Hex #15 "Chain of Doom"

Hex #15 Nov 1986
"Chain of Doom"
Michael Fleisher, story - Keith Giffen and Carlos Garzon, art and cover

Jonah Hex exits the cafe and meets Stiletta at the motorcycle. He asks if she has ever heard of a gang called the Dogs of War. She says that she hasn't and Hex relates the tale he heard in the cafe regarding an alien from the future. Hex decides to try to locate this fella to see if he has a way to get Hex back home. They both jump on the bike and head out but Stiletta starts getting dizzy and attributes that to all the drugs that were forced into her over the past few issues.

Conglomerate Headquarters! Yup, we're back at that palatial estate and none other than Chain is talking to the head man himself. Chain is demanding that he be allowed to kill Jonah Hex, but the Conglomerate has no beef with Hex since Jonah toppled the empire of Reinhold Borsten. Besides, they would never hire a loser like Chain. Chain responds to the insult by instantly killing once of the Conglomerate's thugs. The head guy calls for reinforcements and Chain quickly slices the head off one and cuts the other one in half, explaining that he no longer has a regular chainsaw for hand but now has a photon scrambler. Having made a shambles of everything, Chain leaves the room with the head of the Conglomerate quaking in his boots.

At the slave labor camp, our unnamed alien in doing an introspective recap and we learn that he is from the future that has been conquered by an intergalactic race called the Xxggs (pronounced Shhigs). There is no good way to condense this, so I'll go pretty much verbatim on this one.

The Xxggs cam from the star system Erqlahlia in a giant generational starship, that was both a ship and a homeworld. This allowed them to travel for generations, seeking planets to conquer and when they reached Earth, they swept across the planet. Their science and technology was so superior there was nothing Earth could do. Eventually, all of Earth was enslaved and our alien buddy hatched a brilliant scheme.

He would travel back in time preceding the invasion in order to built a starship that could intercept the Xxggs ship enroute to Earth and then utilize a Nucleotide Injector to subtly alter the Xxgg's gene plasma in order to weaken the Xxggs throughout the future generations, thus ensuring Earth a victory in the coming battle. In order to do this, the alien would utilize the help of the Legion of Superheroes, BUT while our alien was trying to go back in time to the 30th century, Reinhold Borsten was tossing 'time-nets' into the timestream to gather warriors to fight in his staged battles. Our alien friend was caught in one of those nets.

The alien strikes a deal with Borsten. If Borsten allows the alien access to all of Borsten's resources in order to build this ship, the alien would then create a band of super-powered being to allow Borsten to rule the world. The alien knows that Borsten has no chance of accomplishing this goal (since there is no mention of Borsten ruling the world in the future), so the alien is given a Norseman, a Roman Legionary, a Japanese Ninja, and a Maori Chieftain, as well as Stanley Harris (whom the alien caught himself after the Needle's destruction.) Got all that? Good, cuz there's gonna be a test later.

Back to Jonah Hex and Stiletta on their bike. They are traveling across the countryside and Jonah mentions that they are getting close to where the Road Reaper told him the slave camp would be. WAIT! But isn't the slave camp three thousand miles from New York? I looked back at issue #13 and I'm not so sure. The Dogs of War capture the Road Reapers 3k miles away from New York, but the location of the slave camp is never given.

But I digress. On with the story.

Suddenly there is a huge blast, narrowly missing the bike.

We cut to the Dogs of War talking how they just blew up a titanium mining operation. Is that anywhere Jonah Hex? I have no idea. Can't tell from the story and sure as hell can't tell from the art. But let's continue on, shall we? So the Dogs of War are standing around talking about the ray they used, given to them by the alien, would only cause the mine to collapse and not injure any of the workers trapped inside. The ninja, Sun Hawk, summons forth his demon who clears a path down to the trapped miners and then the Dogs of War take all the miners aboard their spaceship to work in the slave camp.

Elsewhere we see a lone ship flying over the landscape and it is piloted by Chain's little brother. He is searching for Jonah Hex but is having no luck yet.

Meanwhile, Jonah and Stiletta roll into the mining camp (so they must have only seen that huge explosion, not been the target. Thanks, Keith, for portraying that in such detail). Stiletta and Hex split up to question the locals in order to learn if this was the work of the Dogs of War. Overhead, Chain's little brother picks up Jonah on the video and then alerts Chain.

