Jonah Hex V2 #43 "The Hyde House Massacre"

 Jonah Hex V2 #43 Jul '09

"The Hyde House Massacre"

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti - story, Paul Gulacy - art and cover

In darkness Jonah Hex rides up to an overarching gate with the words HYDE HOUSE spelled out in wrought iron. He surveys the area, dismounts and ties his horse in the trees outside of a massive log and rock structure (we later learn is a hotel). He opens his saddlebag, takes out a tomahawk, rope, knife, a line of tied matches and reloads his shotgun.

We see a sentry on an upper porch, lighting up a smoke. Suddenly a rope loops around his neck and he is yanked backward off the porch. He crashes to the ground and Jonah picks up the still burning smoke and sticks it in his mouth. He sneaks up the stairs behind another sentry and quietly slits the man's throat and tosses his lifeless body over the rail.

Cut to inside. An old man is tied to a chair in the lobby, a large fire in the fireplace and five men standing guard around the room. Jonah looks in through the window and sees one man come down the stairs inside, straightening his shirt as a mustached man heads upwards. Jonah hears a step behind him, he pivots, knife already airborne and it thunks soundly in another man's chest.

Another cut and Jonah rises up out a horse trough, another dead man nearby. He looks up at the house and draws the matches from his pocket. With a small smile on his lips, he climbs in through a window, grabs some lanterns and splashes kerosene around the room. He then strikes a match, sets the room ablaze and jumps out the window, runs across the porch to another window. He looks inside and sees the mustached man from earlier raping a woman.

Just then the blaze reaches outside the window and appears to set the horse trough on fire (?!?!). The men in the lobby take notice and head outside as Jonah crawls into the room with the woman and blows the brains of the rapist. The woman screams and covers herself. Jonah holsters his pistol and she stops.

The men in the lobby turn and head upstairs, Jonah pushes the woman out the window and then dives through the flames guns ablazin', taking the men by surprise. On man falls into the flames, jumps up and runs downstairs screaming in agony. More men downstairs, surprised, turn and open fire, killing their compatriot. As they stand around the burning corpse, Hex opens fire from the upstairs landing. One thug hides behind the old man in the chair and Hex runs down the stairs, through the gunfire and tackles the man. He then proceeds to beat the man to death with a pistol.

The fire has now spread to the lobby and the old man, still tied to the chair and lying on the floor whispers, "kate...". Jonah looks him in the eye and replies "She's safe." As the hotel starts to collapse around them, Jonah pulls the man from the chair, hoists him over his shoulder and then pushes open a nearby door into the kitchen. Another thug inside opens fire, Jonah ducks, grabs a meat cleaver and then with a swift toss, removes the thugs head from his shoulders.

Hex heads on outside, the old man over his shoulders, and comes upon the naked Kate, beating a man to death with a shovel. As the hotel explodes in flames, she drops the shovel, turns and races to the man, taking him in her arms.

The next morning Kate awakens, clothed, on a pile of hay in the barn. As she steps outside, Hex is loading all the bodies in a wagon. She walks over and caresses the face of the old man, her father. Kate and Hex ride into town, both silent. Tears fall from Kates eyes as she looks back in the wagon. Jonah's thoughts are his alone.

At the sheriff's office, the undertaker has all of the bodies laid out. The sheriff states that the corpses are burned so badly he can only identify two of them, the rest could be anybody. He offers Jonah $50 a head. Hex asks if the sheriff checked their pockets, but the lawman states that nothing of use turned up. Just them Mr. Dean Thomas arrives from the bank. Thomas expresses thanks that Hex and Kate escaped with their lives and Jonah states he would be even better when they pay him what is owed.

This is where things get sticky. Jonah was hired to rescue Mr. Hyde and Kate alive and even though they are grateful for Kate's rescue, all of the family's money was in the hotel. What with it burnt to the ground, there is no money to pay Hex. Jonah cites that if the ransom had been paid, the man and his daughter would have been killed. He figures what transpired was personal as Hyde was almost dead when Hex got to him. All said and done, Jonah figures half the agreed amount would be fair.

