Random Happenstance

Hey, it's time for another exciting episode of young Bruce Wayne's hero, the Gray Ghost! (Takes closer look.) Wait a minute, that's not right at all! This is a very different Gray Ghost, from 2010's Jonah Hex #59, "Riders on the Storm" Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Jordi Bernet. Ugh, Doors reference...

There had been more than a few Gray Ghosts in this series, and most of them didn't survive their first run-in with Hex; but it was a mantle taken by Confederates looking for revenge against their former comrades who they felt "betrayed the southland." After a few pages of catch-up and set-up, the scene shifts to a nondescript Western town, where Jonah Hex rides through--and past--a clumsy ambush: he sees the gunmen, but it's not for him. At the local cantina, he gets the story: an outlaw was going to take out his brother, over a woman. Jonah was there for the outlaw's bounty, and offers to throw in with the brother, but one small hitch: the wanted poster said 'alive.'

Although the outlaw is captured with a minimum of shootout, things get complicated immediately thereafter: a dust-storm blows into town, and the Gray Ghost rides in shooting. Multiple Gray Ghosts, in fact, four in matching masks; versus Hex with a tomahawk. The only one the Ghosts manage to kill, besides themselves, is the brother's woman, and that's by accident. The brother then tries to kill Hex, and while his gun jams, Hex had already thrown the tomahawk that would kill him. And the outlaw had escaped, leaving Hex surrounded by bodies, with nothing to show for it.

Although I found the Batman: the Animated Series Gray Ghost on Wikipedia easily, I didn't see any reference to the Confederate version. Just as well. It's a fitting name, but I don't know if I would've used it there, for fear of associating the good version with this one.