Jonah is talking to some locals, getting the skinny, when they suddenly scream that the monster's are back. Before Jonah can react, he is tackled to the ground by Chain.

In another part of the camp, Stiletta is getting sweats, cramps and then suddenly goes into convulsions, ripping up huge hunks of buildings and throwing them around.

The battle between Jonah and Chain is not going well for Hex who is only able to dodge the photon scrambler. Jonah pulls a pistol, but Chain reduces it to mere atoms. Jonah turns and runs into a nearby mine, knowing there will be something there to help even the odds. Chain follows into the darkness and comes upon and open explosives locker. As he takes in what he is seeing, a grenade sails forth from the darkness and explodes at his feet.

Jonah steps out of the shadows, silently thanking Mabel for teaching him about all the toys that the future holds. Just then the mine wall explodes and Chain sails through, knocking Jonah to the ground. Chain stands over Hex, gloating as Jonah tries to get to his feet. That's when Jonah notices that one of Chain's boots is broken and is throwing out sparks. Jonah goads Chain into getting closer and lures Chain into stepping into a shallow pool of water.

Science being what it is, the electricity and water mix in such a way that Chain is electrocuted as well as having the jets on his boots ignite, catapulting him up through the mineshaft and into the darkening skies. Jonah pulls himself to his feet and starts to find Stiletta, only to collapse unconscious.

Back in the mining camp, Stiletta has regained control of herself but has little idea of the destruction she has caused.

Jonah regains consciousness and heads back to the camp when he is suddenly covered by a huge shadow. He looks up just in time to see the flying Manta Ray from the Dogs of War unleash his paralyzing gaze and Jonah falls to the ground.

Statistics for this issue

Men killed by Jonah - Do we dare suggest that Chain is dead? Nahhhhh. 0
Running Total - 478 (428 past, 50 future)
Jonah's Injuries - Well, he once again gets the crap kicked out of himself and then gets hit with a paralyzing beam.
Timeline - Really, who knows? Let's just call it the same day as last issue. That seems about right.

Now about this issue. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH. What in the ever loving HELL was DC thinking by letting Keith Giffen do the artwork on this book? His work on Ambush Bug was hard to understand but I did enjoy the book. Here, if possible, it seems that he just got lazier. I really feel sorry for Carlos Garzon who had to INK this crap. How many bottles of ink did he go through on each page? The biggest part of the problem with Giffen's work is that he wanted to be all cutting edge and he provides NO MARGINS between panels. Just a thin black line, and in work (cough cough) like Giffen's, a thin black line can be anything from a spaceship to a cute girl on the sidewalk. Hell, Little Lulu has more artistry than this guano-taco!!

The storyline moves deeper & deeper into intergalactic sci-fi and with a different star character that might be a good thing, but not here. Now it may seem odd that I am willing to accept an 1800's cowboy entangled with time-travel and a futuristic society but I draw the line at aliens and such. Maybe it's because that almost every time-travel story is about normal people encountering an advanced society and their problems with adjusting. Space aliens are usually NOT part & parcel of time-travel unless it is about aliens in the future traveling backward. Usually forward time-travel can find more than enough story fodder in the societal differences without having to bring in aliens and space travel.

You may have noticed a HUGE gap between the recap of last issue and this. I chalk some of that up to a hectic few weeks but I have to admit that I am not looking forward to wading through the next few issues. I'm gonna have to take the band-aid approach and just rip through them and take all the pain.

Next Issue: Stiletta gets all super-powered, Jonah vs a Viking, and the Xxggs finally land in the 21st century!!!

Hex #14 "Gladiator"

Hex #14 Oct 1986
"Gladiator"
Michael Fleisher, story - Mark Texeira and Carlos Garzon, art and cover

Hex is in a high speed chase through the streets of New York, blindly pursued by the Combine while he attempts to locate Stiletta, kidnapped by the Combine and forced into recreational fighting under the name The Blonde Spitfire. Jonah does the best he can, driving through the streets and shooting out the driver's window. Sadly, in the future almost everything is heavily armored and the bullets just bounce off. In the back of the limo Hex has stolen is the tied up chauffeur, a dead member of the Combine, and another member of the Combine, bruised but still alive.

Hex demands to know if the limo has anything that will stop his pursuers and the Combine member directs him to the tailfin torpedoes. Jonah mashes the button and a quickly launched torpedo explodes on a Combine thug astride a hover-bike. Hex demands the whereabouts of Stiletta and with a pistol pressed against his forehead, the Combine member spills forth with all the info Hex needs. Hex makes a hard right down an alley and then quickly bails out of the limo. The Combine member sees that the alley is a deadend and dives into the driver's seat, trying to stop the limo. He slams on the brakes and the rocketing limo stops just inches from the brick wall at the end of the alley. However, the Combine still thinks Hex is in the limo and launches a torpedo of their own, blowing up the limo, sans Hex.

Elsewhere in the city, we spy on Stiletta in a fierce battle with a battle-bot. Three men; Drago, the Doc, and a short henchman, are discussing an implant that will be placed within Stiletta. Even though she is undefeated in 14 bouts, the implant, highly illegal, will double her speed and triple her striking power. The Doc warns that there could be unforeseen side effects. Drago is willing to take the chance since he plans on using it only if she starts losing. The Doc checks Stiletta and administers another dose of Mind control shots but he also warns that since Stiletta is extremely strong willed and shots of this potency could have an irreversible effect on her mind.

But, enough about the Combine, let's look in on the Conglomerate and their heavily fortified Soames processing plant. During a heavy downpour a lone guard sees something advancing through the rain. He opens fire and the Centurion, even though there is little sunlight, manages to deliver a huge force blast. With the alarm sounded, a huge dome starts to enclose the processing plant. Despite the best efforts of the Viking, the Manta Ray and the Centurion, the dome is undamaged.

That is when Stanley Harris steps forward, peels off his gold gloves and touches the dome. Seems that Harris now has a horrible chronal energy residing in his hands and anything that he touches ages rapidly (thus the gold gloves to prevent unwanted horrors). In the space of a few minutes the entire dome, ages, cracks and collapses. Then all hell breaks loose.

The Conglomerate unleashes a spider tank that blasts the Ninja (aka Sun Hawk) but the Viking runs forward and tries to chop off a leg of the spider tank, to no avail. Then he and Harris start climbing the legs while Manta flies upward and covers the windshield of the tank. The Viking makes it to a joint on the leg and lops it off, Harris plants an explosive onto the tank and the Centurion punches it toward a hillside where it explodes into pieces.

Back in New York, we visit in on a man washing and polishing and beautiful hovercar. Jonah Hex drops from above and kicks the ever-loving crap outta him.

Back to Drago and Co. Drago is saying that they need to get Stiletta to Atlanta for her next fight when the short henchman suddenly sees their car flying straight for the window of their building. Jonah Slams the hovo through the window as everyone scatters (except Stiletta, who stands like a statue, awaiting orders). Drago pulls out a machine gun and Jonah pops from the hovo and plants one between Drago's eyes. The henchman and the doc head for the door, the henchman shouting "Spitfire! KILL HIM!"

Jonah tries to reason with Stiletta as she draws a knife, but Hex sees the glazed look in her eyes and knows he is on trouble. The battle commences, with Stiletta attempting to stab Jonah repeatedly. Hex lands a haymaker square on her jaw but she doesn't even flinch. She launches a kick to Hex's head and then presses a button on her wrist cuff, launching darts from her shoulderpad. Jonah is pinned to the wall and ass he fights to free himself, Stiletta grabs a whip, ensnares Jonah's legs and then throws him out the window to the street far below.

Stiletta walks over to the window to view the final fate of Jonah Hex, but she is greated but both of Hex's boots to her head. Jonah has caught himself on a narrow ledge and then jumps back into the room and pummels Stiletta into submission.

Remember that huge prison work camp 3,000 miles away? Well, we go back there to check in on the Road Reapers that were taken as slaves to work there. The Road Reaper is thinking about how every day the Dogs of War take off and every day they come back with more slaves, putting glowing electro-cuffs on the slaves. Just then the Road Reapers own cuffs flicker and go dark. Just then a guard droid appears but without the electro-cuffs working, the Road Reaper is invisible to the droid. The Reaper then hotfoots it out of the camp and on to freedom.

