The Second Atlantis

 When I'm cruising through the thrift stores grabbing old boardgames, vintage coffee pots, commercial grade vacuum cleaners and such, I also scope out the paperback books. I get these mostly for the old vintage covers and lo and behold I stumble across this beauty from 1965, illustrated by none other than... 

 

Gray Morrow! Now while I disliked Gray's work on Jonah Hex because it seemed so stiff and the use of zipatone made everything murky, here I really think he has created a great cover.

From the back cover:

   Who would build a great civilization upon a huge crack in the world's surface? The Californians did ... setting up famous cities and myriad homes upon the line of the San Andreas fault ... the Earthquake Zone of North America!

  Someday, inevitably, this area must open up, must create another Atlantis, as the seas sweep in to swallow another mighty land.

  This is the story of how that might happen - the story of THE SECOND ATLANTIS. It is a novel of tomorrow, a prevision of what might come. It is a prophetic novel with an unforgettable impact.

  What a lovely little surprise this was. Coming soon... Jonah Hex V2 #1

Secret Origins #21 "The Secret Origin of Jonah Hex"

Secret Origins #21 Dec 1987
"The Secret Origin of Jonah Hex"

Michael Fleisher, story - Gray Morrow, art - Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, cover

Secret Origins was a great book back in the 80's. DC decided to have this book, giving space to one Golden age character and newer character, often with an artist that either originally drew the character or could mimic the style of the original artist. The Golden age character stories was almost always written by Roy Thomas and the newer character stories was penned by the ongoing writer or the writer who was handling the reigns on the relaunch.

Usually the newer character was involved in a new book, so it is somewhat odd that Jonah Hex, just canceled that year, lands a spot in Secret Origins. I picked it up because I'm a fan. I already knew about Jonah's Secret Origin. Heck, I even knew about his OTHER Secret Origin. So what was I going to learn in this story? Well, a little something, so hang on.

We start off in the Frontier City Amusement Park in Laramie, Wyoming. There is a Frontier City Amusement Park in Oklahoma City, but I get that wasn't Wild Westy enough, but I'll cover that a little bit more in a later post. Anyway, we see a scantily clad young woman running through the park at night being chased by two gun-wielding thugs. She shouts for help, rounds a corner and the heel of her shoe breaks off, throwing her into a nearby cowboy statue. We hear a director shout "CUT!" and we realize that we are witness to the making of a low budget movie. As they set up for the scene it is discovered that the statue that was knocked over was not a statue, but a stuffed corpse.

An unknown time later, at Princeton University a Prof Lawrence is talking with a Mr. Kastner over the phone. Lawrence states that, according to the description and the photos Kastner sent, the corpse must be that of Jonah Hex. Kastner explains that the statue was purchased with a lot of other stuff when West World Amusement Park in NY went out of business. Lawrence asks if Kastner has plans to display the corpse but Kastner explains there is a fly in the ointment.

Frontier City had the corpse repaired and Kastner (we assume he with a museum) want to buy it, but there is an old Cheyenne woman who has an injunction on the sale. She states she is Jonah's common law wife and wants the body for a Cheyenne burial. Lawrence is on a plain to Wyoming asap.

Meanwhile, in Lombard, Illinois, we meet a Mr. Lewellyn, a collector of American Frontier Memorabilia. He is showing two of his thugs around his collection. He has Wyatt Earp's Buntline,, the poker hand held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot, the tomahawk of Scalphunter, the table from the saloon where Jonah was shot, Hex's glasses, George Barrow's shotgun, even Mei Ling's wedding dress. BUT he is wanting the stuffed corpse of Jonah Hex. He even has a glass case ready for it and he tells his thugs to do anything in order to obtain it.

At the Gray Eagle Indian Reservation in Wyoming, Lawrence pulls up in a Land Rover in front of a bunch of tipis. He thinks that he never imagined that Tall Bird would still be alive, let alone survive the fire set by Lew Farnham. He enters a tipi and meets Tall Bird. As he pushes the elderly Tall Bird around in a wheelchair, Lawrence states that she has answered every question he has poses, so there is no doubt as to her identity, but Lawrence asks another question: What happened to Jonah in the town of Red Dog in 1875 when he literally vanished from sight?

