Might've bought this one more than once, but Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez on Bat Lash! C'mon.

I'm momentarily at a loss to describe the opening story: not really a crossover, and yet...from 2012, All-Star Western #10, "The War of Lords and Owls, part 1" Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Moritat.

Tallulah Black has just gotten thrown out of the Wayne Casino--out of a second story window. She came in the middle of a conversation between Lucius Bennett and Alan Wayne, an ancestor of Bruce Wayne's, which was thick with veiled threats. Jonah Hex has to withdraw with Tallulah, taking her for medical treatment to his associate, Dr. Amadeus Arkham. (This series, post-New 52, was tied to Batman lore; and would stay there for a stretch, largely to establish that the rot in Gotham had been festering for some time.) The Court of Owls also makes an appearance, and they think Jonah will help them achieve their own goals.

At Arkham's, Tallulah wakes up grouchy, with Dr. Arkham finds both intimidating and interesting. She immediately takes Jonah to bed. Later that night, Arkham tries to get answers from a deranged man, who claims the owls were after him since in his job as a chimney sweep, he had seen where they meet. Arkham assumed him to be insane, but the man and a guard are murdered almost impossibly quickly; and after finding a feather Arkham decides he'd best talk to Jonah...

But, also this issue: Bat Lash, in "Unholy Matrimony" Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez! Bat is on the verge of being forced to the altar with a very pregnant young woman--one of twins. Despite protestations from the twins and their father, Bat knows the girls weren't completely identical: one had gotten knocked-up by a livery worker before his accidental death, and they had thought if they roped Bat in he'd have all the money they'd ever need. It's a fun story, that looks great; and despite being the start of a storyline I wasn't real invested in, the rest of the issue was pretty good too. Read more!

"The End" Week: Jonah Hex #70!

Let's see, we've looked at the end of his original series and All-Star Western, and I always misremember Hex as running 20 issues: it was only 18, and yet we've still never blogged it? And we aren't here, either! From 2011, Jonah Hex #70, "Weird Western" Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, pencils by Ryan Sook and Diego Olmos, inks by Mick Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.

In 1904, Jonah Hex is a long-in-the-tooth old coot, who needed spectacles to play cards; which is how George Barrow is able to bust up to him with a shotgun and lay him out. Wow, that was over quick...No, in death, Hex is visited by his old, dead, friend Jeb Turnbull; who implores him not just to lay down and die, but man, you've been dead for ages, give it up already. He asks why Hex still wore the Confederate uniform: because he died in the war, and this was all a dream.

Of course, Hex then has another dream; still old, playing cards with El Diablo and Bat Lash, while his wife Mei Ling and his current side-piece Tallulah Black both cradle infants; before getting shot by his drunken pa. Then, a visit from a charming little girl, who is scarred like both Hex and Tallulah.

One more nightmare, where Tallulah shoots his hungover ass; before we finally get to the real world, where the injured Hex is still unconscious in a medicine man's cave, brought there by Bat and Tallulah. Hex eventually comes out of it, but refuses to tell them what he saw. Tallulah had her own near-death experience before, and mentions seeing a little girl; Hex keeps mum. But, the medicine man seems to hear her as well...

While this was the last issue, the very next month Hex would return, with the first issue of All-Star Western in the New 52 launch: there's an ad page for "The Edge" books, which included Deathstroke and Suicide Squad. Huh, All-Star Western would outlast those two--and the other "Edge" titles--but hasn't gotten a relaunch since? Deathstroke's had one, the Squad several. He would appear in...ugh...Death Metal...uh, that's all right. No thanks. Read more!

40% of this comic is probably respectfully staring at Wonder Woman; which sounds reasonable enough.

From 2006, Justice League Unlimited #19, "The Justice Rangers Ride Again" Written by Adam Beechen, pencils by Gordon Purcell, inks by Bob Petrecca.

In the Justice League's trophy room, Vigilante accidentally breaks the Time Commander's hourglass, sending him, Wonder Woman, and Elongated Man back to the old west. There they find the usual crew--Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, and El Diablo--defending a young card sharp from a posse of cowboys with ray guns. Bat had conned his pals into pursuing the sharp, since he had cheated him out of his daddy's lucky rabbit foot; but the cowboys had been after Jud Saunders to try and erase his descendant Greg from the timeline. Wonder Woman realizes the shattered hourglass had taken them to when a version of it had been in use, and they should be able to find the Time Commander, get the hourglass, and get home.

This was more cartoony than Purcell's usual style, but he nails the animated look quite well. I feel like I've seen other stories from Beechen with Elongated Man; I wonder if he was a favorite. Read more!