Later (I'm standing by this because that is what the caption said) Jonah is driving his bike with Stiletta tied up on the back. She slowly awakens and starts demanding to know where she is and why she is wearing that outfit. Jonah pulls the bike over, determines that Stiletta is in her right mind and then he cuts her free. They continue on their way, with Hex bringing Stiletta up to date and everything that has happened since her kidnapping. they stop at a place called the Atomic Diner and Stiletta goes into the ladies room to change clothes.

Hex mosies inside and overhears the Road Reaper talking about being captured and held a slave. He relates the rumor that the brains of the operation is an alien that has actually traveled here from another time. At that point Jonah drops his tray of food, and mentally repeats "Came here from another time?"

Back at the compound, the aforementioned time traveling alien is deep in self contemplation. He ponders on the growing number of slaves but that the work is going too slowly. He had hoped to only enslave the dregs of society, in order not to disrupt the future, but he foresees that he will have to start kidnapping innocents in order to ensure his glorious dream of salvation.

Statistics for This Issue

Men killed by Jonah - 1, Drago bought the farm
Running Total: 478 (428 past, 50 future)
Jonah's Injuries - beaten up and thrown out a window by Stiletta.
Timeline - Whew! I have no idea how many days this one stretches across. The first part of the book appears to take place all in the same day, but once the Road Reaper escapes from the compound, he manages to travel 3,000 miles in a few hours?!?!?! It IS conceivable that he caught a flight, but he's a ROAD REAPER who has been a slave. I doubt that he has a ready supply of cash on hand. But Jonah and Stiletta only travel for what appears to be a few hours before encountering the Road Reaper. Ah, well, let's just ignore that whole "instant travel across country for the sake of the story" thing.

Well, we have Jonah Hex and Stiletta reunited, but there is that unknown side-effects thing that could cause problems. We learn a few more teasers about the Dogs of War who consist of a Roman Centurion that uses sunlight to issue force blasts from his hands, a flying Manta Ray that has paralyzing eye beams, a huge viking with a massive axe, a Ninja that can summon forth an inner demon, and Stanley Harris who has someone obtains chronal powers in his hands. The alien, while starting out enslaving only bad people now may have to enslave good people (is that worse? I thought enslaving anyone would be equally bad.) We also get very short glimpses into the Combine/Conglomerate/Other bad entity starting with the letter C.

All in all, the action kept coming and this story was a lot like the books near the end of Jonah Hex, where we got a page or two of everyone involved, just to keep the story rolling. Not sure if that is good or bad. It just is an observation.

Running out of time, so scans will be posted for this issue later tonight. Until then just imagine how glorious it all looks.

Next Issue: The Chain-Saw Killer returns with a new blade, the history of the mysterious alien and the Xxggs, the origin of the Dogs of War, Stiletta suffers adverse side-effects, and Jonah faces the one foe he cannot overcome... the 'artwork' of Keith Giffen. (the things I do for you guys! sheesh!)

HEX # 7 "Ravages of Time!"

HEX #7 Mar 1986
"Ravages of Time!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Mark Texeira and Carlos Garzon, art and cover

Brolin is holding a gun on Hex after Jonah has pretty much made a mess of the amusement pier. Just then the owner of the pier comes up and starts harping on Brolin for making a mess of things, the pier pays protection money to the Conglomerate, after all. Jonah takes advantage of the distraction, dives for his dropped pistol and pumps two slugs into Brolin.

That may have saved his life, but Hex is still taken captive by Borsten's goon squad. A Conglomerate spy at the pier reports back to the Conglomerate that every thing is going to plan.

Back at the Needle, Borsten's goons are not having any luck locating Stanley Harris, who is hiding in the air passageways overhead, but, sadly, so are a ton of giant rats. The rats catch up to Harris and while he right overhead of some goons, the rats swarm him and start taking large bites out of him.

Elsewhere in the Needle, Jonah finally arrives and is returned to Tube Town, the room full of statis chambers that Borsten uses to 'store' all of the people he has kidnapped from the past.  Jonah is loaded into a tube and gassed unconscious.

Life goes on in the Needle, where we see one of the cooks taking out a garbage hovo. Once outside while he is dumping the load, Stiletta ambushes him.

In Tube Town, the Conglomerate's Needle spy walks up to the guard and asks to see Hex. When the guard asks for the authorization, the spy (Percy) pulls out a pistol and kills the guard. He then evacuates the gas from Hex's statis chamber, but the guard is only mostly dead and he manages to push an alarm. Percy quickly explains to Hex how to use a timed grenade to blown up the Time Machine after he uses it. Just push the button and fifteen seconds later...

