“A Man Walks Into A Garage”
Artist: Gleb Melnikov
Color Artist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Gabriela Downie
Review by Philip Clark
Jinny Hex Special #1 is the beginning of something new, and beautiful, I also hope that it’s something DC continue for a decent amount of time. More Young Justice spotlight issues, please! Give your secondary characters the love they deserve!
Jinny Hex is not your ordinary cowgirl, oh no. For a start, she’s a descendant of Jonah Hex (his great great something granddaughter). Add to all this the fact that she’s also a member of the new Young Justice team, she’s been to other dimensions, and owns a box full of mystery space items. Left a garage by her mom, Jinny’s ready to start a new life, with some help from a couple of high school friends. That is until a strange man walks into the garage, and her life.
The Name Is Jinny Hex
Don’t call her Virginia Heck!
Jinny was one of my favorite characters while reading the most recent Young Justice comic, so I was upset that we didn’t get to dive into her story during that run. This great special is a suitable apology from DC, as not only do we get an intriguing story, but we also get a look at her life outside of being a hero. How a “superhero” interacts with their friends, and the kind of people they keep around them, tells you a lot about their character.
Jinny’s best friend keeps her grounded, as any kind of smart comment that comes out of Jinny’s mouth is met with a similar retort. ‘Jinz’ and ‘Lady Bird’ definitely give off sister vibes at the start of the comic, and that only increases tenfold by the end of it. With everything that Jinny goes through with her family this issue, it’s nice for her to have that kind of a relationship with someone. The one where you and a friend are so close, that it’s just kind of unspoken kinship between you.
What I always like reading is how in stride the heroes can take things, compared to their non-heroic friends. The heroes are always comparing the crazy in their lives: Dimension hopping, friends turning into monsters trying to kill them, time travel. The usual sort of crazy. Whereas the friends are always (understandably) freaking out. It always makes for such interesting reading, and character dynamics.
What blows me away about Jinny is the fact that she’s relatively new to the hero life, at least when comparatively to some of her teammates. Yet she just completely takes everything in her stride. Yeah, Jinny Hex is a badass. Plain and simple.
Conclusion
Female writers, writing female characters are quite honestly some of my favorite comics to read. Mairghread Scott’s run on Batgirl is an excellent example of this, as is the wonderful Jinny Hex Special #1. Writer Magdalene Visaggio not only writes an excellent female lead, but really captures the creepiness of Three-Eyed Jack. Her writing emphasises the emotional state of Jinny as she goes through a very difficult time.
The artwork in this issue is simply gorgeous. Everything has a real, genuine western feel about it; cowboys, cowgirls, even saloons and flintlocks. Aside from the very obvious space and alien artefacts, it feels like an old timey cowboy story. I loved it.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment