Western media is defined by the importance it places on individual heroes. Cowboys were huge in the Golden Age of comics, and their stories paved the way for the superheroes of today. Lone rangers may have traded their spurs and six-irons for capes and cowls, but the rugged individualism of the Wild West is alive and well in lawless towns like Gotham and Central City.
Sometimes modern heroes meet up with the saddle-sore saviors of yesteryear, resulting in film-worthy Western tales that cross genre boundaries and remind readers where that fighting spirit came from in the first place. DC has its share of Western titles back in the day, many of which starred outlaws and lawmen with as much true grit as any great Western film character.
10 Batman/Superman #19 (2019)
Written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Emmanuel Lupacchino, Matt Santorelli, Steve Lieber, Darick Robertson, and Kyle Hotz.
Batman/Superman #19-20 brings the old West to the infinite frontier, hurling Batman and Superman through time, meta-textual space, and into a Western. It’s a classic gambit with a fresh twist, introducing Etrigan mid-conflict and setting up stakes outside accepted reality.
The World’s Finest prove why they’re the best duo in comics regardless of setting, easily fitting into a classic Western town. Superman pulls trains and Batman lays down the law in a one-off venture that, if adapted with a few changes to the focus, could make for a great Elseworlds-style animated Western film.
9 Jonah Hex: Man Out of Time
All-Star Western #22-28 (2011), written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with art by Fabrizio Fiorentino, Norm Rapmund, Moritat, Staz Johnson, and Cliff Richards
When superheroes and notorious outlaws cross paths in DC Comics, it’s usually a result of temporal displacement, magic, or some other reality-warping power. Man Out of Time flings Jonah Hex into modern-day Gotham, and he takes to it pretty well.
Modern-day Westerns like No Country For Old Men and Logan use modern tropes and characters to fill archetypal Western roles. Man Out of Time seamlessly weaves Hex into Batman’s era, showing all of Gotham’s darkness through a familiar classic lens that would translate well to the screen.
8 Weird Western Tales #71 (2010)
Written by Dan DiDio with art by Renato Arlem, Hi-Fi Design, and Ken Lopez
Cowboys and zombies often cross paths in DC Comics because of occult rituals or other such bedevilment. Weird Western Tales #71 uses this common theme in a fresh context when all the greatest legends of the old West are resurrected by black lantern rings.
In a world where DC really leans into Westerns, drawing on decades of gunslinger comics from every genre, this story would showcase all of DC’s roots. The decades-later add-on to an arguable flagship series concerns popular superheroes and honors legendary outlaws by keeping their cunning intact while they seek human flesh. The poignancy of the undead seeking emotion isn't lost on the Western genre.
7 Batman: The Blue, The Grey, and The Bat (1993)
Written by Elliot S. Maggin and Alan Weiss with pencils by Alan Weiss and inks by José Luis García-López
The Blue, The Grey, and The Bat is a classic Elseworlds tale, plucking the basics of Batman and stretching them over a new frame. Colonel Bruce Wayne is the charming right hand of President Abraham Lincoln, and is engaged in a classic cowboy plot to subvert large-scale conflict through melee combat.
Robin is basically Scalphunter, which is a bit of an odd twist but stems from naming conventions in classic Westerns. Most of the creative choices throughout the one-shot come from a similar place of appreciation for classic western films, so it follows that it would be an easy adaptation, particularly as an animation.
6 "Johnny Thunder: Fortunehead!" Secret Origins #50 (1990)
Written by Elliot S. Maggin with pencils by Alan Weiss, inks by Dick Giordano and Alan Weiss, colors by Greg Theakston, and letterers by Steve Haynie
Where Jonah Hex and Scalphunter were traditional bounty hunters, Johnny Thunder was DC’s western heartthrob. He’s a hard man with a heart of gold, but his origins are shrouded in mystery. Secret Origins #50 paints a picture of a man larger than life, whose rumored accolades strike fear in the hearts of men.