TOO LATE! More guards show up and shoot Percy. As Percy falls dead, the grenade, armed, bounces down the hallway towards the guards.

Of course, the garbage hovo returns, this time with Stiletta in disguise but the guards are getting suspicious only to be interrupted by the explosion from the grenade. They take off for Tube Town, leaving Stiletta. As she shucks her disguise a ceiling panel opens up and the rat gnawed body of Harris falls to the floor. Harris, barely conscious recognizes Stiletta and comments on how great the androids are in the future.

Stiletta replies that she isn't a droid and she never saw Harris before in her life.

Back in Tube Town, Jonah is making a quick retreat for the Time Machine.

Harris and Stiletta make their way to Tube Town and find Jonah already gone, so they head to the Time Machine to get Harris back to 1968. Harris stops for a moment and shoots open all of the statis chambers, releasing several Roman soldiers and Asian warriors. Of course, things start getting worse as we hear loud rumblings from the structure of the Needle and a chain reaction has been started that the maintenance crew can't get a handle on.

Jonah has made his way to the Chronal Chamber and starts working on resetting the Time Machine so he can go home. Reinhold Borsten shows up brandishing a pistol ready to drop Hex where he stands. But then Harris and Stiletta show up and gain the upper hand. Harris makes some adjustments on the time machine and fires it up while Stiletta holds her dad at gunpoint. The machine fires up and Harris and Hex jump onto the Chronal platform but some guards come crashing into the room and one of them shoots Stiletta. Hex leaps from the platform and kills both guards as Harris fades into the past and Borsten hotfoots it outta the room.

Stiletta only got a flesh wound. She staggers to her feet and tells Hex to get on the platform, the way the Needle is shaking, it's probably going to collapse and the chain reaction that is happening is going to kill the power at any moment. She rests the machine and Jonah tries to pause long enough to tell her something but she shouts that he has to go now. Jonah runs for the platform and as he gets there the machine sputters and then explodes.

The Needle is indeed collapsing, Jonah grabs up Stiletta and starts making tracks out of there. Borsten, we find, is in an elevator, heading to a hidden escape vehicle, but there is a sudden explosion of flame into the elevator shaft and we see Borsten engulfed in flame, screaming his head off.

Hex and Stiletta find the hovo deck, she shoots the lone guard and as they power up the craft, the ceiling starts to collapse, leaving a huge hole for them to fly out of. They manage to barely escape the Needle before the whole thing explodes all to hell and back. As they fly off we see several dozen people dragging themselves out of the wreckage, among them Roman centurions, American Indians, Chinese Monks, and a few Samurai.

Statistics for this issue

Men Killed by Jonah - 5
Running Total - 460 (428 past, 32 future)
Jonah's Injuries -none
Timeline - Same day as last issue. We are still on day three in the future.

Wow, this was one hell of an issue packed with tons of action and everyone we have met so far jammed into a single issue. The destruction of the Needle, the death of Borsten, Harris's return and the end of the time machine, coupled with several explosions and a good body count, places this as one of the better issues of HEX. It appears that we have wrapped up the Reinhold Borsten story and there appears to be no chance of Jonah making it back to the past. The only thing left is to thrust him out into that big wide 2050 world and see who loses.

The last panel with all of the warriors from across the ages made me want to know what happens to all of those folks. I guess Seattle ended up looking like a round of Heroscape.

Next Issue: Jonah looks for some badly needed soames and ends up in the Shooting Gallery.

Hex #6 "The Soames Conspiracy"

Hex #6  Feb 1986
"The Soames Conspiracy"
Michael Fleisher, story - Mark Texeira and Carlos Garzon, art and cover

The connection to the scanner is acting wonky, so I'll have scans for this issue up next week.
Jonah Hex and Stiletta are completely surrounded by the Conglomerate goons after having defeated Chain and they are led off to who knows where.

Meanwhile in the Needle, Harris is slowly recovering from the biochemical interrogation and is taken back to the statis tubes. The guards start to put Harris into a tube and he suddenly lashes out, beating the crap out of both guards, steals a weapon and attempts to leave the Needle. Except he discovers that the Needle is slightly bigger than he anticipated.

