What will a Jonah Hex book in 2026 look like?

 

I finally found some time to sit down and type up some thoughts about the under-the-radar announcement by Scott Snyder over on his own blog that, shockingly, Jonah Hex is getting a new title...or at least that how he seems to be phrasing it.  Two weeks earlier, DC had dropped the news that their latest publishing initiative will be titled "Next Level", to follow their current one called "All In".  While the company itself only focused on Lobo, Batwoman, and Deathstroke getting books, it was Snyder who mentioned Hex, along with a ton of other characters and titles.  He just tossed the bounty hunter's name out there with no other info, rather like what happened when Dan Didio name-dropped Hex in a WIZARD interview in early 2005.  As I wrote in Chapter 15 of my long-running Hex history project, we didn't get another peep from Didio or DC  about what was coming until many months later, with Jonah Hex (vol. 2) #1 finally hitting the stands in November 2005.  I'm going to presume that, since this "Next Level" stuff is to begin this March, we won't be waiting as long this time around, but the same question faces us now as it did 21 years ago: What sort of Jonah Hex are we going to get?

Over on the "Jonah Hex, Via Pony Express" Facebook page, my co-admin Darren Schroeder put up a poll to ask our members what they'd like to see in a new Hex title, giving folks nine possible versions of our favorite bounty hunter to choose from.  Nearly all of them got at least one vote, and I personally couldn't decide which one to throw my weight behind, because each has the potential to be something good, and unless this hypothetical new series turns out to be something truly heinous, I will follow ol' Jonah wherever he goes.  So instead, I'm going to go through Darren's list and tell you what I think DC could do with each version, starting with the one that got the highest votes and working my way down from there, even touching on those that got bupkis.

"Bounty-Hunting Wild West Hex": Garnering 79% of the votes, this version may seem like a no-brainer, but I put 50/50 odds on it being what we actually get, simply because standard Western titles -- even "weird" ones like an average Hex comic -- don't bring in high sales numbers, as proven by Jonah's previous two series.  Even stunts like big-name artists and superhero guest-stars don't permanently move the needle, so unless the potential creative team has a very strong idea that they think will generate big sales over a long period, I doubt DC would put money behind a standard Western.  That being said, both the creation of Jonah Hex and every revival has been loosely tied to a rising interest in Westerns via other media -- Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s/70s, gritty revisionism like Unforgiven in the 1990s, TV shows like Deadwood in the 2000s -- so the creation of a third volume of a straight-shootin' Jonah Hex could be tied to the current popularity of Yellowstone and all its spinoffs.  If this is the route DC is taking, I bet it'd be more of a limited series than a monthly title (like how they did Jonah's Vertigo run), with it maybe getting extended if the numbers really show up this time.

"Civil War Hex": This was an intriguing notion Darren tossed out there, and about 5% of the voters agreed.  With the current state of things all around us, the right writer could deliver one helluva message along with filling in a long-standing gap in Hex history.  Jonah's pre-War life (i.e. the couple of years prior to 1861) has barely been touched, and while I've written my own speculations as to how he ended up in the Confederacy, I'd love to see someone else tackle it, giving us a canonical reason as to how and why Jonah was swayed to fight for a cause he didn't believe in.

"Post-Apocalypse Hex": This version also netted 5% of the vote.  I've said my piece many a time regarding HEX, both in fanfiction and in a historical context, so I'll quickly sum up my feelings by saying that the idea is good but the execution is terrible.  That means it has the potential be turned into something great in the right hands.  This could be done within its original 2050 setting -- presumably moved to an alternate DC future -- or a complete rehaul where Jonah gets dropped even further ahead in time, thereby avoiding the conundrum we're in now (i.e. we are rapidly catching up to a future that will not happen).  There's even a third possibility, wherein the events of HEX get revised to fit within the framework of Batman Beyond, allowing Hex to piggyback on what is still rather popular iteration of the Dark Knight instead of making one from scratch like Michael Fleisher originally did.