The main plot line of "Johnny Thunder: Fortunehead!" centers on Johnny trying to rescue his aging father from bandits. It gives readers the sense that they not only know less about Johnny than every side character, but they can never truly know him. Johnny’s internal monologue offers the only glimpse into his true origins and the way his head works and would make for a chic cloak-and-dagger western flick.
5 Swamp Thing #85-86 (1989)
Written by Rick Veitch with pencils by Tom Mandrake, inks by Alfredo Alcala, and colors by Tatjana Wood
DC’s roots in weird pulp horror and old western stories collide in Swamp Thing #85-86. Outlaws of the Golden and Silver Age come into contact with an elemental spirit and greedy humans seeking to mettle with it. It builds Swamp Thing’s general lore through a two-issue one-off cowboy story that requires no context.
Johnny Thunder leads Madame .44, Bat-Lash, and a childlike Superchief into the desert. Where an avatar of the green is freed from a block of quartz, it’s a weird Western odyssey that plays to DC’s bread and butter. Swamp Thing #85-86 would make a perfect Western movie with a dash of horror.
4 Lobo Annual #2 (1994)
Written by Alan Grant with art by several talented teams
The Main Man is a lot of things but, despite his frequent use of firearms and innate proficiency with them, he’s not usually viewed as a “gunslinger.” Lobo’s more of a smash-and-grabber than he is a Lone Ranger, but that changes in Lobo Annual #2.
In the fashion of a few of the Czarnian’s other annual issues, the comic is an anthology set in the Wild West. Each short story features the brutal Lobo in a different role of archetypal Western plots, which eventually begin to overlap. The ultra-violent satire is a unique play on a space-western and very goofy, but as an animated feature, it could still be a bona fide Western.
3 Scalphunter Begins
Weird Western Tales #39-41 (1977), written by Michael Flesher with pencils by Dick Ayers and inks by George Evans and Frank Springer
DC’s Golden Age has missteps and moments of poor taste, but they don’t all come from bad intentions. Scalphunter, once called Brian Savage, was a play on the classic man-of-two-worlds trope common in Western media.
While his stories sometimes highlight negative representations of Native Americans, Scalphunter’s Weird Western Tales don’t seek to rewrite brutal parts of American history. First appearing in issues #39-41, his journey from orphan to unwanted hero has all the struggle and strife needed to turn any person into a saddle-sore movie outlaw.
2 Jonah Hex: The Old Man
Jonah Hex #69 (2011), written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Jeff Lemire
Jonah Hex isn’t renowned for his emotional sensitivity. The battle-hardened bounty hunter’s scarred visage inspired fear just as any modern hero’s cape or cowl, so some of his most dynamic and cinematic stories are those that provide a glimpse into his life. That’s not to say his basic backstory is at all pleasant.
Jonah Hex #69 doesn’t center around a great battle. It doesn’t directly show Hex stalking or killing anyone. Instead, readers watch from his eyes as the most dangerous man on the planet solemnly tracks down his father. The drama hinges on the brutal passage of time in the desert and what life there can do to people and captures all the powerful subtlety of emotion present in great Western films.
1 Jonah Hex: Mark of the Demon
Jonah Hex #8 (1978), written by Michael Fleisher with pencils by Ernie Chan and inks by Vincente Alcazar
Jonah Hex is DC’s most popular and longest-standing outlaw from the Old West, most readily distinguished from other gunslingers is his gnarled face. His iconic deformation stood largely unexplained until Jonah Hex #8, about five years after the character’s first appearance.
DC Heroes aren’t strangers to childhood trauma, but Hex’s loss of innocence and subsequent rebirth into the scarred and hollow man he is remains among the most gruesome and tragic. It’s as compelling and tragic as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with the action and internal conflict of True Grit, and it doubles as an origin story and a potential redo from the original critically panned Jonah Hex film.