Back at the Conglomerate's country house, Hex and Stiletta are 'guests' of the head of the Conglomerate. The head explains about the global war that contaminated the global drinking supply and how nomad gangs starting taking over various regions. The world was a living hell until Nobel chemist Wilfred Soames, located near Lake Victoria in Tanzania, devised a tablet that would purify a gallon of water almost instantly. Soames had planned on distributing the tablets for free in order to save the world. The Conglomerate had different ideas.

In the US the Conglomerate cornered the market on production and they eventually became the government. Soames (the tablet) eventually became the only excepted form of currency. However, there is a fly in the ointment and the fly is named Reinhold Borsten. The Conglomerate has learned that Borsten plans on dumping a chemical in to the global cloud cover that will neutralize all the radioactivity in the clouds, essentially solving the global radiated water supply.

However, Borsten has to travel into the past to obtain the tools needed to pull this off. The Conglomerate has intel saying that with one more trip, Borsten will be able to complete his plans, purify the global water supply and destroy the soames standard, thus toppling the Conglomerate from controlling the US. Their plan is to stop Borsten by getting Hex back into the Needle, allowing him to use the time machine to return to the 1800's and destroy the machine in the process. They explain that they have a man inside the Needle that will help Hex, but the spy is unable to gain access to the time machine area, whereas Jonah is a 'one-man army'.

In the Needle, Borsten has left the rejuvenation bubble where he was recovering from his last trip to the 2042. A guard enters the room to state that Harris has escaped from the statis tubes. Borsten demands that Harris be recaptured and that he wants his head guard, Brollin, on the job. Another guard explains that Brolin is mourning his father who was a waste-disposal driver murdered by Hex.

We find Brolin at the cemetery, mourning his father and obsessing how he wants revenge for what Jonah Hex has taken from him.

That night we find Stiletta and Jonah Hex in the country house of the Conglomerate talking about the upcoming assault on the Needle. Stiletta says that she'll help get Hex into the Needle because she has business there as well. She had to murder Borsten, her father.

She explains how Borsten worked for the time travel project, learned of the holocaust and made plans to escape to the future. However, he never warned his family of the upcoming devastation. Stiletta was staying with her grandparents in the country, but Borsten's wife was in the city and died in the war. Stiletta assumed that her father was dead as well, but years later she learned the truth and swore to kill her father for what he had done.

In the Needle, the search for Harris continued but Harris has crawled up into the ductwork to hide. However, Harris soons learns that there is something else living in the ductwork of the Needle.....rats!

The next morning, Jonah and Stiletta take off for the Needle, however Jonah explains that he is leaving Stiletta, he can't afford to allow her personal agenda to jeopardize his chance to get back to the past. Stiletta pulls a pistol, demanding that Hex help her but as he takes off she finds herself unable to pull the trigger.

An old rado-scarred bum walks up to the Needle to tell a guard that he has found Jonah Hex and that he wants the 2,000 soames reward (or about $12.14 in today's money). The bum says that he saw Hex hanging out by the old game pier. The guard explains that they have already caught Hex and the reward has been claimed. However, he gives the bum some soames to hold him over. The bum leaves and guard is excited about how he can collect the reward for locating Jonah Hex.

Shortly thereafter, Borsten notifies Brolin of Jonah's location and Brolin takes his men out to capture Hex.

At the Conglomerate, the head gets word that their spy, dressed as an old bum, has notified the Needle of Jonah's location.

So let's go to the game pier, a Coney Island with a horrible 1980's future punk twist. Jonah is suddenly stopped by several hoods who attempt to rob him, but suddenly they are all gunned down by Borsten's men. Jonah takes off running as Borsten's men demand that he give himself up.

Jonah jumps a nearby fence, landing smack in the middle of a demo-derby type tri-motorcycle race. He punches a driver, takes his bike and grabs his shotgun. Jonah kills two guards and crashes through the fence and onto the pier. Suddenly three large vehicles rise from the water and start shooting. Jonah spins the cycle around and two guards on cycles chase after him. They shoot netting at Hex and capture him. However, Jonah speeds up the bike, drawing the two guards closer together until they crash. Smashing through a guardrail, Jonah gets the bike onto the rollercoaster track and heads for high ground.

