Generation X + Jonah Hex = Generation Hex

Generation Hex #1
“Humanity's Last Stand”
Writer: Peter Milligan
Pencils: Adam Pollina
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Scott Baumann
Separations: Digital Chameleon
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Editor: Frank Pittarese
Special thanks to Chuck Kim
Cover: Pollina and Morales
Published by: DC
Released: April 2, 1997

As we enter the second wave of Amalgam titles, all of which were released on the same date in April 1997, I figured it made as much sense as anything to start with the one that seemed to come first chronologically, in story.

The other reason I wanted to start with “Generation Hex” is it's one of the more unexpected mash-ups in all of Amalgam. Sure, “Generation X” was making a big splash at this time, but I don't recall DC's Western heroes getting much attention. I met Jonah Hex on that episode of “Batman: The Animated Series” where he took on Ra's Al-Ghul. I've heard of some of the others along the way, but I was even more lost than usual in breaking down the ingredients in these amalgams.

That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a fun story – although that's not what we get here.

The issue opens with young Jono Hex and his family rolling into the town of Humanity, where the elder Hex – who the narration tells us was “a decent man who had been kicked in the head by a mule at an early age” – is hoping to make a living selling pig manure. The townspeople look down on and shun him and his family, for reasons that aren't made clear. Perhaps it's because they're poor, or maybe it has something to do with Jono's mismatched eyes and the patch around one of them.* Anyway, no doctor will assist the family when Jono's mother goes into labor, and she and his baby sister die. His father descends into alcoholism, and the residents of Humanity send their children to burn down the family's house, triggering Jono's mutation in which searing psychic energy bursts a hole in his mouth and chest.

Jono, himself a mix of Generation X's Chamber and Jonah Hex, grows up to lead a band of Malforms – that's mutants in the parlance of the Old Amalgam West – consisting of … here goes:

• Madame Banshee, who I assumed was based on Emma Frost when she was described as the “one-time owner of a house of iniquity” who used “mind power to keep her … boys in check.” But she's Irish and looks like Siryn. As for the DC component, I guessed Madame Xanadu just because of the “Madame” part. The Marvel Universe Appendix says it's Madame .44.

• White Whip, the actual Emma Frost analogue using “brain power to make her whip dance.” My Googling turned up a DC character called the Whip, so I'm guessing that's the other half.

• Johnny Random, a combination of, I'm assuming, Random and Johnny Thunder, which is the name of a DC character I've heard of... just not a western one. You can check him out at the DC Fandom wiki here. I will be too.

• 
  Then there's Retribution, who gets her Marvel infusion from Generation X's Penance and her DC side from... the Appendix says Firehair, another white kid adopted by Native Americans (after they killed his family). Probably not a lot of call for his stories anymore either.

• The Twins Trigger, invoking a DC Western duo called the Trigger Twins and Alpha Flight's Aurora and Northstar. Aurora gets a bonus dash of DC from Cinnamon, another character I should get around to researching at this link.

• And finally, Skinhunter, a mix of Generation X's Skin and DC's Scalphunter, who probably isn't called that anymore. Marvel had a character of the same name, and he now goes by Greycrow, which somehow made him even less interesting to me than before until Hellions. Let's see, Fandom says his real name is … oh boy … Brian Savage. But maybe it's not racist because he was apparently a Caucasian kid … stolen from his parents by Kiowa Indians... who referred to him as Ke-Woh-No-Tay, which means “He Who is Less Than Human.” Look, I'm not going to dismiss an entire set of stories because some aspects haven't aged well but, man, it wouldn't surprise me if this guy's not talked about much these days. Anyway, the amalgam's “skin and bone was more flexible than a cowpoke's sleeping habits” AND “Lacking any other means of evacuation, his stomach boiled down all foodstuffs to rock-hard bullets.”
  

  

  Do I detect a hint of Maggott here?

They're being hunted by a fellow named Bat Trask – or possibly Bat Trash, the surname uttered once as an insult by Hex and then in the next issue blurb on the letters page. Even I recognized him as a mix of DC's Bat Lash and Marvel's Bolivar Trask. He's got some robots called Razormen that seem like a combination of Sentinels and SCUD the Disposable Assassin but probably more like those clockwork men from that Elseworlds where the Justice League was in the wild West. Nope, Internet says the Scissormen from Doom Patrol.

OK, now that we've explored my ignorance of DC's deeper roster, let's get on with the story. Trask sends the Razormen after Hex and company, who opt for a strategic retreat. But the robots just keep coming, exhausting the outlaws and pushing their horses to exhaustion and death. Desperate and turning on each other, the group looks to its leader, who realizes they're near the town where he spent his traumatic childhood, Humanity.

Hex's plan is for his crew to attack the town and terrorize its populace until he rides in looking like a standard roaming gunfighter without a glowing chest cavity. He sends those dirty, no-good Malforms packing and the residents of the town fall all over themselves to thank him, showing him acceptance his family never received. They even offer him the job of sheriff, but the stranger says he must be moving on.

Before he goes, he warns them an even worse group of Malforms is coming, “justa itchin' to string up good normal folk like us and violate our womenfolk.”** He's kind enough to give them some advice on how to survive.

Hex meets up with his crew and leads them straight through Humanity, whose residents have gone to great lengths to appear as bizarre as possible, even putting up a sign declaring the name of the settlement Malform Town. The Razormen follow and, lacking the advanced diagnostics of Will Magnus' Sentinels, determine this is exactly what it appears to be: a town full of Malforms.

So they massacre the town, giving Generation Hex a head start and Jono a measure of vengeance.

I get it. The townsfolk were absolutely horrible, even though I don't fully understand why their disdain for the Hex family escalated to arson and murder. Siccing the Razormen on them is an interesting twist and a bit of poetic justice, to be sure, but, call me old-fashioned, I like my heroes to be heroic and even my anti-heroes to have some spark of nobility. This was just a straight-up revenge tale, and while the hatred directed at the Malforms was unreasonable, disgusting and reflective of unfortunate aspects of the real world, these particular Malforms were, you know, criminals with little to no regard for others' lives.

Still, from a storytelling standpoint, it makes sense. But there's so much going on, we don't get to know a whole lot about the characters. That's something I've noted before in these issues, and their very existence is still the main attraction. I didn't understand many of their powers, and I'm not sure Jono even used his to do anything other than look cool. Perhaps Milligan and company were counting on readers being more familiar with the DC Western cast than I am, which isn't unreasonable in a project like this.

I first encountered Pollina's art on “X-Force,” and while he's never been one of my favorites, that's due to me not finding his style appealing, not a lack of talent. It works here.

Best Amalgam: It's got to be Jono Hex, the unlikely combination that I presume launched the whole concept. Chamber is one of the most distinctive-looking Marvel characters to emerge from the 90s, and Jonah Hex has a rather memorable face as well. He probably would have won by default given my lack of knowledge on many of the others, but it is a good one.

Honorable mention to Shaggynaut, a combination of Juggernaut and Shaggy Man referenced on the letters page.

Most Confusing Amalgam: See my bumbling character descriptions above.

* - Unless he just had some leftover Domino material that wasn't used for Janet “Elasti-Girl” Van Dyne.

** - Checks cover. Huh. Comic Code-approved.