Jonah Hex #11 "The Hanging Tree"

Jonah Hex V2 #11 Nov, 2006
"The Hanging Tree"
Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, story - David Michael Beck, art - Art Thibert, cover

Our tale begins at night with Jonah Hex, hands bound behind him, hanging by the neck in a tree with other hanging bodies as well as skeletons. Standing below the tree, watching Hex twitch and kick, are the freaks from the Romanoff Traveling Side Show. The freaks watch a short while longer, then pack up and move on.

  An unknown amount of time later, a rider comes along and that rider uses his whip to snap the limb that Hex is tied to. The rider?..... El Diablo. Diablo cuts him loose and gives him some water along with a warning to not tease the Devil.  Diablo mentions that Lazarus is in nearby Encita but he must leave now since he has work to do.

 Next day, Encita, California. We find Jonah Hex riding into town and proceeds to the Grand Hotel. As he approaches, a man starts to stop him, holding out a hand to stop Hex. Jonah grabs the mans fingers, bending them backwards, breaking them, and then proceeds to beat the man into submission. Hex's arm is stopped by Lazarus Lane. They have a quick, unfriendly exchange and then head into the local saloon.

 Inside, Hex is pushing down a meal and Lane is quizzing him as to why the Carny folk were after Hex. Jonah explains that he killed their boss. Lane warns Hex that things are changing, the frontier is vanishing and there will soon be no room for people that hand out their own justice. Hex mentions that at least he doesn't wear a stupid mask. Lane asks Jonah how he is going to move forward since he has no money, no guns, no horse (despite riding into town on one). Just then a cowboy walks into the saloon and Jonah stands, saying that things have a way of working out.

We next see Jonah dragging that cowboy through the street to the sheriff to collect a $500 reward.

The Carnival of Torture and Death - It's night, an unknown number of days later and an unknown distance away. The Romanoff carnival is being terrorized by about a dozen men and several of the freaks lay dead. The tattooed lady is being drug across the desert by a man who states that has broker her spirit but she should be good for a few more rides. Another man comes up and drags her off, going past two men who have tied up the Siamese twins and are trying to pull them apart. Another man has a freak tied to the wagon's wheel and is heating up a stick with which to burn him. The man says that since Romanoff ain't around to pay the Pearson Gang, they will do what they damn well please.

  The tattooed lady is begging with her tormentor to let her go and when he demands that she tell him his fortune she quotes Revelation 19:11. The man tells her that the Good Book ain't gonna help her none. Just then Jonah Hex rides up behind him and says that HE will help her and then shoots the man dead.

  Back at the camp a few men spot two pairs of weirdly glowing eyes. Thinking they belong to wolves, they shoot into the night. The eyes, however, belong to El Diablo & his horse. Hex rides into the campfire light and the men ask who in the hell Hex is. Jonah says that if they want to know about hell, just turn around. El Diablo comes into the light and snaps one man's neck with his whip. Jonah shoots two more and Diablo leaps from his horse as three other men try to gun him down.

  The campfire explodes into an inferno and consumes one man as Diablo stands unscathed in the flames. Hex's horse kicks in one man's face and Jonah guns down two more men. With all of the men dead, Diablo states that vengeance is served. Hex disagrees and goes over to the remaining freaks to get even for his hanging. Diablo whips the pistol from Jonah's hand and they argue over Jonah's right to kill them....

  The tattooed lady comes back and states that she didn't want them to hang Hex. She speaks of trying to help the children that Romanoff abused and she tells Hex that he is a freak like them. She tells Hex that she has the Sight. She can see that Hex will one day be put on display and people will pay money to see him. Hex asks that if she can truly see the future then why didn't she stop all of this from happening? And then he rides off.

The Troubled Souls of Men - Lazarus Lane is asleep in his bed and Jonah Hex stands over him, holding a pistol on him. Lane jerks awake and asks if Hex was going to shoot him in his sleep. Jonah confesses to thinking about it. Lane fixes them a drink and says that he is not adverse to Hex killing him, he drinks himself to sleep most nights and wakes up screaming.

The tale ends with Jonah riding off and the narrator verifying the Tattooed woman's prophecy.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - 6
Running Total - 573 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 71 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Hung by the neck
Timeline - It appears that this takes place across two nights and one day.
Rape Percentage - 45% (5 out of 11)

I'm conflicted about this issue. Personally I have always enjoyed Jonah being apart from the DCU and this was the first 'canonical' story of Jonah interacting with a character that had some sort of super power. Being Jonah, he took it all in stride, practically staring down the Devil himself (or at least a minion). While the story may have been lacking (or not up to my liking), Gray and Palmiotti once again write caption boxes and dialogue like it's nobody's business. I find myself reading their books out loud over and over again.

