How Jonah Hex Returned to the 19th Century

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Jonah Hex first appeared in All-Star Western #10 (re-titled Weird Western Tales with #12) in 1972 and his feature ran through #38 before being granted his own eponymous title. In 1978, the 68-page “dollar comic” Jonah Hex Spectacular revealed the character’s bizarre final fate. [SPOILER WARNING – He was shot and killed in 1904 when he was 66 years old and his body was stuffed and mounted to become the feature attraction of a “wild west” show. – END SPOILER] His solo series came to an end in 1985 with #92 and was re-launched the following month as Hex #1, in which the character was sent some 170 odd years into his own future. The futuristic direction lasted 18 issues and ended with Hex’s discovery of his final fate. Since then, he has appeared in three Vertigo mini-series and one ongoing series set in the 19th century, but the question remains: how and under what circumstances did he return to the late 1800s?

The answer is quite simple, really, when one considers that, when dealing with time travel, the apparent sequence of events as presented is not necessarily the sequence in which they happened. As soon as one accepts the non-linear nature of time travel and dispenses with the notion that events must needs occur in the order perceived, the true lineal sequence of events from the perspective of the time traveler himself stands revealed leaving only one possible solution to the conundrum: Jonah Hex was returned to the 19th century from the 21st by the Lord of Time in Justice League of America #159-160 (1978).

To wit: the base of operations of the Lord of Time is/was/will be the Palace of Eternity, which exists “outside the flow of time, in a misty region where no clock ticks and the sun neither rises nor sets.” Time does not exists within the Palace of Eternity, yet all times exist simultaneously without. Once the Time Lord had chosen his agents (Jon the Viking Prince, Miss Liberty, the Black Pirate, Enemy Ace and Jonah Hex), all that remained was to pluck them from the time stream and set them against his enemies, the combined members of the JLA and the JSA. How he chose his agents or from what years they were taken is not revealed, but it stands to reason that he would want them at the prime of life, say 40 years old in the case of Jonah Hex.

But the 40-something Jonah Hex did not exist in the 1870s, but rather the 2050s. This seeming obstacle did not matter to the Time Lord’s machines. Operating from “outside the flow of time,” he might not even have been aware that the Jonah Hex he had chosen came from the “future” and not the “past” (relative to “1978”). Certainly when Hex and the others first appeared in the “present” they were disoriented, not knowing where they were, when they were, or how they got there. They were later returned to their “proper” times with no memory of where/when they had been or what they had done. If the Lord of Time snatched Jonah from 2050 shortly after Hex #18 and returned him to 1878 with no memory of what happened to him in the future, that would account for why he hasn’t displayed any knowledge of his fate since his return.

This, then, is the lineal sequence of events from Jonah Hex’s point of view:

Jonah Hex #92 – travels from the past to the future
Hex #1-18 – takes place in the future
JLA #159 – travels from the future to the present
JLA #160 – travels from the present to the past
Jonah Hex Spectacular – dies

All of his more recent adventures set in the 19th century, then, take place between Jonah Hex #92 (1985) and Jonah Hex Spectacular (1978). Someday DC may present a story which contradicts this theory, but until then it fits the established history (and future history) of the character with a minimum of jiggery pokery.

[The Baron]

And the Lord of Time apparently took a moment to change Jonah back into his "Western" clothes and give him his 19th century guns back, and brief him so he doesn't remark on same.

 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ah, ha! I thought of that. The last we see of Hex in the future, he isn't wearing his 21st century trench coat. He has recently been injured and is wearing some sort of "web scanner" thingy. Given the shock he has just had (not just the knowledge of his final fate but also that ridiculous "wild west" costume, he may well have opted to go back to wearing "sensible" 1870s-era clothing himself. Either that, or the Lord of Time's machinery "reset" his clothing to what he was wearing when he was first abducted.(Hey, it worked on Time Tunnel!) Take yer pick!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, and he identified "pig irons" he found at the end of Hex #18 as his "dragoons." And (as I pointed out above) JLA #159 already established that the time travel affected his memory. He simply lost more memories than he was aware he had.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I like it!

 

[Philip Portelli]

But Jonah Hex met the JLA again in #198-199. Did that take place before #159-160 and Hex #1?

And Jonah's Native American wife knew something about his future travels, though she may not have known the details of his return.

And Jonah's body showed up in The Kingdom mini.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Good question. Because Jonah Hex's action was confined to 1878, from Hex's point of view JLA #198-199 took place between Jonah Hex #56-57, so yes, I would have to conclude that JLA #197-198 took place before #159-160... from Hex's point of view (although not the Lord of Time's), like so:

Jonah Hex #1-56
JLA #198-199
Jonah Hex #57-92
Hex #1-18
JLA #159-160

[New stories]
Jonah Hex Spectacular