Jonah Hex V2 #39 "Cowardice"

Jonah Hex V2 #39 Mar '09
"Cowardice"

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti - story, Rafa Garres - art and cover 

It is night in Blackburn, Kansas at Holly Mae's Saloon and Dancehall. Jonah is losing a few games of checkers with an old timer when Holly comes up and announces that everyone should drink up. In the morning Blackburn is going dry and she will be out of business due to the National Prohibition Party but she is heading to Texas to start a new establishment. Jonah has a few choice words regarding other people's morals and their propensity to force said unto others. 

After a few more drinks, Jonah considers have a talk with the local church group in the morning.

We cut to three men in prison attire running as hard as they can across the countryside. They come upon a family eating dinner by the campfire outside their tent home. The prisoners gun down all three, dad and the grown son and daughter. After eating the family's meal they strip the bodies and one of the prisoners is complaining that the other two are wearing all the mens clothes, so what is he to do? Another of the prisoners shoots him in the head and the remaining two ride off.

Morning in Blackburn and the church is shutting down Holly Mae's. Suddenly a wagon comes down the street. A young man looks in the back of the wagon and is frightened off. Jonah looks inside and sees the bodies of the murdered family. He asks who that is and someone states it is sheriff Steadman and his son and daughter. There is also the murdered prisoner as well. 

Deputy Gardner arrives and asks the wagon driver what is going on. The driver replies that he found them killed when he was driving past this morning and shows discarded prison clothes. Gardner says a telegram came in last night about a prison break up in Durango but the deputy just left it on the sheriff's desk. The wagon driver asks if they are gonna get up a posse and the deputy says that it doesn't concern them, he'll see to it that the men are captured. Hex tosses a query of "By yerself?"

Gardner is having nothing of having a drunkard assist him and he and Jonah exchange barbs. Holly Mae intervenes as well as the old checker player, telling Gardner that he best listen. Gardner tells the old man to shut up and he shoots back with "This here's Jonah Hex". At that point, the wagon driver tells Gardner that Hex is the real deal.

Finally Gardner relents, saying that Hex will get any bounty that is offered. Jonah says they will settle up once the prisoners are in custody or their graves. Gardner says they will be brought in for a proper trial to which Jonah replies "Ya say that now". Jonah also tells Holly Mae to not leave town just yet.

We find the two prisoners riding up to the farm of Simon Millwood. The prisoners ask if the two horses in the pen are all that Millwood has. He affirms their suspicion and one of the prisoners says that his horse is lame. Millwood examines a hoof and sees that the horse has thrown a shoe and has stone bruises. This horse can't be ridden even with a new shoe. A prisoner sees someone coming and they force Millwood into his cabin. They ask if Millwood has any weapons, just a shotgun and a Winchester.

The prisoners tell Millwood to get rid of the oncoming riders and not say a word about the two of them.

As Jonah rides up he points to hoof tracks by the trough and tells Gardner that the prisoners are here. Jonah says that they stopped here because one of the horses threw a shoe and that this ain't gonna end without bullets. Millwood recognizes Gardner but not Hex and says that he can get rid of them. The prisoners tell him to stay put. Gardner calls out for Millwood to come out for a minute.

Jonah says that ain't gonna work and if Millwood ain't dead, Gardner is gonna get him killed. Just then the door starts to open and Gardner says that Millwood is coming out now. A shot rings out and Gardner is hit in the shoulder. A prisoner has Millwood around the neck, using him as a shield and tells Hex to drop his guns. Jonah replies with "No" and a gunshot that catches the prisoner in the neck. 

The second con rushes out the door, guns blazing and is mowed down by Hex. In the ensuing silence, Millwood lays on the porch, shaking and crying and Gardner drawing his weapon on Hex. Jonah ignores him and assists Millwood to his feet, telling Gardner to holster the gun before Hex takes it from him. Gardner dismounts and tells Hex that he is being brought up on charges. Jonah turns on him and slaps the pistol out of his hands.