When he gets near the top, there is a helicopter waiting for him but Jonah locks down the throttle, jumps from the bike and watches as the bike top the hill, becomes airborne and smashes into the chopper. Just then a rollercoaster car with two guards comes up behind Jonah and he dives over the side just as the car slams into the wrecked cycle and chopper. The whole shooting match explodes as Jonah climbs down the side of the coaster track.

Once Jonah reaches the pier, Brolin is waiting for him. Jonah surrenders and holds his hands out get cuffed. However Brolin has not intention of taking Jonah alive and slowly draws a bead on Hex.....

Statistics for this Issue

Men Killed by Jonah - 2 with the shotgun, 2 on the cycles, 2 in the chopper and 2 on the rollercoaster for a total of 8
Running Total - 455 (428 past, 27 future)
Jonah's Injuries - none
Timeline - This issue finishes the night and into the next day. Jonah has been in the future for three days.

This was one crazy issue and I loved it. In the last several issues of Jonah Hex, Michael Fleisher had introducing complex overlapping storylines along with fleshing out secondary characters. He continues with the same formula here in Hex. We get Brolin, who we have seen several times before but was never named, who now has a personal reason to kill Hex; Stiletta has a vendetta of her own; the Conglomerate discloses the reason it is opposing Borsten's work; and we get a huge dose of action at the end of the issue. All in all, one of the better stories containing Jonah Hex.

Next Issue: (again, I'll let Mr. Fleisher deliver the pitch on this one) Harris gets eaten by rats, Borsten gets burned alive, and the Needle gets blown to hell!

Hex #5 "The Seattle Chainsaw Massacre"

Hex #5 Jan 1986
"The Seattle Chainsaw Massacre"
Michael Fleisher, story - Mark Texiera and Carlos Garzon, art and cover

The three Conglomerate hoods land their hovo in front of the cave that Jonah and Stiletta have just emerged from. Once they exit the hovo, Jonah throws a knife at one of them and gets a quick introduction to body armor. Stiletta, however, ends up kicking on of the thugs in and unarmored organ, Jonah takes the cue and decks the one guarding him. Jonah and Stiletta quickly get the third thug out of the hovo and leave all three of them as they take off for parts unknown.

Meanwhile in 2042, Borsten is back in the top secret facility that he used to work in and he is sneaking down the microbial agent wing, hoping to obtain something that will allow him to overthrow the Conglomerate and rule the future. He enters a room but is stopped by another scientist who demands to see his credentials. Borsten creds only allow him into chronal studies and the scientist attempts to stop Borsten. Borsten pulls a pistol and demands a small beaker from the room.

The scientists are confused because he is asking for a totally harmless, though highly specialized, microbe. Suddenly Borsten has a seizure and realizes that he will die unless he gets back to the future and the Needle. He presses a button on his watch and returns to the future.

Speaking of which, back in the Needle in 2050, one of Borsten's scientists is getting ready for the boss's return and pulls up a file that he knows Borsten will want to see when he gets back. There is a sudden flash in the lab and Borsten returns and collapses to the floor. The scientist rushes to Borsten's aid and quickly drags him down the hall to the rejuvenation bubble. This leaves one lone technician in the room and he quickly pulls out a floppy disk, inserts it into the main computer and copies the secret file for the Conglomerate.

Meanwhile, Stiletta and Hex make a landing near a diner to grab some grub. Stiletta finds Hex's irons in the back of the hovo, guessing that the Conglomerate goons had abushed the hill scum to find out which direction she and Hex had gone. At the diner, Stiletta is amazed to find that diner for two will cost forty soames but Jonah politely persuades the owner (by placing his six-gun into the owner's mouth) that they are allowed to have a huge discount.

During dinner, Stiletta says that she and Hex should team-up since they are both survivors. Jonah replies that all he wants to do is get back home so Stiletta says that she can help Hex crash the Needle, but first they'll have to get some big equipment and to do THAT, they'll need to lay their hands on some soames, a LOT of soames.