"Time Travel Hex": Yet another 5% vote, and one that I think is strongest possibility of what we're getting.  Remember, over in the JLU title, Hex is still bouncing around with "Legend" and some other time-displaced heroes, and since we still don't know who she or he is yet, it could be that a new Jonah Hex series contributes to wrapping up that storyline.  There's also the fact that this setup is essentially the same as Legends of Tomorrow -- where Hex was a semi-regular -- plus there's the whole idea that the Hex we're seeing is a "quantum ghost" who doesn't actually need to go back to the Old West, so yeah, a Jonah Hex title where he's constantly bopping around time seems the most likely scenario at the moment.

"Brand-New Reimagined Hex": Our final 5% vote is possible, but the potential of it backfiring is high.  That's not to say he hasn't been reimagined before, as the "Future Hex", "Vertigo Hex" and "New 52" eras technically fall into that category.  However, in the first and third examples, the same team who'd been writing him for years stuck with him, lending a sense of continuity, and in the second example, Joe Lansdale actually misremembered how Jonah Hex was originally presented in the 1970s, so while things went a little off-book, he somehow managed to portray Hex himself in the same manner he'd always been presented, so his "new take" was actually the same old one.  And that's what is key to any new Hex title, be it a reimagined version or "back to basics" like Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti did for their run: If Jonah's heart isn't there, the whole thing falls apart.  I have no issues with taking him out of the Confederate uniform so long as they don't turn him into a Yankee, and I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with them changing how Jonah gets his scar so long as his surliness and ironclad personal morality remains intact.  If the heart of the character is there, Jonah should be able to weather any changes.  This is why I enjoy parts of the 2010 movie despite it being an overall mess (Josh Brolin fully embraced Jonah's heart, no question), but I'm still royally pissed about Justice League: Warworld (that man had Hex's name and face, but otherwise, he's literally a heartless bastard, and I had to write a fic about it just to make myself feel marginally better).  To sum up, if they reimagine Jonah Hex, they'd better not lose what's made the character last nearly 55 years.

"Modern-Day Hex": With only 1% of the vote, this is the last version that anyone put any support behind, and like "Time Travel Hex", I put good odds on this being where they might go, partially due again to what's happening in JLU.  This "quantum ghost" of Hex has nowhere to go -- the Hex of the past is still in the past, this one merely represents a split-second of the bounty hunter's life -- so if he doesn't go bopping around the timestream and he doesn't "die", then he's stuck in the present.  J&J explored the notion of Jonah dealing with the modern DCU midway through All Star Western (vol. 3), and I've dabbled in this area myself because I like watching the old man react to the everyday bullshit the average DCU citizen has to deal with.  Pitting Jonah against a "New West" -- perhaps with his many-times-great-granddaughter Jinny Hex in tow -- would be great fun, so here's hoping.

"Alt-Universe Hex": We're down to the 0% votes, but despite there being no apparent demand for these versions, we're gonna discuss them anyways, starting with one that's rather similar to "reimagining".  For this, however, I reckon it'd be something akin to Elseworlds or the new Absolute line, wherein you can REALLY go off-book.  We've kinda gone down this path before, with the aforementioned Warworld, Amalgam's Generation Hex, and even the Tangent line had a Hex in it.  Overlaying the general beats of Jonah's life over a totally new concept could be very interesting, as seen by the Elseworlds idea suggested by my pal Henry Joseph Feakes for my pretend HEX solicits: Feakes turned the bounty hunter into a scarred Vietnam vet in the 1970s, and while we only jotted up a paragraph, it's something I'd still love to see fleshed out into an entire story.  So yeah, depending on the idea, an Elseworlds/Absolute Hex would be a welcome sight.

"Supermodel Hex": I'm sure Darren tossed this out there as a gag, but since her existence was noted in the recently-published New History of the DC Universe -- her first mention in over 26 years -- the possibility of it is open!  If she did come back, I would demand an explanation of what her deal is, though.  And bring back her creator, Karl Kesel, while you're at it.

