Jonah Hex V2 #52 "Too Mean to Die"

 Jonah Hex V2 #52 Apr '10

"Too Mean to Die"

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

Night, a downpour in a swamp, possibly on the Gulf coast. Jonah Hex is bleeding and eventually comes upon a cabin with light issuing forth. As he approaches, he hears the cry of an infant and spying through the window he sees the mother put the child to her breast. He gently knocks on the door, stating he is alone and wishes nobody any harm, looking only for shelter and food. After some silence, he says he is leaving.

 

The door opens, a rifle barrel extends and the woman states she is well skilled in the use of the rifle. She lets Hex in and puts the baby to bed. Jonah shows her his empty pistol and hands it to her. He asks where her husband is and she states he is dead, she guesses. He left to look for gold after the war. She starts examining Hex's wound, asking who shot him. Jonah says it wasn't anyone special. She doesn't have any liquor to dull the pain and is not much of a surgeon so Jonah tries to guide her through it. He offers a knife and stitching supplies in his saddlebag that he brought.

 

They exchange names, she is Maisy Rae and she eventually extracts the bullet and sews Jonah up. She offers Jonah some beans on the stove and then picks the child back up. She notes that Jonah fought for the Confederacy  and mentions she lost her two brothers in that war. She also lost her parents, her mother to 'the cough' and her father to consumption. Folks don't seem to live long around her. Jonah says that the same predicament surrounds him as well.

 

Maisy asks about Jonah's family and he says he doesn't think about them much, his wife left with their boy not long ago. Maisy says that since she saved, or extended, his life he could relate a tale of his life since he appears to have many in store. Jonah says that since she asked who shot him, he will go with that one....

 

Jonah is riding through the swamp when he spies a crow or a bird of prey tangled in a string on a stick. The bird is trying to free itself. Jonah dismounts and approaches the bird when he is ambushed and falls to the ground. A young man, possibly a teenager, emerges from the brush, unties the bird, who hops onto his arm, and then approaches Hex. As the boy rolls Hex over he finds himself staring down a pistol barrel. The kind punches Jonah in the wound. Jonah gets off a shot that goes wild and the two wrestle on the ground, with five more shots being fired, none finding their mark. The kid starts gouging out Jonah's eyes and Jonah grapples for a rock and swings it against the boy's temple, killing him. 

 

Hex, groggy and bleeding, pulls himself out from under the dead boy and hears shouts of "JAMES! JAMES!" from off in the swamp. Jonah grabs his saddlebag and shoos his horse away and takes off into the swamp. Three brothers, Elliot, another wearing a bowler, and a third with an overbite, arrive upon James' corpse. They realize that they must avenge James death and they see through Jonah's attempt to distract them with the horse running off. They know they are tracking a man on foot through the swamp.

 

Jonah continues through the swamp, shedding his jacket, crawling through the roots of ageless cypress trees. Bowler and Overbite follow the trail as far as they can, noting that the blood in the water will draw gators. They ponder where Hex might be holed up, observing there are two spots, the Whillacker's place and the widow. They decide to take James home, get the dogs and return to dish out their wrath.

 

Hex surfaces from the swamp, covered in leeches. As he stops to pull them off a gator makes his move. Jonah dodges the initial attack, rassles it down and then takes off.

 

Maisy is aghast and orders Hex from the cabin instantly. Hex says he isn't going to hurt her but she says that he has put her and the baby in danger. Those three are crazy and if they think she helped him... The baby starts crying and Maisy opens the door for Jonah to leave but the brothers are standing on the porch holding a coil of rope. Maisy said she had no idea what had happened but the order her to grab her baby and come outside. They start escorting Jonah through the door and when he protests Maisy's innocence he gets a punch in the gut from Bowler. Bowler takes Overbite's rifle and orders him to drag Maisy and the brat outside. Bowler gives Hex a kick to the gut and we hear a rifle shot from the cabin. Overbite screams and Bowler and Elliot head into the cabin, stupidly ignoring Hex.

 

Maisy tells them to stay outside, Overbite is alive, but won't be if they enter. Hex rises up behind Elliot, sneaks his pistol from the holster and shoots him in the back of the head. Bowler turns and catches a slug in the eye. Jonah drops the pistol and enters the doorway, holding his side. Overbite is holding the child by the neck and Maisy has the rifle trained on him. Overbite tells Hex to leave or the child's neck will be snapped. Jonah doubts the threat, asking if Overbite is a robber and a baby killer? If the baby dies, it won't be Maisy what finishes Overbite.