Tall Bird states that Jonah did speak of it once, "that he had been vouchsafed a visit to a strange new world" and they would never speak of it again. Lawrence asks about Jonah's son, Jason. Her answer? "He told me about Jason. But his is a tale so fraught with horror that I have vowed to carry it within me, in secret, to the end of my days."

The Prof then asks what drove Jonah to be a bounty hunter. The story Tall Bird relates:

The drunken Woodson Hex gives Jonah a rifle for his birthday, something very uncharacteristic of the abusive bastard. Jonah is probably, oh, TEN? (well, we don't know, but it IS before his mother leaves.) We see a joyous Jonah running around the farm shooting bottles, sticks, scarecrows and the like. That night, Ginny comes home from a day in town. The buckboard broke down and she had to get it fixed. Woodson accuses her of hanky panky and starts slapping her around. He breaks a bottle and threatens her with it.

Young Jonah awakens to the disturbance, grabs the rifle and confronts his father only to get the crap slapped out of him and knocked to the ground.

Tall Bird stops there and says that she will finish the story in the place where they found Jonah, the amusement park. Lawrence takes her back home and heads for his hotel. When he steps into his room, he is attacked by Lewellyn's thugs and told to have Tall Bird sign over the corpse to them.

The next day at Frontier City, Tall Bird retells Hex #7 and #8 in three quick panels and Jonah fell into drunkeness and loose women. One night as he was staggering down the street, he sees a large man beating a young woman. Jonah hallucinates, thinking that it is his father and he draws on the man and shoots him dead. The sheriff shows up and states that Jonah just killed Lucas McGill, a wanted murderer and hands the sizeable reward over to Jonah. Jonah looks at it in a puzzled way, drops it to the ground and rides off.

Back in Frontier City, Lewellyn and his thugs step forward and demand that Tall Bird sign the papers. She, sitting in the shadow of her dead husband, refuses. Lewellyn pulls a gun and states that he will have his way no matter what. Suddenly a shot rings out and Lewellyn drops to the ground. Lawrence grabs the dropped pistol and demands that the thugs drop their weapons.

Later, we see the police carting off the thugs and the body of Lewellyn. Lawrence and Tall Bird have to go to the police station to give their statements but as they leave, Lawrence turns to Jonah Hex and says that by tomorrow, they will have Jonah out of there. The police drive off, leaving the stuffed corpse of the greatest bounty hunter standing alone.

Statistics for the Issue

Men Killed by Jonah Hex - Well, McGill and dare I say, Lewellyn? There was nobody else to shoot him. So how about two?
Running Total - 485 (430 past, 55 future)
Jonah's Injuries - none
Timeline - Supposedly this takes place in 1987 and probably spans about a week.

This really isn't a SECRET origin. We only get five pages of info on Jonah's past that we didn't have before and only two of those as an adult. Pretty lame stuff all around. We do get to see Tall Bird, a verification that the HEX series is considered canon, a hint at the horrible end of Jason (not yet seen), but we never see what happens to Jonah's corpse. That is left hanging there, begging for answers.

If Tall Bird gets custody and burns the corpse, how can Jonah see it in the future? If it ends up in a museum, how can it be 'collected' with amusement park junk in the future so Jonah can see it? This issue raises many more questions than it answers and at times I think it would be better if it hadn't been written. The artwork by Gray Morrow, once again too full of Ziptone, too murky, too stiff, too 1950's, too YAWN!!!

Next post, will tie up this story and the Death of a Bounty Hunter into a nice little package. I have mentioned this item before, but it is worth repeating. After that, we'll visit some more of the guest appearances of Jonah Hex and then we dive headlong into the world of VERTIGO. (Don't say I never did anything for you guys, okay?!?!?)

Jonah Hex #92 "A Blaze of Glory!"

Jonah Hex #92 Aug 1985

"A Blaze of Glory!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Gray Morrow, art - Conan and Klaus Janson, cover.

Jonah Hex finds himself atop a hill in the pouring rain, looking down on a farmhouse. He decides that he might be able to find shelter in the barn and heads on out.