"Space Traveler Hex": This one is funny, because I've run across mentions of HEX that describe it as a space adventure, so there's some folks who already think ol' Jonah has gone to space!  In truth, the only spacebound Hex incident I can think of was in Justice League Action, and admittedly that was fun, so I wouldn't be against the ol' buzzard doing it in the comics.  Once again, this is a good possible destination for the "quantum ghost" version of Hex in JLU, and the notion of our timelost cowboy riding off into the final frontier is full of potential.  At the very least, we could see Jonah Hex butt heads with Lobo in the ultimate bounty-hunting faceoff, and how can you say no to that?

So yeah, no matter what form this potential new Jonah Hex series takes, I'll be there for it, full of hope that they do justice to his very long history.  I also REALLY need to get my Hex history project into print ASAP, so excuse me while I go back to editing!

New goodies to buy in my webstore!

In an effort to keep the dollars coming in as I work on my books, I keep trying to think up different things that y'all might like to buy.  The current thing in this vein is handmade ribbon bookmarks!

My mother-in-law recently gifted me a bunch of revolver and fantasy sword charms, along with some other jewelry-making bits, so after a few trips to Joanne Fabrics during their bankruptcy sales, I eventually came up with what you see here.  Each one is long enough to fit either version of Swords & Sixguns: An Outlaw's Tale, and each color denotes a different sword design, so feel free to buy all six while I still have them in stock!

And if tiny guns and swords dangling from ribbons don't do it for you, I have a few other designs as well.  I literally only have one or two of each of these, so I paired them with my "READING IS SO LIT" mugs to make them a little extra-special.  Again, feel free to buy all three, because every dollar I can add to my "war chest" will make it easier to pay for the production of my upcoming books.  Cover design and printing costs money, y'know.  Anyways, click here to go to my webstore, buy some goodies, and I'll get them in the mail quick as a wink. ;)

Ol' Jonah got an early birthday gift this year!

While I am sorry to say that the book version of "An Illustrated History of Jonah Hex" is still not available yet (I'll talk more about that later), I did update Chapter 3 here on the blog, so y'all can enjoy the new info I've added.  The expansion isn't as large as when I updated Chapters 1 & 2 last year, but there's a few good-sized chunks of newness in there, so go check it out.

"Hold on," I can hear you saying, "if your book isn't done yet, then what's that picture I see here on your blog?  Looks like a Hex book to me!"  Indeed it is, it's just not mine.  A couple of days ago, I picked up the brand-spanking-new Jonah Hex: All-Star Western Omnibus, and I gotta tell you, it's gorgeous!  Even before I cracked it open, I was in love with the dustjacket design, not to mention the image concealed beneath (I adore it when publishers do stuff like that!).

In addition to containing the entirety of ASW's New 52 run -- including the backup tales-- this omnibus features lots of behind-the-scenes artwork, much of which I've never seen before, along with a new, brief interview with Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray.  If you missed out on the single monthlies or just want a nice collected version, you need to get this!

That same day, I also picked up Justice League Unlimited #12 and New History of the DC Universe #4, both of which contribute new Hex-related info.  For JLU, it's the revelation by Mr. Teriffic that all our time-lost heroes are actually "quantum ghosts", each representing a single, standalone second in the existence of their true selves.  Anything that happens to them will have no consequences on the actual heroes: no knowledge of the future passed on to their past selves, no memory whatsoever of what is occurring in JLU right now...and if these "quantum ghosts" die, they'll simply cease to be, their true selves unharmed.  That means our Jonah Hex who's bouncing around with those "Legends" in the Waverider could be killed and not affect Hex's known history.  Unfortunately, other than an acknowledgement of a distress signal sent out by Airwave, we have no advancement on that particular story thread yet.  Fingers crossed we get back to it soon.

