Synopsis
Face Full of Violence is a Jonah Hex storyline that begins Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's 2006 Jonah Hex volume. It reintroduces the character after seven years out of publication following Joe R. Lansdale's Shadows West in 1999. Because Hex tends to kill most of his enemies, the events share little continuity and they function as more of a short story collection. Guns of Vengeance is the following arc.
Synopsis
Jonah Hex is hired to track down a kidnapped young boy by a wealthy family. He discovers that the boy has been turned into a warrior at a dog-fighting arena, and punishes the ringleader by feeding him to his own dogs. The boy is revealed to have contracted rabies, and Hex is forced to mercy-kill him before returning to the family.[1]
His next bounty takes him to a small separatist mining town where the locals have stolen a mission's golden crucifix. To get it back, he has to uncover a conspiracy involving their corrupt leader and the silver mines. When he guns down the town's evil lawmen, there's a riot at the mine and the entire populace is buried inside during a cave-in.[2]
Hex murders an outlaw who was framing the Apaches, but is arrested when he learns that the local Sheriff was the man's brother. They decide to have him killed, but he is rescued when he meets traveling gambler Bat Lash for the first time. The two men team up to take on the law, and Hex brings the Sheriff back to the Apaches to have him scalped.[3]
Bringing in a Mexican accused of raping a mute girl, he becomes embroiled in small-town drama when she claims that he's really innocent. Hex breaks the man out of prison, but is set to be hanged for his troubles. The girl finds a way to reveal to the town that her father the Mayor was actually guilty, and they kill him instead.[4]
On Christmas, he attempts to take in a bounty hunter but is forced to fight off other men seeking revenge against the criminal. The resulting gunfight leads to the deaths of a dozen men and a building burning down. His bounty escapes justice, but ten years later Hex surprises him on a train and blows him away with a Gatling gun.[5]
He stops off in the town of Salvation, Texas where he meets a local gang that has holed up and disguised themselves as nuns. One of their number is a former lover, and their matriarchal leader has them both burned at the stake. Hex manages to escape during an Apache raid and the leader is killed, but the woman he loved dies in the process.[6]
Issues
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #1
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #2
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #3
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #4
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #5
- Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #6
Notes
- It is unclear where this story takes place in continuity, as it shows the first meeting between Jonah Hex and Bat Lash.[3] One issue dates the story as beginning in 1870 and ending in 1880.[5]
Recommended Reading
Links and References