In the barn are a couple of things. 1) A young girl asleep in the hay and 2) six men planning on dividing up half a million dollars in stolen loot (or $106.25 million today!). Well, when there is money and guns, guns usually come into play. Five of the men decide that they can kill the other one (the banker) and have more loot. So they do just that. The gunshots awaken the young girl (Cindy) and also alert Jonah that something is up. The girl tries to sneak out but the mean hear her and try to catch her. She hits one with a branding iron and bolts for the door. Outside she runs into a hay field and ends up finding Jonah Hex, hiding there himself.

The men walk into the hayfield and Jonah guts one of them before he and; the girl sneak off to his horse. As they ride off on Jonah's horse, the remaining four men shoot at them.

Emmy Lou is finding that the rainstorm is starting to flood the hole she is in and it has made the sides too slippery to climb out. She starts hollering for help and an old man in a nearby cabin hears her over the rain. He grabs his rifle and; dog and he sets out to find out what is going on.

Brett who is also nearby hears Emmy's cries as well and starts searching harder. The old man arrives at the hole first, tosses down a rope and hauls her out, taking her back to his cabin. However, Brett has seen all of this and now knows where Emmy is.

Meanwhile, Jonah and the young girl are still riding. She asks where they are going and Jonah says that she will stay with some ranchers he knows until he can catch the bank robbers and then get her back to her family. She states that she is an orphan. Despite the fact that she wants to help Jonah locate and identify the killers, Jonah drops her off at the ranch house. Jonah rides off into the night to locate the killers.

Up in her room a few minutes later, Cindy decides to climb out the window, steal a horse and take out after Jonah Hex. Of course, while she is out looking for Hex, the four killers, who are searching for her and Jonah, happen to see her ride past in the distance and take off after her.

Back at the old man's cabin, Emmy is drying out by the fire when there is a knock at the door. Emmy tries to stop the old man from answering it, but Brett busts in and cranks the old man upside the head. The man's dog leaps into the fray and takes a hunk out of Brett's arm, giving Emmy the chance to get out the door and into the darkness.

Jonah finally locates some tracks of the four killers just as Cindy shows up. Jonah is about to read her the riot act when he suddenly realizes they are in the crosshairs. Jonah knocks Cindy to the ground just in time to avoid getting shot and he hustles her behind some rocks for protection. Jonah runs out to his horse to grab his rifle, but he is unable to get a shot at the killers.

Jonah asks Cindy if she has ever fired a rifle and she says that her daddy taught her. Jonah interrupts her and she says that he taught her before he died. Jonah tells her to fire a shot every ten seconds and he heads out to get the drop on the killers.

Meanwhile the killers have their own ideas, sending one of their guys to be on the lookout in case Hex decides to ambush them. Eventually Jonah does sneak up behind the killers and as he lights a stick of dynamite, one of the gunmen steps out of the shadows and is about to shoot Hex. Suddenly the thug falls, dead from Cindy' rifle shot. Jonah then tosses the dynamite and finishes off the remaining three.

The next morning Jonah and Cindy are in town, turning the remains in to the sheriff and collecting the bounty. Cindy is excited that she'll be able to ride with Hex but just then a man and woman run up and start hugging Cindy, saying that she was a runaway. Cindy's dad starts to give Hex a reward for finding their daughter, but Jonah shrugs him off, still counting his reward from bringing in the killers.

Jonah wanders down the street, ignoring the cries of Cindy, and heads into a saloon. He orders a drink and is standing at the bar when Emmy Lou suddenly runs in. Emmy breathlessly tells Jonah that someone is after her and then Brett crashes into the saloon, telling Jonah to step aside. Jonah calmly tells Brett to put the gun away but it looks like there will be a shootout when that strange ray appears and Jonah Hex vanishes in front of everyone.

Statistics for this Issue

Men killed by Jonah - 5
Running Total - 428
Jonah's Injuries - none
Timeline - This one covers one night and into the next day. I'll go out on a limb and say that puts us at August 1st, 1878 as the Matching Dragoons official date of Jonah Hex's disappearance. Emmy Lou is left to face Brett alone (and doesn't end up in the future as I thought from some of the teaser ads for Hex)

All in all, a sad end to Volume one of Jonah Hex. Jonah acts out of character turning down the money, one minute he appears to be happy about having Cindy around and the next he ignores her. I always wished that this book could have made it to issue 100, but on a bimonthly schedule, 8 more issues would be over another year of very poor sales.