Speaking of history, the fourth and final issue of that series gave the nod to Jinny Hex and her Young Justice pals within the main story, but it's the timeline in the back that really delivers the goods, as it surprisingly refers to "Lady Hex" as a distant relative of Jinny!  This is the first mention I've seen of that gal since her last appearance in Superboy #75 (no mention of Chastity Hex from the Bizarro mini, though).  If anything, this moves our female, gargoyle-riding Hex further up when it comes to the possibility of her being Legend since Mark Waid co-wrote this timeline.  Sadly, it also moves Stiletta, Stanley Harris, and the Batman of 2050 further down due to no mention of the "Future Hex" reality on their list of possible futures (that reality may be gone for good, seeing as we're less than 25 years away from it now).

So, lots of goodies for Hex fans here on his 187th birthday...but no published Hex history book yet.  I want to sincerely apologize for the lack of movement there: I've done very little editing since last year, as I've frankly been distracted by the world slowly falling apart.  It's been hard to peel my eyes off the social media feeds and do real work.  Add in that fact that sales of Swords & Sixguns: An Outlaw's Tale have trickled to near-nothing, with me sometimes not even making back my table fees at cons over the past year, and I have been occasionally slipping into depression a couple times a month.  Just thoughts of "Why bother?" for a day or two, then I'll pull out of it and go on like normal, but not necessarily sitting down to write or edit.

After my last big show that resulted once again in just a couple of books sold, my husband and I discussed the situation, and came to the decision that I needed to take a sabbatical for a year.  No con appearances save for Dawn of the Collectors because it's literally 5 minutes from our house and we sell more than my book at those (e.g. toys and comics), and even that will only be 2-3 shows.  So no Fantasticons, no Free Comic Book Days.  Let's see if they miss me.  I'm also doing my damnedest once more to stop fiddling with social media, which is really hard because I understand how scrolling acts like a dopamine hit on your brain.  I've struggled with it for years, so here's hoping I can kick it this time.  I want to concentrate all my energy and attention on writing so I can come back to the cons in 2027 stronger and with more to offer.

Since my sales are obviously going to tank with no con presence, I will be putting a couple new items up on my online store pretty soon, so if you want to help financially, go over there and buy something.  Other than that, I plan on being fairly quiet aside from my weekly commitments over on the "Jonah Hex, Via Pony Express" FB page (frankly, putting together dumb stuff for #Memeday posts is a fun way to decompress).  If you get worried about me, drop me a line and I'll respond as soon as I can.  Anyways, that's it for now.  Go raise a glass to Jonah and have a great weekend, y'all.

Two Weekends, Two Shows, One Special Deal!

Been meaning to put this up for a few days, so sorry for doing this last-minute.  I promise to make it up to you, though!

For you folks who usually see me at Blue Water International Comic-Con, I won't be doing it this year due to low sales the last couple of years (didn't even make table last time).  Instead, I'll be at the NEW Fantasticon show in Waterford, MI -- specifically at the Oakland Expo Center -- September 27-28.  Saturday hours are 11am-6pm, and Sunday is 11am-5pm.  Going by the map I saw when I bought my table, I will be all the way in the back corner of the hall, which means I get to shill books to people as they head to the bathrooms.  Never done anything out in Waterford before, so fingers crossed that sales go up!

Then one week later -- Sunday, October 5th, to be exact -- I'll once again be at Dawn of the Collectors, located at the VFW Bruce Post in Saint Clair Shores, MI.  Show runs 10am-3pm with a 9am early-bird option.  This is the show where I sell not just my book, but all sorts of pop culture goodies that my husband I have acquired...plus we're bringing out the Halloween and Christmas stuff for this one!  If you have kids, let them dress up for trick-or-treating, as some of us (myself included) will be handing out candy.

Speaking of handouts, I said I'd make it up to you, and here it is: if you go to one of these shows and find my table, TELL ME YOU READ THIS POST AND I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING FOR FREE.  It's just a little freebie, so don't think I'm handing you a book gratis, but I want to see how many people actually see this stuff I put up.  For those who can't make it out to the show, put in an order for anything at my online store by October 6 and I'll give you a little something as well.

