Jonah Hex V2 #38 Feb '09
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 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.
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