Maybe I'm just drawing a blank right now, but I was trying to think of time-travelling DC villains--basically, their Kang. Speedsters don't count! I remember the Time Commander, if no one else does; but Chronos might be the best known of the lot, and he's not way up there; but ahead of today's bad guy, anyway. From 1982, Justice League of America #198, "Once Upon a Time in the Wild Wild West..." Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Don Heck, inks by Brett Breeding.

A bit of setting-up this month, as four Justice Leaguers wake up in the year 1878, without their memories. They are fairly quickly paired up with western heroes of the time: Green Lantern with Jonah Hex, Elongated Man with Scalphunter, Zatanna with Cinnamon, and Flash with Bat Lash. But none of them have yet noticed, each pair is being watched by an unseen rider...

Meanwhile, in 1981, Superman is trying to find out where his teammates have disappeared to. Using a new satellite positioning system set up by Hawkman--that sounds very similiar to GPS, which would have been super-new at the time! Supes heads to their last known location, the Grand Canyon, and is promptly attacked by a good-sized robot. He defeats the robot easily--too easily, since it was a lead-lined trap, filled with Kryptonite! Future Kryptonite, gathered by the Lord of Time from the year 3786; which I mention because I wonder if that's going to come into play in the conclusion: what's the half-life of Kryptonite? Enh, if it knocked Supes out, it's probably still within its shelf life. The LoT had of course sent the other Leaguers back in time, as part of a plan to capture an anti-matter bubble due to pop over the Grand Canyon in 1878. With Superman dying, he had time to see how it played out...

Man, the Lord of Time is bland. None of Chronos's visual flair; even the Time Commander had a better outfit. Still, I'll have to find the next issue, to see how his plan went south. Read more!

Today, a different Captain punching Nazis.

And lions, and cowboys, and aliens, oh my! From 1991-92, Armageddon: the Alien Agenda #2-4, written by Jonathan Peterson, pencils by Mike Netzer, Alan Weiss, and Dick Giordano; inks by Joe Rubinstein and Steve Mitchell.

I re-read the first issue of this mini-series last year, but I thought there was another Captain Atom-led mini-series between this one and Armageddon: Inferno. Nope! It's all piled up here. Nathaniel Adam ends up in Nero's Rome, then DC's wild west, then World War II; thrown forward from prehistoric times by the energy released from the detonator aliens intended to use to collapse earth (and the rest of the solar system) into a wormhole. His powers keep kicking on and off as well, just to keep it from being too easy. Meanwhile, stupid lunkhead dope Monarch works with the aliens, who promise to send him to his correct time if he gets the detonator for them; but that's a lie: travelling back in time would kill him, then the aliens would destroy earth in prehistoric times, so he'd never be born, either! Which either makes the aliens' plan hinge on causing a paradox, or Monarch double-stupid.

While the aliens are able to put Monarch and a few others in suspended animation, to chase down Atom in the 'future,' the rest of them live out their lives, hidden behind a force field that both protects and separates them from the outside world. By the mid-twentieth century, their society seems to have gone a bit mad; partially because they hadn't realized if Monarch was going to have ever succeeded, they would never have existed there. After smashing a concentration camp, Captain Atom catches up with Monarch at a secret Pacific atomic bomb test. In the ensuing scuffle the detonator is shattered, the a-bomb causes a massive tidal wave that swamps the observer ships, and the Captain is thrown forward to the present, 1991! Monarch disappears in the timestream, the aliens are still plotting against Captain Atom, and a caption box promises a new title for him...that didn't seem to happen, but he would go on with the Justice League, Extreme Justice, and L.A.W. Kind of a downward spiral there...

Years later, there would be another miniseries, Captain Atom: Armageddon, where he was sent to the Wildstorm universe for a bit. I haven't read it, but it did set up my favorite post from the old blog Random Panels.
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How much are you paying, for Jonah Hex to call you "sir"?

Thanks to the Legends of Tomorrow TV show, I think I've seen more episodes with Rip Hunter, than read comics with the character. Going back through the blog...it's close. He's in this book, but only barely: from 1990, Time Masters #3, "Time Has Come Today" Written by Bob Wayne and Lewis Shiner, pencils by Art Thibert, inks by Jose Marzan Jr.

(I don't know what is going on with that gun there.) Rip is kind of a brooding, moody dick in what we see of him here; but he's fighting a conspiracy spanning centuries, and his equipment and team are only good for "one round trip only, for each of us." He's a little pissed young Corky wasted a trip back to dinosaur times. Based on an anachronistic Polaroid, Rip sends Jeff Smith back to 1874, where he may have to assassinate Porfiro Diaz before he becomes president of Mexico. (Spelled 'Porfiro' here, it should be Porfirio Diaz, a real historical figure!) Still, Jeff's in for a tough time, since not only is he not a killer, he's in that Polaroid with Diaz's bodyguards: Scalphunter, Bat Lash, and Jonah mothersmurfing Hex.