Okay, that's it for now.  Gotta get some rest 'cause we're heading out tomorrow to set up the table before the Waterford show.  See y'all later!

Who is Legend (All Dudes Edition)

As I’d hoped, my previous blog post did spark some conversation about who Legend really is, with at least one name tossed out that I hadn’t considered.  Since we’ve covered all the possibilities of the female persuasion (though I did miss a few the first time out…head on back and scroll to the bottom to see who I added!), I thought I’d go over all the men-folk this time, just in case I’m barking up the wrong tree with that “Don’t blame a girl for wishing” comment.

Now, before I get started, let me cross one name off the suspect list, despite having multiple run-ins with Hex: Swamp Thing.  Seriously, the two of them have crossed paths three times over the past 36 years, but if you’re gonna try and convince me that big ol’ Swampy squeezed himself into that armor without anything oozing out, you’ve got a serious uphill battle, kiddo.

And for those wondering why the Lord of Time isn’t on here, even though he’d seem like the #1 contender for Legend due to him fucking with Hex on two separate occasions…that dude was slaughtered within the first few pages of the Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special.  Seriously, one of them Omega Demons punched a hole though his chest.  Seems he changed his name to Epoch at some point -- a fact I learned when checking up on his status for this post -- so I didn’t know it was him when I read the comic.  Damn shame, as I was formulating an “Iron Lad from Young Avengers” situation in my head.

Okay, same rules as last time, minus the presumption that Legend is female.  Here we go...

SUPERMAN: Only a single meeting near the end of J&J’s All-Star Western run, but we’re counting it.  I don’t know about you, but I seriously doubt it’s him, if only because we already have at least two Supermen running around by the end of the “We Are Yesterday” arc.  Why add another, especially one that appears to be rather non-super?  Also, Supergirl was listening to Legend’s heartbeat to see if they were telling the truth, and something tells me she’d recognize that heart as her cousin’s.

BATMAN: Bruce had a Black Lantern version of Hex as his righthand man during Dark Nights; Death Metal, they teamed up in the Batman Giant Walmart series, he sprang Jonah from jail during the aforementioned ASW, not to mention the bounty hunter’s associations with the Waynes during the 1880s…fuck, Hex is pretty much honorary Bat-family at this point!  All that being said, there’s the same issue here as with Superman -- multiple Bats running around, so why add another? -- plus Legend’s dialogue doesn’t 100% ring true as Bruce’s.  The real clincher for me dismissing Bruce as a suspect is how he talks about Helena Wayne aka Huntress as being “Batman and Catwoman’s daughter”.  Not his daughter.  So does Bruce compartmentalize his thoughts that damn much?  Maybe.  You know who might think of Helena that way, though?

THE BATMAN OF 2050: A longshot only in the sense that he was presumed dead after his last appearance in HEX, but there was no dead body shown, and know you the rules of comics, folks.  The idea of our time traveler being the historian who found the Batcave after Bruce’s death and resurrected his legend (pun intended) after the bombs dropped in 2045 seems very plausible.  If he could find the Batcave, he might also find one of the old Justice League HQs and some time travel equipment, then try to stop the apocalypse before it happens (see what I said about Stiletta in the previous post).  We’re also back to the “helmet points as bat ears” notion, which would also apply if Legend does end up being Bruce…yeah, I’m gonna keep bringing up this vague feature until we find out who’s under that helmet.