 

Overbite responds that if he lets the baby go Hex will shoot him anyway. Jonah says it doesn't matter how it goes down, it isn't his kid. Maisy is astonished, after how she helped Hex. Jonah says he ain't dead and that is all that matters. Jonah reaches out for the rifle, saying he is fed up with her yapping. Meanwhile Overbite is trying to get their attention, saying he will kill the kid. Jonah and Maisy wrestle over the rifle when it suddenly goes off, killing Overbite with quick efficiency. 

 

Overbite lies dead, the baby sitting alive on his chest. Maisy stutters ".... you.... we shot my...." Jonah takes the rifle and says that when a man like that comes in the house, you don't wound him, you kill him. Maisy says the choice wasn't as simple as that. Hex observes that deep in the swamp there ain't that many people to rob, those men just liked the killing and things are making sense. A beautiful woman like Maisy left alone in the swamp is an easy target, but here she is, unharmed. 

 

Maisy tells him to leave, Jonah only cares about killing. She can see why his wife left him. Jonah tells her to cast judgement if she must. He exits, and standing in the rain he turns and tells her to bury her kin.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - Four
Running Total - 864 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 362 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Shot and beaten.
Timeline - One day. After Mei Ling has left, so probably 1877
Rape Percentage -  21% (11 of 52)

Jonah has had a few run-ins in swamps and all of them were full of murderous families. At least this one didn't have a huge waterfall. This story, overall was pretty good. I enjoy Jordi's artwork and he has a knack of making people have a unique look so they are easy to identify from page to page. The interaction between Jonah and Maisy was a delight, both were wary of each other, not wanting to let their guard down and the reveal at the end where Maisy is married to Overbite was really icing on the cake. The whole issue flowed very nicely and had a good atmosphere. One small point I noticed is that Jonah showed compassion to the 'trapped' bird, leading to his ambush. Jonah has feelings for animals because they are innocent (except for bears and gators and sharks and wolves and anything else that attacks him) and has had ever since he was a kid.

Next Issue: A saloon girl, a train, and a double cross.

Jonah Hex V2 #10 "Gator Bait"

Jonah Hex V2 #10 Oct, 2006
"Gator Bait"
Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, story - Phil Noto, cover and art

Gone Too Far South - Black Swamp, Louisiana. A wooden shack built over a swamp and we see a man, Flint, dumping a body into the water and gators feasting upon it. A large retarded man, Dewey, sits on the porch along with an old woman called "Ma", gleefully watching the carnage. Flint mentions that "the Negro" got away but "Dean stuck him good". As the three of them watch the gators eating the body tossed into the water, Flint asks about "the whore". "Ma" responds that the girl is lost to the sins of the flesh so they should just wipe her off and let the boys preoccupy themselves with her.

Last Request of a Dying Man - An injured African American rides into town and falls of his horse just as Jonah Hex exits a saloon. The man begs Hex for help,  saying that "they" have his wife, baby, and best friend and begs for retribution. Hex states that retribution comes at a price. The man says that they were on their way to Oklahoma and hands over a deed to Hex. Hex tells him they will pay in blood for what they done and the man dies with a Thank You on his lips.

Later that night Hex is in a poker game and ends up busted. Leaving the game, Hex is stopped by a question from another player, asking if there is anything of value that Hex could put up as a stake to return to the game. Jonah pulls the deed from his coat, reads it and then returns it and leaves. Hex is walking down the dark street and overhears the constable talking to the undertaker.

The constable voices concern as to why he should venture into the swamp based on the word of a dead Negro. The undertaker says that he only builds boxes, he has no thoughts concerning the Lamont family. Hex interrupts, asking if the box contains the man from that afternoon. They acknowledge that it does and that this is no business of Hex's. Jonah calls them cowards and idiots because they don't see the opportunity before them. All the constable has to do is place a bounty on the Lamonts and he will be a hero come election time, with no endangerment to himself. The constable sees the wisdom in the words.