Next Issue - Well, there ain't no next issue, but we start off with issue number one of HEX (which is how it should be read, at the top of your lungs.)

Jonah Hex #91 "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"

Jonah Hex #91 June 1985
"Sweetheart of the Rodeo"
Michael Fleisher, story - Gray Morrow, art - Ed Hannigan & Mark Texeira, cover (Layout by Neal Adams)

Jonah is riding across the west searching for clues to the location of Emmy Lou. He comes across a lovely woman trick riding but her horse is suddenly spooked by a rattler and she is thrown, however her foot is caught in a stirrup. As she is being dragged, Jonah overtakes her horse, jumps upon it and brings it to a stop. He helps her to her feet and much later fixes her dinner around the campfire.

Jonah learns that the young woman's name is Carolee and she is 21 but Jonah thinks she is closer to 18 and that she has run away from home. Carolee says that she ran away from home because she wants to be a trick rider in Rory Starbuck's Wild West Show. Hex asks if that is show opening up in a couple days at a nearby farm. Carolee mentions that it is.

Jonah says that he has a friend that is working as a stock handler and maybe they can her an audition. Carolee is very grateful and starts showering Jonah with kisses. He tells her to hold off, he's old enough to be her father and she responds...

The next afternoon Jonah's friend gives Carolee an audition and the owner of the show hires her on the spot. As Jonah & Carolee are heading to the barn to get their horses & head into town, they discover that the barn is on fire. Jonah tells Carolee to run & get help. Jonah starts to toss sand onto the fire but he notices someone sneaking up on him. He turns in time to use the sand bucket to deflect a bullet and then hits his attacker with the bucket and then punches the man's lights out.

Before the rest of the Wild West show can arrive, someone hits Jonah in the back of the head and drags his attacker off. Jonah is rescued from the barn and the show folks save the barn.

That night, Jonah is recovering from his attack & is talking with Rory Starbuck. Starbuck says that the men responsible had worked for him, but were discovered stealing livestock. The men went to prison but are now out and aim to settle the score. Starbuck hires Jonah Hex to keep the men from succeeding.

Meanwhile, Emmy is leading her horse through the darkness, trying to escape from Brett. She stops at a stream to get a drink and when she starts to stand back up she sees Brett on the other side. She grabs a handful of gravel and slams it into Brett's eyes. Before Brett can recover, she grabs a rock and smashes it across the side of his face. Jumping on her horse, Emmy rides off as Brett fires a couple of shots after her.

Back in town with Jonah & Carolee in their hotel room, Jonah is regretting having gotten involved with Carolee. He mentions that she is just 17 and he is more than twice that. Carolee doesn't mind and she grabs Jonah in her arms, the scene fades to black.

The next morning, Jonah is trying to pick up some sort of trail on the guys that burnt the barn. As he is riding along, one of the jaspars takes a shot at him & Jonah topples from his horse. Then said jaspar walks up, Jonah sits up unharmed and shoots jaspar dead. However, the dead jaspar has some friends up in teh rocks and they open fire on Hex.Jonah moves to some rocks and returns fire as a strange ray falls from the sky, hits the dead jaspar, causing him to vanish.

Jonah is able to chase off the other two men but when he turns around, the dead man is gone!

Several hours later at the Wild West Show, Carolee is working on her act. Jonah realizes that the men terrorizing the show won't show up again as long as he is around. A couple of rodeo clowns walk by and Jonah hatches a plan. Starbuck is talking to Carolee about how she is going to be a big star and that she will soon be their #1 attraction!

Meanwhile, Emmy realizes that she is going to need a fresh horse and as she dismounts to walk the horse for awhile, she suddenly falls into a covered pit.

That evening we find Jonah Hex in clown makeup watching the crowd, looking for the thugs threatening the show. He also notices Carolee and Starbuck doing some heavy duty lip locks behind the scenes. Jonah starts to put an end to it but another rodeo clown grabs Jonah and pushes him into the arena in order to distract the bulls from the bullriders. Jonah ends up diving into a barrel and having a bull knock him around the arena for awhile.

The two leftover thugs show up and draw on Starbuck & Carolee. They herd both of them towards the payroll wagon but Jonah jumps out of the barrel, scales the fence around the arena, grabs a rope and swings to the rescue. Thus the two thugs are beat to a pulp by the most bad-ass clown that ever lived!