As second man with Thomas, the banker, speaks up and states that there is no money. The hotel was mortgaged to the bank, with it gone there is nothing and the bank is out thousands of dollars. The sheriff steps in with the bounty money on the two known men. Jonah exits the jail stating that his problem ain't the bank's problem. The bank has until sundown to pony up the cash and he'll be at the hotel getting drunk waiting for them.

The sheriff tells the men that he warned them of hiring Hex, they should have let him pay the ransom, now they have nothing AND have to pay up. Thomas states that is the problem, they promised two thousand dollars. The sheriff gestures towards the dead men and asks if their lives are not worth a thousand dollars. Thomas says with the hotel he could have ten times that but now he barely has two hundred dollars to his name. They had calculated that if Hex was killed, they were out nothing, if he rescued them the money could be taken from the Hyde's account. As it stands, all of Hyde's money goes to pay the bank the outstanding mortgage on the hotel.

The sheriff advises them to beg, borrow, or steal.

Walking away, Thomas asks the banker how money he has, to which the banker replies $123. The banker tells Thomas to use his head, he is a natural salesman and can come up with some sort of deal.

At the hotel in town, Kate Hyde is bathing as Thomas walks in, hat in hand. He tells her that they have been friends since she was a child and he would do anything for her. But now he owes Hex a thousand dollars and the best he has been able to gather is about four hundred. There is no money left in his account or her family's and Hex is a killer....

She agrees, she has seen him in action. Had the ransom had been paid the hotel would have been burned, she and her father woulds both be dead and Bobby Zane and his gang would be alive. She understands that Thomas has done all he can. SHE will go talk to Hex.

Jonah sits in a corner of the saloon, pouring some whiskey into a grazed wound in his shoulder. Kate walks up and starts to relate the deal made between Hex and Thomas. Hex tells her is was for two grand to get them out, now it has been amended to a thousand. Kate lays out the four hundred on the table and says that she is there to make a deal for the balance. Jonah takes a pull on the bottle, wipes his mouth and says he'll be in his room if she wants to come up. She states she will be there shortly.

The next morning Thomas is sitting in his house, shotgun across his lap as he sees Hex approach on horseback. Hex is followed by Kate and then the banker. Thomas walks out with the shotgun but Kate tells him to lower the weapon. She has papers for Thomas to sign. In the house, Kate explains that Hex and she reached an agreement, even though the hotel is gone, there is still the forty acres upon which it sat. Thomas concludes that Kate wants to sell the land and pay Hex out of the sale.

Hex corrects him, there will be no sale, just a transfer of ownership. Thomas says it is all Kate has and she states that she is alive and that is enough. With the transfer complete, Hex mounts up and Kate asks if he will build a home on it. Jonah states the land is currency and with the railroads and towns popping up, sometimes a person can't keep to themselves. He is gonna leave it clear and free. 

Then he rides off.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - Fourteen, a real bloodbath
Running Total - 767 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 265 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - A bullet graze in the left shoulder.
Timeline - Two days
Rape Percentage -  25% (11 of 43)

This was a real barn burner (or hotel burner, if you will). The first half was a silent movie, the second half was perfect dialogue moving the problem forward. Nothing was wasted in this one and the two halves meshed perfectly in the storytelling. I did have a FEW quibbles. I didn't understand the transition where we saw Jonah rising from the horse trough. What was the reason he had to hide there? Also, wouldn't that have rendered his matches useless? I also didn't understand why the matches were tied together, almost like a fuse of some sort. And the fire, while spectacular and a good distraction, seemed a little over the top, but Hex has been doing this a lot longer than I have.

The rape of Kate seemed unnecessary, but your mileage may vary on that. Also, I think the story was written so that we first assume that Kate slept with Hex to pay off the balance, but then we learn of the transaction of the land. I can picture Jonah and Kate in the room, hammering out details. She seems like a strong woman (what with smashing a man's head open with a shovel and all) and I like to think that all that was offered was the land and not herself.

Gulancy's artwork was good, everyone was recognizable and the action played out well. 

Next Issue: Jimmy and Justin take on a big task, spinning out a yarn that will envelope six issues in the lead up to #50. Yup, we're talking about the Six Gun War.