DC's OTHER Western Hero
Issue 76 of Showcase features DC's other Western hero. While Jonah Hex is far and away the most popular gunslinger in the DC Universe, there is one other character that stands out amongst the cadre of cowboys and Indians that have graced the pages of DC Comics: Bat Lash.
In some ways, Bat Lash and Jonah Hex are polar opposites. Hex is ugly and disfigured. Bat is a pretty boy. Hex dresses in a shabby grey Civil War uniform. Bat Lash dresses in flashy clothes with a colorful scarf. Bat drinks fine wine; Hex drinks rotgut. Hex is a hired killer; Bat hates killing - though he probably ends up doing as much or more of it than Hex!
Yet this story - which comes chronologically first in Bat Lash's career (following the events of Bat Lash: Guns and Roses) kind of mirrors the events of Hex's first story, 'Welcome to Paradise' (which also debuted in an anthology). In that story, Jonah Hex came to a town called 'Paradise' and he thought about settling down there - until he found it was anything but paradise. In this story, Bat Lash comes to a town called 'Welcome', where he finds himself anything but welcome.
To begin with (in typical Bat Lash fashion), he romances a local woman, and ends up having to kill her jealous boyfriend in self defense. Then he is continually set upon by thugs trying to run him out of town or kill him - when all he wants is a good meal!
Ultimately Bat Lash proves to be a more complex character, though. Throughout the story he tries to preserve the flower Dominique gave him - removing it from his hat, or just taking off his hat before every battle. But in the end, after his encounter with Miss Diane and the town of Welcome, he casts it away telling his horse Daisy that he's "lost his taste for pheasant" - symbolically indicating that he has gotten over Dominique, or at least moved on from her, and perhaps women in general. But who are we kidding? This is Bat Lash we're talking about here.