Beck's art, while at time almost photographic, does come across incredibly stilted and stiff most of the time. I can't say as I'm a fan.

Next Issue - Mormon Bashing is taken to the extreme.

Jonah Hex #59 "Night of the White Lotus"

Jonah Hex #59 April 1982
"Night of the White Lotus"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers & Tony DeZuniga, art - Tony DeZuniga, cover

Mei Ling, her dress torn, is tied to a burning stake, surrounded by chanting Indian warriors and Jonah Hex comes riding over the horizon, guns blazing. His horse rears up and he cuts loose with a hail of bullets. Indians are dropping like flies as Jonah leaps from his horse and cuts his wife free from her bonds. Jonah tells Mei Ling to get on the horse as he kills several more Indians. As Jonah helps Mei Ling into the saddle an arrow suddenly slams into her back and with Jonah shouting for Mei Ling to hang not and not leave him, Mei Ling dies a horrible violent death in his arms.

Aaaaaand, of course, that is when Jonah Hex wakes up. sitting bolt upright in bed, screaming his head off. Other folks in the hotel are banging on his door, telling him to shut the hell up (and it may be the ONLY time anyone has gotten away with that move). Jonah gets up, washes up and gets dressed, taking assessment of his current situation. He hasn't been eating well, sleeping right and he has been getting drunk much too often and it may lead to his death at the hands of a quick sober gunslinger. Jonah then heads out, looking for a hot steak and instead finds...

Jonah turns her down and then wakes up the desk clerk to find an all night eatery. The sleepy-headed clerk directs him to Clarkson's Cafe. Jonah heads out into the street and we see that there is someone watching him from the hotel.

Just then six men approach Jonah and call him out. Hex tells them that he has never met them and maybe they're making a mistake, after all there are a lot cowboys with sparkling blue eyes like his. The men go for their guns and Jonah, well, he does what Jonah Hex does best.

He kills them where they stand and then goes and gets a steak dinner.

Back in the hotel, Mr. McGrath is astonished that six of his best men have just been gunned down and is complaining to a Chinese man who is smelling a white lotus. The Chinese man says that McGrath has been well paid and that his services are no longer needed.

At the cafe, Jonah is still mulling over his situation with Mei Ling and tossing back one drink after another.

Several miles away, at the house of Mei Ling's brother, Mee Ling is standing outside looking at the stars. Her Sister-in-law, Mei Song, asks why she is out so late and Ling answers that maybe Jonah is looking at the same stars as she. When Song asks if Ling still loves Jonah, she answers..

Back at the cafe, the Chinese man stands before Jonah and introduces himself as Wu Gong Phat, a merchant from Nanking. He shows Jonah a white lotus and asks if Jonah has ever seen such loveliness. Jonah takes the flower and gives it a sniff. Suddenly the room is spinning and Jonah passes out. Then Wu Gong Phat and his wife attempt to rape Jonah since Phat is infertile....oh,wait, I got confused with Jonah Hex #35 vol 2. Silly me.

Wu calls in several of his men and they carry Jonah out to a waiting wagon while Wu pays off the owner of the cafe, saying that Hex has drunken himself into a stupor. Outside, they stuff Hex into a large basket, throw him on the wagon and take off.

The next afternoon, Mei Ling and Jason are in the garden when her brother brings her a letter. Ling opens it, reads it and a wilted lotus falls out. Mei Ling panics and asks her brother to take care of Jason until she gets back, but she cannot say why she is leaving.

The wagon carrying Jonah travels across Nevada and into California until two weeks later they arrive in San Francisco in front of a large sailing ship....

Statistics for this Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - 6 Running total -350
Jonah's Injuries- Drugged unconscious
Timeline - This story covers just over two weeks and is clearly part of the post-wedding arc. This will be mid-Spring 1876. Let's say the last two weeks of April.

A short 17 page story (El Diablo backup, yuch) that really got me excited. This looked to be the start of a long story arc and was actually moving the Mei Ling-Jonah Hex story forward at least a little bit. One complaint that was voiced later on in a letters column was that the Chinese used was just nonsense or not even actual Chinese. I would hope that something like that would not happen if this story were presented today (it would be nice to even have it corrected when the Showcase comes out with this issue.)

Next Issue: Jonah ends up on a boat once again, and we all know how well that always works out.

UPCOMING THIS WEEK: Since it
A) Fits in the time frame of publications dates &
B) Chris Sims....I mean, Mike Sterling has been talking about Hex sooo much

I will also be covering Justice League of America #198 & 199, where Jonah Hex encounters the JLA on his terms. (good lord, I have a lot of scanning to do)