From our point of view, hiring those three is like getting the Justice League; but I didn't think Scalphunter worked for cash much, and who hires Bat Lash? Even more unusually, Hex is rather out of character here: when the Spanish ambassador pulls a gun on Diaz at dinner, Hex smokes him, but is oddly deferential to Diaz. I wouldn't think there was enough money in the world to make Hex polite, and based on the context here Diaz was probably at best a robber baron. Hex still saves Diaz from Jeff, who has to escape to the present with a bullet in his arm; as Rip's headquarters is booby-trapped with explosives, and he and his team are forced to flee with Cave Carson! Some history seems to be implied, but Rip looks like he's seriously considering being blown up rather than accept help from Carson.

This was an eight-issue series, and has been collected; I am not positive how I got just this one issue now...
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What, I didn't post about Guns of the Dragon already?

"Idiotisch!" is right, since I thought I posted on this one years ago! Guns of the Dragon, a four issue limited by Tim Truman, that I think I referred to as "Enemy Ace and Bat Lash versus Vandal Savage and Communism."

Set in China in 1927, the political climate is changing faster than gambler and cathouse owner Bat Lash would prefer: foreigners are becoming less welcome, but Bat doubts he'll ever be able to go back to America. With the aid of his bouncer, Biff Bradley (brother of longtime DC P.I. Slam) Bat has a plan to ensure his residency, but needs a flyer, so he enlists the help of Baron Hans Von Hammer, also known as Enemy Ace. Hammer has been wandering around the world since the end of the first World War, and still has his trusty Fokker DR-I. And apparently, not much else to do.

Twice during the series, Lash tricks Hammer with a rigged deck of cards; but it's also entirely possible that far from being tricked, Hammer went along with the trip to Dinosaur Island in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, he could get killed. Hammer may not particularly want to die, but he doesn't seem that keen on living either, and that would stop the ghosts of those he's killed.

Lash gets the best lines in this one, and seems older but not entirely wiser. Throw in Vandal Savage working the long game, a brief discussion on the final fate of Jonah Hex, dinosaurs, ninjas, shape-changers, and a cameo by Mao Tse-Tung; and you get the point why I liked Guns a lot.

Sadly, I don't think Guns of the Dragon has been collected to date, but you can find the issues easily enough; and I suggest you do so.




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(Mostly) Off-Topic: And we're back...mostly.

So, yesterday in Disneyland, I was wandering through Toontown with the family, and the sky was so blue it looked completely fake but made the sets look completely real. And now we're back home, where it's gray and rainy and about 30 degrees colder.

Even more than that, the Youngest will shortly be starting toilet training and a gluten/casein-free diet. Which means, aside from hopefully treating his autism, he's no longer going to be able to have milk, bread, yogurt, ketchup, mustard, baking soda...the list goes on and on, but if that's what it takes to help him, then that's how it's gonna have to be, I'm afraid. Getting off milk, though, is going to be extra-hard, since sometimes it's the only thing he wants, but the theory is, in his system it's like an opiate. I'll let you know how it goes, but I might be a little busy for a while. Yeah, I say that, and have said that before, yet remain surprisingly anal about posting. We'll see how it goes.


On the plane ride, when I wasn't trying to keep the Youngest from kicking the back of the chair in front of him (he was great on the way in and a bear on the way back!) or changing diapers on the fly, I read Trail of Time by Jeff Mariotte. I picked it up more for the Demon and Jonah Hex than Superman, and was pleasantly surprised to see Bat Lash, Scalphunter and El Diablo in there as well. A heads-up to Dwayne at Matching Dragoons: I believe Jonah adds (at least) four kills to his bodycount in this one.

Since Mariotte had previously written Desperadoes, the western bits in this one are unsurprisingly good, the best parts of the book. Bat Lash has a couple of good moments too, and I'm looking forward to his new comic. Bat Lash seems like a character that would make a good low-to-mid budget movie, if you could wrangle the rights to it and make a western that didn't seem like a western. As far as leads go, Ben Browder (of Farscape and Stargate: SG-1 fame, if you're a fan) voiced a great Bat Lash in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Once and Future Thing," which also featured Hex and El Diablo as a western proto-League. I don't know if JLU was the first to hit upon that idea, since I seem to recall it from an old Justice League of America issue or two, but I'm not sure. Heck, I'm tired and rambling, and maybe we'll come back to it when the first issue comes out.

By the way, the Youngest wouldn't hold his gun, and I swear I had a higher score than that; although the kid ahead of me had my score beat by a cool million. And change. Like 300,000 in change. Read more!