8 Comic Book Characters Hollywood Will Never Understand

8. Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex Gotham City
DC Comics

Of all the comic book movies to have bombed in recent years, Jonah Hex makes the least sense.

The character, introduced in X by Y & Y, is effectively just the archetypal Western protagonist filled by Clint Eastwood in most of his films. Making a modern Western based on the comic, then, shouldn't have been so difficult - especially given the resurgence the genre has experienced in recent years.

2010's Jonah Hex, starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, was a complete disaster. It fumbled the character's source material, needlessly overcomplicated matters by giving him supernatural powers and boasted a cookie-cutter revenge story without any of the craft, scale or subtlety that's typified most Neo Westerns.

The worst part about it is that Warner Bros. haven't made so much as a peep regarding the prospect of another Hex film, proving that they don't particularly understand the character's appeal, even as their animated wing demonstrated the perfect template for how a Hex movie should be done, with Thomas Jane and Linda Hamilton at the helm.

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.