Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Amalgam Comics
Cover Date: June 1997
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Adam Pollina
When the DC and Marvel Universes merged in Marvel vs DC, a new one was created: the Amalgam Universe. This one-shot combined Generation X with Jonah Hex.
Young Jono Hex was run out of the town of Humanity for being a malform (or mutant as they’re known in the Marvel Universe). As he grew up, he grew mean and gathered a band of malform outlaws including Madame Banshee (Siryn), Johnny Random (Random), Skinhunter (Skin), White Whip (Emma Frost), Retribution (Penance), and the Twins Trigger (Northstar & Aurora). Marshal “Bat” Trask has created the robotic Razormen to hunt and kill malforms – and he’s sent them after Jono and his band. But, Jono devises a plan to set his oldest enemies (the town of Humanity) against his newest one (the Razormen) in a devious revenge scheme!
Milligan’s plot has highlighted a neat bit of western revenge. And, as neat as it is to see the members of Generation X with a Hex-western twist, they’re really unecessary. This story could have been soley about Hex and it would have played out just the same. Actually, it probably would have been a little better because the very few pages spent on them could have been better used towards character development of Hex himself. Combining the tortured souls of both Hex and Chamber was a great idea and I wouldn’t mind reading more about him … as long as the other characters aren’t along for the ride.
On Ebay: Amalgam | Peter Milligan | Adam Pollina
On AtomicAvenue: Amalgam Comics