Jonah grabs him and says that those men had been tried and locked up, escaped and killed three people and maybe more. 

and then throws him to the ground. Gardner lies in the dirt, saying he never wanted to be a deputy, Steadman pinned the star on him last year and he hasn't been able to take it off, but now is the time. Jonah tells him to leave it there, they are gonna get a drink.

As evening falls, Gardner, Hex and a wagon of corpses come rolling into Blackburn. The town is emptying Holly Mae's and they ask if Deputy Gardner got the killers. Hex tells them it is Sheriff Gardner and he has a proclamation to overturn. Gardner stares at Hex and Hex replies that a sheriff has to make tough decisions.

Gardner takes a deep breath and tells the crowd to put the sign back up on the saloon. They start to disagree, saying that Steadman backed them and Gardner says that Steadman is dead, HE is now the sheriff and he says the saloon stays open.

Later there is much celebrating in the saloon and the old timer is congratulating the new sheriff on his decision. Holly Mae whispers a thank you into Jonah's ear and he says she can thank him later upstairs. Just then several armed men barge in with evil intent in their eyes. Hex tells the sheriff it is time to step up. Gardner approaches the men and we see him point over to Hex and the men turn and run. Hex looks over at the old man and says..

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - Two prisoners.
Running Total - 742 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 240 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - None.
Timeline - Takes place within one day.
Rape Percentage -  25% (10 of 39)

Kansas didn't have statewide prohibition until 1881 but this seemed to be a local restriction only enacted in Blackburn (a fictional town) but the temperance movement had a very strong hold throughout the state, so we really can't put a date on here other than between Hex's scarring and 1881.

This story wasn't a bad one but it had two things that I am tired of: art by Rafa Garres and Palmiotti and Gray's obsession with unlikable Christians. Garres art is muddy, blurred, hyper kinetic and very hard to understand at times. The anti-Christian trope is understandable from Jonah's viewpoint but they are always depicted as hypocrites and busybodies (something that Fleisher didn't make an absolute). 

I would rank this one as a "read it if you want to read everything with Jonah in it"

Next issue: Jonah learns that it really sucks to be on the wrong side of an HMO.

Jonah Hex V2 #38 "Hell or High Water"

 Jonah Hex V2 #38 Feb '09

"Hell or High Water"

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti - story, Jordi Bernet - art and cover 

We see a bloodied Jonah taunting an unknown man. The man kicks Jonah in the teeth and punches him once again. We go to the splash page with the man standing over the prone Jonah, out in the desert. He takes a big drink from one of his two canteens and starts waxing poetic about democracy and the frontier. 

Hex croaks a question about what the hell the man is talking about and the man explains that Hex, and his kind, are an infection to civilization and the world will soon be better once Hex departs from this realm. Jonah states that he has no idea as to who this man is or what turned him against Jonah.

The man calmly segues into his explanation, rolling back three years prior, to his days as a sheriff in the Dakotas in a town named Holsten but given a moniker of High Water, painting an idyllic picture with the purplest of prose. Jonah requests that the man just shoot him as opposed to talking him to death. The man explains that Hex WILL listen to the entire story before he is dispatched.

Back to the explanation, the sheriff recounts how Drew, the deputy, drops by and says that Pablo is at the saloon, waving his gun around. The sheriff tells of how he and his wife came to the gold town, were abducted by plains Indians for six months, how they escaped and how she subsequently never recovered from the ordeal, dying in shortly after bearing him a son that was not his own... Pablo. The sheriff walked into the saloon and tells Pablo to put away the gun that he is holding on a saloon girl. Pablo chuckles and continues pressing himself onto the woman and the sheriff backhands his son.

Pablo levels his pistol at his father and they have a staredown that ends with Pablo holstering his weapon. They leave together and the sheriff tells Pablo to change his ways otherwise he will run into someone who isn't afraid of him or his mouth. Pablo starts to tell his father something as five women ride up. The women, Rose, Daisy, Iris, Violet, and Magnolia, are bounty hunters and they produce a wanted poster for Pablo. The poster is for murder but they acknowledge he is also wanted for bank robbery and horse theft. 