STANLEY HARRIS: This one was suggested by Dwayne Hendrickson of Matching Dragoons, and admittedly, this didn’t occur to me prior to my concentrating solely on female suspects, and I kick myself for not thinking of it.  The time-displaced Vietnam soldier who begrudgingly teamed up with our favorite bounty hunter during HEX, Harris would eventually be given superpowers and drafted into the Dogs of War (“As far as ‘rag tag’, ain’t nobody more rag tag than the Dogs of War!” Dwayne said, and I wholeheartedly agree).  Last seen taking off into space with his team in order to head off an alien invasion, there’s nothing to say he couldn’t have gone bouncing through time afterward.  However, I will dismiss one clue that Dwayne pointed out, namely the coffee-colored sleeves of Legend’s armor.  Dwayne believes that to be bare skin (Harris being African-American), but that same color is present on the lower half of the suit, especially over the crotch.  So unless Legend has the features of a Ken doll and is walking around pantsless, I’m presuming they’re completely covered, with no bare skin at all showing.  Damn shame, as narrowing down their race would’ve trimmed the list even more than narrowing down their gender.

BOOSTER GOLD: Another suggestion, this time by Darren Schroeder of the Jonah Hex Corral and founder of the Jonah Hex, Via Pony Express Facebook page.  While I personally dismissed Booster as a cheat since he’s already a time traveler, Darren pointed out that “he’s always doing that ‘fake ID cause I don’t want to get caught or break time’ Kind of B.S.”.   Good point, Darren.  I’d still consider it a cheat, but then again, Jonah slugged Booster real damn hard last time they saw each other in ASW, so yeah, I’d want to hide my face too and avoid a repeat.

THE FLASH: Barry Allen has encountered Jonah twice, and he certainly has more than enough time-travel experience, but unless he’s become depowered, I don’t know why he’d be depending on a timeship instead of just bopping through the Speed Force like usual.  Low odds.

GREEN LANTERN(S): My mind is mainly on Hal Jordan here, but John Stewart got to meet Hex during Crisis on Infinite Earths, so we’ll group the two Lanterns together.  For sure, both Hal and John have experience with “failure and redemption”, and there’s always the possibility of them losing their rings and having to rely more on tech.

HAWKMAN: Same rationale as Hawkgirl, this time via his former incarnation of Nighthawk.  On a side note, do you realize how damn nuts it is that Jonah Hex knows so many classic Justice League members?  I bet there’s actual people in the League that haven’t met as many as him!

STEVE TREVOR: In case you didn’t look back at the previous post for my revision, I added Wonder Woman and a few others due to Hex running into them in the Walmart Justice League/Wonder Woman Giant titles.  One of the few men in that storyline -- other than ol’ Jonah, of course -- was Steve Trevor, and though they barely even spoke to one another, I’m adding him to this list just to be a completist, as I seriously doubt he’s Legend.  Be a nice surprise, though, giving him some character development unrelated to the Amazon.

JOHN CONSTANTINE: Near-zero odds because Legend doesn’t swear enough, plus Constantine isn’t one to rely on technology.

Okay, pretty sure I’ve got all the angles covered this time.  Once again, comments are encouraged, and more posts will come when we learn anything new regarding Legend and/or Jonah Hex.  Really hoping we get something in the next JLU issue, because I hate waiting!

Who is Legend, and how do they know Hex?

 

Though I’ve been reading Mark Waid’s Justice League Unlimited since the first issue, I hadn’t planned on picking up the Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special.  I’d already been skipping the other JLU spinoffs because they didn’t seem necessary to understand the main story, but when I took a peek at a preview for the Special, I saw our favorite bounty hunter would be present, and I am morally obligated as Jonah Hex’s P.R. agent to but virtually every appearance I can get my hands on, so…yeah, I bought it.

Up until reading this comic, I’d been a little miffed at Waid.  He told us way back in February that he’d figured out how to work Hex into JLU, yet the three dang issues the character appeared in so far had amounted to background filler and one line of dialogue.  Sorry, sir, I need more Hex than that to be happy, please and thank you.

And now I got freakin’ more.  I got ol’ Jonah shootin’ folks in the head, and I don’t care that they’re just faceless demon-shadow -thingies, it was still fun to see Jonah cut loose.  I also got some spot-on characterization when he straight-up told the Leaguers “No” in regards to joining their little excursion into time and space (even though he did in the end, the initial resistance is what counts), followed by him stating bluntly that he is not a hero.  So yay yay happy me!