Jonah then demands to know why Carolee was spit-swapping with Starbuck. Carolee says that it was Jonah's idea. Jonah had said it wouldn't work between them & she should find a younger man. Jonah stomps off to remove his clown makeup and ends up busting the mirror in the makeup tent in frustration.

Meanwhile, Emmy Lou can find no way out of the pit she has fallen into.

Statistics for the Issue

Men killed by Jonah - 1
Running Total - 424
Jonah's Injuries - none
Timeline - This issue seems to pick up where the last one ended. It covers two days. Let's say it is the very end of July 1878.

Again, I don't care for Morrow's work on this one. Everything seems so murky and wooden. The story is not a great one either. Jonah falls for Carolee way too quickly and gets burnt by her just as fast (of course, she is only 17!) Not much develops with Emmy Lou and we get nothing of Mei Ling and we will never see Adrian Sterling again. I also disliked the Laurel & Hardy clown joke. Kinda cute, but outta place in a western book. For me the best part was the cover.

Next Issue: Emmy Lou & Brett's final confrontation, Jonah gets involved with an even younger woman, and that mysterious ray appears once again.

Jonah Hex #90 "Starlight, Star Bright,... First Star I See Tonight!"

Jonah Hex #90 Apr 1985
"Starlight, Star Bright... First Star I See Tonight!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Gray Morrow, art - Mark Texeira, cover

Jonah Hex has had enough of Mrs. Crowley's boarding house and is saddling up his horse when Mrs. Crowley tries to stop him. Hex states that no matter what the doc has said, he needs to help a friend and he rides off.

Meanwhile, many miles away, J.D. Hart is hanging out with some kids. The kids toss coins in the air and the Marshall shoots all of them before they hit the ground. Just then a silver haired young woman rides up and introduces herself as Silver Ames. She states that last month in Abilene she gunned down Kingfish Belden, the third fastest gun in the west. She tells Hart that folks say he's the second fastest and she's going to kill him. Hart waves her off and turns to leave, but Silver draws anyway and pumps three slugs into Hat's back, right in front of the kids. As Hart lays there dying, Silver jumps on her horse & rides off.

Several hours later Jonah is riding in the mountains trying to decide how to pick up Emmy Lou's trail when there is a sudden avalanche. As he & his horse start sliding among the falling rock, Jonah unleashes a lasso and misses snagging an outcropped rock. He and his horse fall to the bottom of the cliff and are knocked out.

Much later that night, Mei Ling is called into the office of the local undertaker to identify the body of J.D. Hart. She starts crying that men & their guns have destroyed her life but the sheriff tells her that is a woman that killed Hart.

Speaking of that murderous female, we find Silver Ames camped out, having a handy flashback. She remembers her father, a sheep herder, telling her that a man needs to learn to use a gun. Just then a bunch of cattle ranchers ride up and gun down her father. Silver makes a vow that she would become the deadliest gun in the west and starts practicing with her father's pistols. When she is grown she tracks down her father's killers and avenges her father, but she doesn't stop there, slowly working her way across the west.

Back at Jonah, he finally wakes up to a pouring storm. He pulls himself to his feet and walks off in search of shelter. He finally finds a cave, thinking that he will more than likely stumble upon a sleeping grizzly, but, surprisingly, Jonah isn't attacked by a bear...

Meanwhile, at the hideout of Brett and his gang, Brett finds that Emmy is sulking about having shot Jonah. Brett goes into her room to 'cheer' her up but Emmy jams a chair under the doorknob, locking the other two women out of the room. Emmy pulls a knife on Brett and slashes him across the face. A fight ensues and Emmy throws an oil lamp to the floor catching the cabin on fire. She throws a chair through the window and manages to escape on horseback.

Meanwhile, Jonah has managed to drag his busted clawed up self to a cabin. He is bloody and drenched to the bone and asks for a horse. The old man in the cabin lets him take a horse and stands in the barn door waving goodbye when there is a sudden flash of light from the sky. A bolt of light flashes past Jonah and strikes the barn, causing the old man to disappear. Jonah figures that he went back in the barn & rides off.