Elsewhere, in a home owned by the Conglomerate, two of its members are looking at a photo taken from Barnaby Blossom's hovo, showing Blossom falling through the sun roof and Jonah in the hovo. They recognize Hex as the gunfighter that Borsten was supposed to have at a show and they draw the conclusion that Jonah Hex is working for Borsten by hijacking the Conglomerates lotus drug shipments. They decide to put an end to all of this foolishness by calling in a guy referred to as "Chain"

We cut to an desolate alleyway where a young scrawny nerdy looking guy carrying a bag of groceries  is in immediate danger of getting mugged by a gang of goons. The kid takes off running and manages to get into a small shack, all the while screaming for his big brother, Gowan. The goons run up to the door and easily kick it in and storm into the dark shack. The young kid can be heard sobbing and another voice rises up in the darkness, telling Marty (the kid) that he doesn't have to be afraid. We suddenly see one of the goons through clear through a wall, we hear another goon begging for mercy followed by a loud cracking sound and the other two goons make it out the door, running like hell.

A television screen lights up the shack as we see a member of the Conglomerate ask to talk to Chain. Chain (aka Gowan) drops a dead goon to the floor and takes the call. The Conglomerate says they need him immediately but Chain replies that he can be there in an hour, right after he makes Marty some hot chocolate and tucks him safely into bed.

Later that night we find Jonah Hex and Stiletta on a cliff edge overlooking a Conglomerate sub-treasury compound (aka soames storehouse). They are surveying the compound with high powered binoculars and Stiletta aks Jonah if he has any ideas on how to get in. Jonah replies "Yup."

Later, at a guard tower in the compound a hovo suddenly swoops from the sky towards the guards. They react instantly, shooting it from the sky and it crashes into the compound in a huge explosion. This throws the compound into red alert and they start evacuating the armored cars (soames wagons). One of the drivers jumps into his truck only to find Jonah Hex inside pointing a pistol at his head.

Jonah and Stiletta end up hijacking the truck and breaking away from the convoy that is headed to safety. Meanwhile, Chain, in his own hovo, picks up the radio chatter about the runaway truck and realizes that Jonah Hex is behind the theft.

In the truck, Stiletta is driving, and Jonah says he sure hopes they get away with this. Just then there is a huge THUD on the roof when Chain lands on the truck. Suddenly there is a rending of metal as a chainsaw cuts down through the roof. Jonah grabs his pistol and pumps a couple of slugs into Chain with no effect. Stiletta exclaims that he must have titanium body armor and as Chain takes another swipe through the truck cab, she cuts the wheel hard to the left and throws the killer off.

Chain, however is equipped with boot jets and doesn't splat on the ground. Sadly, Stiletta looses control of the truck and smashes into a hovo repair/junk yard. They both jump out of the wrecked truck as Chain smashes through it in pursuit. Stiletta is hit in the head with flying debris and falls to the ground. Jonah fires a few more times at Chain and then picks up a huge chunk of pipe, which Chain easily cuts through.

Jonah decides to hotfoot it out of there until he can hatch a better plan. This leads to a game of cat and mouse in the junkyard until Jonah is able to topple a huge stack of wrecked hovos on top of Chain. To Jonah's dismay, Chain is able to cut his way out of the mess.

. Jonah resorts to his fists, sadly to no effect, and Chain calmly picks Jonah up and starts choking the life from him. Stiletta has regained consciousness and shouts for Jonah to hit the button on the machine next to him. Jonah lashes out and hits the button, turning on the electro magnet/compactor. This picks Chain up, drops him into the compactor and smashes him. Chain barely survives but is out of the fight.

Jonah picks up Stiletta and they start to leave, only to find themselves completely surrounded by the Conglomerate!!

Statistics for this Issue

Men killed by Jonah - 0
Running total - 447 (428 past, 19 future)
Jonah's Injuries - None
Timeline - Same day as last issue, but we have progressed into that night.

Overall not a bad issue. One thing I do want to cover is the character of Chain. We meet his younger brother (Marty) and then we meet Chain (aka Gowan) . However, we never see the two of them together. When I read this book back in the 80's I always had this feeling that Gowan and Marty were the same person, kinda like Norman Bates and his mom. Why? I don't know unless it was we heard Marty's voice coming from a dark room right before Chain appears. (I might have to ask Mr. Fleisher about this.)

We get more mystery with the Conglomerate, more of Borsten's plans are revealed, Stiletta is getting a little sweet on Jonah. This issue moves the story along nicely, introduces a new character or two and gives us some action to boot. Thumbs up for this one.



Next Issue: Harris breaks out, the creation of soames, the origin of Stiletta, and Jonah rides the rollercoaster!