The Jaws of Death - Hex is making his way through the trees of the swamp and comes upon a marker, an arrow made of rocks. He climbs a cypress and spies the cabin in the distance and we hear a voice behind him. It is a man with a shotgun, saying that Hex is pretty good at trackin' but since he ain't from the swamp, he can't move about silent, like swamp folk. The man introduces himself as Dean Lamont. He asks for Hex's name, but Jonah says they won't know each other long enough for that to matter. Dean forces Jonah to head onward to the cabin.

As they approach, the whole Lamont family is on the porch, Flint, Ma, Dewey, and four others. Flint asks Dean what he has there and Dean replies "Dinnah". They take Hex to the back porch, overlooking the swamp and the gators. Ma asks Hex if he thinks her pet gators are cute. Jonah says that he came across a colored fella and explains the story. Ma says they did stop by and she guesses that Hex is here per the man's request.

Jonah wants to know where the mother and child are. Flint grins and says the mother is inside. The half-breed Negro baby was a tasty snack for the gators. They force Jonah backwards toward the porch railing, Flint on one side, Ma on the other. Flint pulls his knife and suddenly Jonah throws himself backward, grabbing Ma and Flint, taking them both with him into the swamp water.

Dewey starts clapping and laughing, cheering the gators on. Hex pulls Ma and Flint deeper, throwing Ma into the path of one gator and then wresting the knife from Flint's hand. He stabs Flint in the chest and then wedges Flint's corpse into the mouth of a second gator. Hex dives under again and takes a gator head on, stabbing it repeatedly in the head and then surfacing across the swamp and dragging himself onto the shore.

Across the swamp, Hex can hear the screams of the family and the cheers and laughs of Dewey. Dean garbs his shotgun and screams at Dewey to shut up. Dewey grabs the barrel of the shotgun and says he don't feel so good. Dewey suddenly vomits all over himself and Dean, repulsed, inadvertently pulls the trigger, blowing Dewey's head clean (more or less) off.

Lessons From the Cheyenne - Later, Dean is leading the rest of  Lamont family in a toast of remembrance of Ma and Flint. Dean tells the others to open the crate. As Jonah creeps up outside he overhears Dean say that maybe the girl can soothe their troubled hearts in this time of despair. One of the family observes that the girl is no longer right in the head. Another of them says he can't stand her vacant stare..go get a sack to put over her head.

Suddenly the front door swings open and Jonah Hex, dripping wet, stands silhouetted in the doorway. Dean and the others are frozen and the door swings shut. From outside the cabin we hear the carnage and hell that Jonah Hex visits upon the Lamonts.

All we get to see is...

The house is now on fire and Jonah is leading the blindfolded victim out of the house. He says that she doesn't need to see what he visited upon them. He says he ain't much for conversation but she has probably crawled deep inside herself, so it don't matter nohow. They aren't 100% square for the death of the baby, but it's the best he could do.

As they stand there, watching the cabin burn, Hex hands the deed over to the woman and says that when she is ready to go, he'll be at the horse.

Statistics for This Issue

Men killed by Jonah - 7 people and one gator. (Dewey was killed by Dean)
Running Total - 567 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 65 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Probably some scrapes from the gator fight.
Timeline - A day and night at the start, probably not too long to track down the Lamonts. Let's say two-three days, tops.
Rape Percentage - 40% (4 out of 10)

This was one sick sick story. The level of sickness, depravity, and evil exhibited by the Lamonts has to be some of the worst in comics (but don't worry folks, we have 60 more issues to get through and Jimmy and Justin push the envelope even further).  The punishment handed out by Hex was, by my estimation, no where near enough, but judgement of that level can only be meted out by God.

I can't say that I enjoyed this issue. The story was good, but it was just a little too twisted for me. I have to admit, the older I get, the less tolerant I am of sick evil deviant behavior in 'entertainment'. Also, I'm still trying to figure out the details regarding the land deed. It appears to be signed by Andrew Jackson (President 1829-1837) and it was stated that it was for land in Oklahoma (first opened for settlement in 1889). Deeds weren't handed out in the Land Runs, one staked a claim and then obtained the deed, so if our victim had a deed and was heading to Oklahoma, he would have had to obtained it from someone else so the earliest this story could have taken place would have been early summer of 1889.

But what did Jackson have to do with it? I can hear you say "NOTHING! It was artistic license on Noto's part." I know, but stuff like that drives me crazy!!

Next Issue - The Fallout from Issue #1 and we learn that this Hex is IN the DCU!