherwise acceptable story in any run of Jonah Hex, which is high marks for such a strange crossover.

The back-up is rendered in a more cartoony style, and picks up Hex and Sam’s story after Jonah was paid and they parted ways. Sam happens upon him in some snowy woods, to discover that Jonah Hex is hunting a bounty on a bear. Then the bear shows up, and smacks Sam around, and then Bugs Bunny shows up? Turns out Bugs is Sam’s bounty. In the end, Jonah Hex subdues and restrains the bear and Sam lets Bugs Bunny go because no gold prospector could ever win in court against a cute, anthropomorphic rabbit.

I kind of enjoyed the first story in this issue. It wasn’t fascinating, but it was cool enough and seemed correct for the time, and featured whoring and fighting in almost equal parts. As with the Jonah Hex comic, much of the fun lives in seeing people get their heads split open by tomahawks or knees blown out by rifles. The second story is less good, but also many less pages. This Looney Tunes/DCU paring probably makes the most sense out of all of these special issues, and they certainly made it work by producing a decent issue of Jonah Hex that had a character similar to Yosemite Sam in it. There was also some Jonah Hex fan service in terms of his personal story, so if you’re into ol’ Gross Face, then you might want to give this issue a look.

Bits and Pieces:

If you've got a Jonah Hex itch, then this might be the comic book to scratch it. If you've got a Yosemite Sam itch...well, that's sort of weird, but yeah, this might fit the bill, too. Any other itches we should know about? I hope none of them are contagious. This issue was decent fun and should please fans of Jimmy Palmiotti's work in DC Comics' Wild West.

7/10