The sheriff asks if this is true and Pablo he was driving cattle up from New Mexico. The sheriff takes his sons word for it and Rose indicates that he had better hand Pablo over to them. The sheriff refuses and after a furtive glance, both he and Pablo open fire, killing the five women. The sheriff quickly turns and shoots Pablo in the shoulder so as to lend credence to their alibi that the women shot first.

As townsfolk come running, the sheriff recounts the tale of how the women tried to rob them and has his son taken to the doctor. 

Hex interrupts the sheriff and gets a boot to the mouth for his trouble. The sheriff knew it was wrong but he couldn't let his son die, it would be like losing his wife all over again. Jonah still doesn't know how he fits into this puzzle, unless HE killed Pablo and doesn't remember. The sheriff confesses it wasn't Hex that felled his son, Pablo caused his own demise. Hex, lying in the sand, notices a snake under a nearby rock, and asks why, then, has the sheriff stalked him across the desert. The sheriff asks that Hex really doesn't remember him?!?!?

Back to the tale and we learn that Pablo is sent to his uncle Mort's but Pablo stopped in Red Mesa, got a drink and tried to rob the bank and was gunned down trying to escape. The day Pablo left High Water was the same day that Jonah came riding into town with three maimed men thrown over the back of a horse. These men were victims of the Klarkson sisters and Hex humiliated the sheriff in front of the town. The town leaders called for a vote and the sheriff was voted out with swift speed and driven from town just as quickly. 

Back to the present, the sheriff, taking another large drink tells how he heard more about Hex, going where he likes, doing whatever he wants with no repercussions at all and Jonah starts chuckling. The sheriff asks what is so funny? Hex will die of thirst and the sheriff will watch. He has tried to uphold civilization, lost his wife and child, his star and his town, while Hex went on his way. Jonah replies it is a good thing that the sheriff doesn't own a dog.

Jonah continues to laugh and that enrages the sheriff even more, grabbing Hex up and knocking him down again and again. With Jonah in the dirt, the sheriff decides to draw his pistol and finish the job, but Jonah reaches under the rock, grabs the rattlesnake and throws it at the sheriff.

The snake, doing what snakes do, bites the sheriff directly in the groin. The sheriff is able to extract the snake but the reptile slithers loose and strikes the sheriff in the face. Jonah struggles to his feet and takes a drink from a canteen. Jonah explains that he and the sheriff are directly entangled because Jonah encountered Pablo in Red Mesa after Pablo fell from his horse fleeing the bank. 

The sheriff of Red Mesa had told Jonah that Rose and the others were gunned down in self defense but Jonah was well acquainted with Rose and the "Wild Flower Bunch" and there was no way they would have lost a fair fight. Jonah knew they were after Pablo and Hex started questioning Pablo and Pablo ratted out his father in a flurry of confession. Jonah had tried to track down the sheriff to avenge Rose and the others, but he was long gone by the time Jonah got to High Water.

Jonah sits next to the dying sheriff as the vultures descend and comments that he normally hates scavengers but a bird has to eat like everyone else.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - Two, the sheriff and obviously Pablo.
Running Total - 740 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 238 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Beaten to a pulp.
Timeline - With the flashback, three years all told.
Rape Percentage -  26% (10 of 38)

This was a very good tale, harkening back to the fallout of issue #26, addressing what happens to a town in the aftermath of Jonah. Once more, the dialogue is wonderful and evocative and drawing a good contrast between the sheriff, a man who sees everything as a tapestry, and Jonah of few words that cuts to the chase and uses action instead to make his point. Jordi gives us great art with the cover giving us an actual scene from the book (including the snake). The only downer is that I would have loved to see more of the Wild Flower Bunch (thus named because all the women are named for flowers), they were taken from us much too soon. But that testifies to the power of Palmiotti & Gray's writing that we want so much more from secondary characters.

Next Issue: A prison break, a temperance movement and there is a new sheriff in town.