( CNN ) -- There are typically two types of comic book movies -- movies like `` Ghost Rider '' and movies like `` Batman Begins . '' That is , there are some comics that should be really good movies , but because of a bad script , director or actors ( sometimes all of the above ) they end up cinematic duds like `` Ghost Rider . '' And there are some comics that make the transition to the big screen really well with the help of great writers , directors and actors , like `` Batman Begins . '' Movie producers are bringing a fairly serious comic book character , DC Comics ' `` Jonah Hex , '' ( played by Josh Brolin ) to the big screen on Friday . The trailer from Warner Brothers ( whose parent company , Time Warner , also owns CNN ) looks like it 's anything but . Early reviews are n't kind . By mid-Friday morning , the film had earned a rotten 11-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes . If you 're not already familiar with the character , here 's the gist : As a boy , Jonah Hex 's drunk and abusive father sells him to an Apache tribe . Hex lives with the Apaches as a slave but wins the favor of the chief and becomes a free member . He gets separated from the tribe as an adult , ends up fighting for the Confederates in the Civil War -- even accidentally shooting Stonewall Jackson -- and ultimately wanders out West . But when he comes back to the tribe , a fight with a rival leads to his banishment and a new life as a bounty hunter . See Techland 's brief history of Jonah Hex . The original run of the comic spanned the 1970s and 1980s , but the title was revived in the early 1990s and more recently in 2006 . In later issues of the first run , Hex would be pulled through time , meeting up with Batman and a handful of other DC superheroes . `` Jonah Hex '' falls prey to a common problem with comics-turned-movies : The stories span years , sometimes decades . Most fans are only familiar with a comic book 's story from the point when they start reading . But even so , fans of Jonah Hex know him as the star of a Western comic , not a superhero comic . Hollywood producers , however , know DC Comics as a powerhouse of superheroes , and they seem to have different expectations of `` Jonah Hex . '' Based on the trailer , Hex now has mystical and magical abilities to raise and speak with the dead . His place in the Civil War is downplayed . There are no major characters who are Native American . Megan Fox stars as a gun toting prostitute , a never-before-seen friend of our hero . And `` Q '' from the James Bond franchise apparently had forerunners in frontier towns who provide Hex with horse-mounted Gatling guns and hand-held , dynamite-firing crossbows . Hex 's story should make a good movie . `` Jonah Hex '' should be one of those comic-based movies that does n't need many changes to work . But instead of trying to stay true to the comic , it appears that producers are hoping to attract a casual movie-going audience by sacrificing the original flavor of the character and story . The result appears to be a campy movie that alienates both fans and regular moviegoers . Looks like we 're in `` Ghost Rider '' territory .
The storyline for `` Jonah Hex '' comic books spans decades . It is a story of the first black superhero, and how he became one. `` Jonah Hex '' the movie looks like it will be very different from the comic .