The next morning, Jonah is back in down in the doc's office. The doc patches him up and asks if Jonah has considered hiring a doc to follow him around full time. The doc then hands over a telegram that came to the sheriff's office yesterday. Jonah takes the telegram and leaves the office. Standing on the sidewalk, Jonah reads that J.D. Hart has been gunned down and just them Silver Ames shows up.

She tells Hex that she killed Hart and she will kill Hex as well. Jonah says that she may be the fastest girl, but she won't outgun him. Her gun is slung too low, she hasn't filed off the front gun sight, her stance is way too broad. Silver tells Hex to shut up and draw on three..

ONE...

TWO...

THRE.. and Hex shoots her dead on the spot and walks off.

Statistics for this Issue
Men killed by Jonah - 1 (technically a woman, but it counts)
Running Total - 423
Jonah's Injuries - still recovering from Emmy shooting him , Hex survives an avalanche and being mauled by a cougar
Timeline - I don't know how long has passed from last issue and this one, Let's toss out a few days and this issue covers two days. I would say that we are at the end of July 1878.

I'm somewhat conflicted about this one. Let's take both sides:
PRO:

• The mauling by the cougar was pretty funny. Almost like Fleisher was having some fun with Jonah's "prophecies of doom" that always come true.
• Silver Ames was an interesting character and it was a hoot how she met her end, with Hex just walking off. When I first read this book I thought that Jonah had just killed her before she could draw, but rereading it, it appears that her pistol has left the holster and Jonah did wait until she drew before gunning her down. That is even better! Jonah was way too fast for the likes of Silver.
• Emmy giving Brett some of what was due him.

CON:

• The death of J.D. Hart. A terrible way for the man to go. I never cared for him as a character (too goody goody for the book) but he didn't deserve this.
• The light from the sky. Sheesh. You can tell the end is near here with a plot device like this.
• The artwork by Gray Morrow was a downer for me. The coloring (also by Morrow) made everything look murky and smeared. Morrow used a lot of ziptone which doesn't translate well to newsprint. It will be interesting to see how these look in a black and white Showcase format. I'm thinking not so great because in some frames Morrow used only coloring to convey what was happening.
  

We did get a small teaser in the letter column last issue showing Jonah Hex on a motorcycle and Crisis on Infinite Earth was gearing up. It was at this time I was thinking that the new direction for Jonah would be tied into CoIE but even though he did make an appearance, the weirdness in the final three issues of Jonah Hex, weren't tied into it at all.

Next Issue: The circus comes to town, more of the weird ray, and a Neal Adams cover.

Jonah Hex #10 "Violence at Vera Cruz"

Jonah Hex #10 Mar 1978
"Violence at Vera Cruz"
Michael Fleisher, story - Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, art - Gray Morrow, cover

Jonah has just killed Pablo and is getting to ride away and one of El Papagayo's men has Jonah dead in his sights. Just as the henchman is about to pull the trigger, Papagayo stops him, reminding him of the letter that they found in Jonah's saddlebag. The letter is from Mexican President Diaz authorizing the commander of the fort at Vera Cruz to turn over the treasure of Carlota to Jonha and a band of Mexican soldiers. Papagayo says that only a crazy man would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

But...isn't that exactly what Papagayo tried to do last issue when he tied Jonah to an ant hill? Noooo, not Papagayo! He and Jonah are old friends and he just wanted to teach Jonah a lesson not to mess with an old friend. Also, Pablo was a stinking pig and Papagayo didn't have the heart to kill his brother-in-law, Pablo, so he set it up so that his good friend Jonah would do it for him. If you believe THAT, I know of some swampland in the Oklahoma panhandle that's for sale.

ANYWAY!!!!... Jonah and the Mexican troops continue on to Vera Cruz with Papagayo and his men following. Eventually Papagayo springs an ambush, killing all of the Mexican soldiers. His men strip the soldiers of their uniforms and dress up as the soldiers. They take everything, including a beautiful ivory-handled pistol inlaid with gold. Now Jonah and the fake Mexican army are headed for Vera Cruz.

Ten days later, hex & company ride into the fort and deliver the letter to Gen. Rumolo. Rumolo & his lieutenant guide Jonah & Papagayo to the treasure while the rest of the bandits are treated to dinner. The General informs them that the treasure of gold ingots is worth five million dollars (about 88.6 today). Suddenly a corporal runs in shouting that there is a fight in the fort. They hurry out into the courtyard to find Lt. Lopez beating the living tar out of one of Papagayo's men.

