*Note: If you need an explanation of fanfic and/or my involvement in it, click here.*
Though both of these stories involve Jonah Hex, they should be considered totally separate from the Hex fics I write for DC2, as the works on that site sometimes tweak the facts in order to make it all work together properly. The first story was written with a close eye on DCU continuity, as the point was to make it fit within a particular gap within that universe's history and not contradict anything that came before (when you get to the end of it, you'll find a massive amount of notes regarding where I got certain bits of info from). The second story is set in the same continuity as the first, but it will slowly branch off from the regular DCU as it progresses, due to the "ripple effect" caused by one certain detail being changed. You can read one and skip the other if you so desire, but taken together, you will get a much fuller story.
The Long Road Home: It's been eight years since I wrote this, and I still get comments about it (a few people have told me that they personally consider it part of Jonah Hex canon). I started it simply as an explanation of how Jonah Hex got home from the future, but by the end, it had become a catharsis for me, as I don't have much love for that particular era of Jonah's life. I did my best to treat it fairly, though, as my fanfic philosophy has always been "Write it like you're getting paid", and I guess that's why so many readers have taken it to heart. I also wrote it like it was the only Jonah Hex story I would ever do (because I did think that at the time), and it's still the one I'm the most proud of.
Jonah Hex: Shades of Gray: As I wrote "The Long Road Home", I started toying with the idea of putting Jonah in the future again. More precisely, I wanted to put him in the present, so that Jonah would have to cope with all the everyday craziness that is the DCU of the early 21st Century. Plus I wanted the added wrinkle of avoiding time travel: somehow, someway, our Jonah Hex would be the one that had lived to the ripe old age of 66 and been killed in 1904, but was now resurrected in present times. That way, we'd have a young, unscarred Hex with all the skill and experience he'd accumulated over nearly seven decades, one that never had to go back to the past, and who could perhaps learn from all his mistakes and finally have a decent life in the here-and-now. Problem was, I couldn't think of a plausible way to do this, and without a way to bring Jonah Hex back that made sense (to me, at least), I couldn't proceed, so the idea never got past the "noodling around" stage. Then, five years later, Geoff Johns dropped "Blackest Night/Brightest Day" in my lap, giving me the perfect excuse to finally carry out my idea. I find it serendipitous that, just like with "The Long Road Home", there's a Green Lantern at the center of this solution.
*(Edit: this fic was begun three years before Jonah's time-travel adventures in All-Star Western #19-28, so those events have no direct bearing on "Shades of Gray"...far as I'm concerned, the entirety of my tale is taking place in a DCU where Flashpoint never happened)*
Unlike many of the other stories I've done, "Shades of Gray" is an ongoing tale, with installments every few months. When you click on the link, you'll find a list of "issues", with the most current one at the top. What follows are quick, mostly spoiler-free notations on the storyarcs so far and the issues that encompass them:
- Blood and Ashes (#1-10): Jonah's first week back among the living. You'll get the lowdown on the how and the why, along with all the difficulties one must overcome when you wake up all alone in a strange century with no money.
- The New Normal (#11): Have black ring, will travel...but where? Thanks to some unexpected help from a few old friends, Jonah finds a place to hang his Confederate-gray hat.
- Old Soldiers Never Die (#12): We change focus briefly to tell a tale of Greg "Vigilante" Saunders and his own trip back to the land of the living.
- Narcocorrido (#13-16): Jonah has to face enemies from both above and below...way below...as he stumbles across a new breed of Worm dwelling beneath Mexican soil.
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