I also got a mystery in the form of a new character referred to as Legend…or at least the appearance is new.  According to Legend themselves, they are a time traveler, and telling the Leaguers who they truly are under that armor and full-face helmet could supposedly lead to a paradox.  Luckily, nearly all the narration boxes in the issue come directly from Legend, and there are clues to be found there, with the biggest two coming at the bottom of the page revealing the time-lost folks who’ve been enlisted to help:

Legend privately admitting that they and Hex have a shared history jumped out at me like a neon sign.  Though Jonah’s been racking up some serious frequent-flyer miles in the past decade or so, his interactions with future-folk are still limited enough that I can pretty much make a list of who this Legend person may be, using the other clues scattered throughout to narrow the list further, starting with the “Don’t blame a girl for wishing” line Legend lets slip in regards to Marilyn Moonlight.  Throughout the issue, Legend is referred to with they/them pronouns, meaning they’re not even letting on what their gender is, so this internal dialogue implies that Legend is a woman (and possibly LGBTQ+, as it also implies an attraction to the newest cowpoke in DC’s Western stable).  Presuming our target is indeed female, that knocks quite a few people out of the running…and though Hex refers to Legend as “him” at one point, I doubt the bounty hunter can wrap his brain around the concept of gender-neutral pronouns, so I’m dismissing that.

Other clues are more vague but still potentially helpful: Legend’s manner of speaking (casual, the occasional swear or bit of snark), their statement about having experience with “ragtag” teams, their confession to Airwave that they know “more than a little bit” about failure and redemption, their throwaway line about Hex being “another satisfied customer” when the bounty hunter praises the powerful ammo he got from Legend’s timeship, the Waverider (yep, they just made the ship from Legends of Tomorrow canon), not to mention how incredibly well-versed they are in regards to DCU history, all the way up to the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Whoever they are, they’ve been bopping around the timestream for a good long while.

Speaking of the timestream, I want to make clear that I have no idea when in time ol’ Jonah got snatched up, much less what is still canon when it comes to his future-folk interactions.  Since Mark Waid is doing the writing, that says to me anything is possible, therefore I’m not discounting any character/storyline that may’ve been erased by retcons.  I’m also presuming that Waid isn’t crafting this Hex/Legend connection out of whole cloth (that’d be cheating, sir!), so all these guesses are based on documented interactions over the past 50+ years of Hex history.

Okay, ground rules are established.  Let’s look over the list, in no particular order…

BATWOMAN: After bopping around with the new version of the Outsiders (aka the low-key Planetary sequel) for nearly a year, the idea of Kate Kane becoming a time traveler somewhere down the line doesn’t seem far-fetched.  And I daresay the term “ragtag” does fit those Outsiders well, plus Kate does have a “failure and redemption” thing in her past.  There is also that fact that, from a certain angle, Legend’s helmet does come to two points at the back…not full-on bat ears, but it’s something I noticed.  As for her Hex run-in, it’s a little tenuous, seeing as how ol’ Jonah was a ghost at the time, but I’m counting it.

JINNY HEX: Speaking of Outsiders, the same issue where Batwoman ran into a ghostly Hex is the same where his many-times-great-granddaughter Jinny got introduced to the group, making that the second “ragtag” team she’s a part of (the first being Young Justice, of course).  I’d say being kin to the man qualifies as having “literal” history with him, and then there’s the matter of that trunk she inherited…Lord knows, there might’ve been a time-travel device buried inside!  When you add in the notion implied near the end of the Outsiders run -- that Jinny Hex may be a Century Baby, making her potentially long-lived -- the odds of her being Legend go up.

CHASTITY HEX OR “LADY HEX”: On the subject of descendants, I’m putting these two on the board as longshots.  Neither have been seen or mentioned outside of the respective titles that introduced them (the Bizarro miniseries and Superboy, respectively), but knowing Mark Waid’s penchant for obscure characters, I’m not discounting the possibility of one of them turning up.  I put higher odds on Chastity due to her heading off to space in her last appearance, plus her penchant for jetpacks and rayguns, but overall, I’d still be shocked if Legend was one of them.