Lopez explains that his opponent is carrying an ivory-handled pistol inlaid with gold, exactly like the pistol that Lopez has. these pistols were a gift from Rumolo himself to Lopez and his brother when they served under Rumolo in Sonora. Papagayo's henchman claims that he purchased it, but Rumolo knows that Lopez's brother would never have parted with the pistol willingly. He declares the henchman a thief and to be taken and shot. The henchman panics and shouts "Papagayo!! Don't let them shoot me!"

Needless to say, that's when all hell breaks loose.

With each side taking cover on opposite sides of the courtyard, a fierce battle ensues, but Jonah, Papagayo & his men are outnumbered and overwhelmed. Rumolo announces that they will all be shot at dawn. Jonah protests and gets a riflebutt to the head.

Jonah comes to in a cell with Papagayo. Just then an old woman with a parrot on her shoulder shows up, bringing a basket of food for the prisoners. The soldier guarding the cell tells the shawl-covered woman to leave, but she pulls a dagger and stabs the guard to death. She unlocks the cell and reveals herself to be Estrellita and, of course, the parrot is Pepito, sent by Papagayo to her with a note explaining what she was to do. She frees the rest of the men and they get ready to make their escape.

Rumolo is awakened by an explosion. Hex and the bandits have gotten into the munitions shed and while the gold is being loaded into a wagon, dynamite is being tossed at the Mexican Army to hold them at bay. Eventually the wagon with the gold, Hex, Papagayo, & Estrellita gets out of the fort and makes a getaway. They travel for quite a ways until they come to a broken bridge. The bridge, supported by ropes and made of slats, has snapped from their side of the canyon and it dangles from the opposite wall of the canyon. Papagayo pulls a pistol on Hex and forces him to fix the bridge.

Jonah takes a rope and manages to toss a lasso around a tree limb on the far side of the canyon. He is going to swing over, with a rope tied to his waist and then tie that rope to the bridge, allowing the henchmen to pull the bridge up to their side of the canyon. But the tree limb breaks and Jonah falls into the canyon, grabbing the end of the bridge at the last second. Papagayo's men then pull Jonah and the bridge to safety. Finally the bridge is repaired but Jonah notes that it can't hold the weight of the gold-filled wagon. Papagayo orders the men to unhitch the horses and unload the wagon.

They walk the horses across and transport the gold bar by bar. They are down to the few remaining bars and the wagon. All of Papagayo's men are on the bridge when he tells them that they can keep the remaining gold to themselves and then he slices the ropes to the bridge with his sword. With all of his men dead in the canyon, Papagayo pulls a pistol on Hex and is about to shoot him when Estrellita stabs Papagayo in the back, killing him. She tells Hex that he always treated her like dirt and now she and Hex can take the gold and be together.

Suddenly Estrellita falls from a gunshot in the back. Papagayo manages to choke out "Puta" before he dies. Estrellita and Papagayo are both dead and it starts to rain. Jonah starts to get on a horse and find some cover when he notices that the gold is running off of the bars. They turn out to be nothing but lead ingots covered in cheap paint. Jonah rides off, swearing to start doing something simple, like running a general store.

In the epilogue Col. Sanchez arrives in Mexico City with the gold shipment delivered to President Diaz. Diaz commends Sanchez of his brilliant plan to hire Hex to guard a fake shipment while the real shipment was sent out three days earlier by a different route. Diaz says that they must write a note of thanks to Hex for his work.

Statistics for this issue
Men killed by Hex - It's hard to tell in all the gunfire so I won't even guess. Ok, I'll guess, let's say 10.

Running Total - 151
Jonah's Injuries - riflebutt to the head
Timeline - Taking place immediately after the prior issue, let's place this one in 1877

This was a much better story that the prior part lead one to believe. The double crossing, the Lopez art, the huge battles, the Lopez art, the trickery at every turn, the Lopez art. The only thing that could have made it better would have been....more Lopez art. Honestly, the man's artwork is cinematic in quality. I think they could have gotten rid of the whole ugly Pablo mess and made this an extra long story or something.

Next Issue: Tricky card playing, Annie Wilkes' brother, and the return of Joanna Mosby!!!!