HARLEY QUINN: Another longshot, as Legend’s dialogue doesn’t sound like how Harley talks whatsoever, but she recently went on a multiversal jaunt throughout DCU history, so maybe this is a much older Harley who’s a little more sane (like I said, it’s a longshot).  There’s also the fact that, when she met Jonah Hex during the Dark Nights: Death Metal event (a Black Lantern Hex, but it still counts!), the two of ‘em had a bit of a talk about doing more to fight for good than for evil, and to me that falls under the “failure and redemption” category.

HAWKGIRL: This one is a bit of a cheat, as I’m thinking specifically about her past life as Cinnamon, who has definitely met Hex, plus it’d be a nice callback to her being on the original Legends of Tomorrow team.  I also think the idea of having someone who’s lived so many lives also ending up as a time traveler is interesting.  And remember those two points on the helmet that I said could be bat ears?  They could also very well be a suggestion of the “wings” that both Hawks tend to have on their masks.

STILETTA: Of all the people I’m listing, this is the one I’m rooting hardest for.  I am not a big fan of the “Future Hex” era as envisioned by Michael Fleisher, but over the past 20 years, I’ve come to appreciate its potential.  I want to see Mark Waid take the idea and do this own spin on it.  Have Stiletta unearth her father’s time travel equipment and improve on it, then she puts it to good use by helping people in her own era and across time (that’s how the “another satisfied customer” line could fit in).  There’s the question of whether or not that would put HEX back into the DCU’s main timeline or remain an alternate future, but if it’s the former, it’d be a heck of a premise to build on: stop the nuclear holocaust of 2045 from happening (hard to believe what sounded like a far-off date in 1985 is just around the corner!).

***LAST-MINUTE ENTRY***: I can’t believe this one slipped my mind!  In the Justice League/Wonder Woman Giants released through Walmart back in 2018, Jonah got mixed up in an adventure involving Wonder Woman, Cheetah, Etta Candy, and an alien princess named Sibella.  The story is way too complicated to explain here -- suffice it to say it involves time travel shenanigans and alien fights to the death -- but it’s unusual in that nearly everyone Hex deals with is female (there’s also a military officer named Kate, but I think she’s just made up for the story…sorry, Wonder Woman lore is out of my area).  Anyways, I put even near-zero odds on Legend being Wondy, because while I’m no expert on the Amazon, she does have a particular way of talking, and it doesn’t match Legend’s dialogue one bit.  However, I could see Cheetah talking like that (and once again, those points on the helmet could be possible cat ears).  A presumably-reformed Cheetah would also fit the “failure and redemption” angle, the Legion of Doom qualifies as “ragtag”, and I bet dollars to dumplings that, even reformed, she’d take advantage of time travel to do a little business (hence “another satisfied customer”).  Etta Candy is also possible, but I seriously doubt it’d be Sibella, as she doesn’t exist outside of this story as far as I’m aware.  Her people do have some serious time travel tech, though…

So that’s what I’ve got.  If you can think of anyone else who might fit the parameters we know so far, let me know in the comments and I’ll add them to the list (or maybe make a whole new one!).  I'm also adding a "Legends" tag so you can easily look up any posts dealing with them, as well as any past/future Legends of Tomorrow posts.  I’m hoping we don’t have to wait too long for the reveal (maybe it’ll come during this DC K.O. event they mention at the end?), but in the meantime, let’s keep our eyes peeled for clues…and more Jonah Hex!

New year, new show!

Got a show to do this Sunday! I had a table at one of Martin Hirchak's last shows in Clawson, MI, but the venue closed, so he had to move house. I went to the Warren Elks Lodge last week to check it out...looks like a good place with lots of room, so we're all hoping for an awesome inaugural show!