This issue begins with Outlaw in "Death Deals the Cards" by Robert Kanigher and Gil Kane. This issue features some beautiful work by Kane, who was really starting to hit his peak about this time. With his father still hot on his trail, Outlaw Rick Wilson joins up with Dix, a train robber who has targeted a train which Rick's Texas Ranger father is traveling on. When Dix's men pull guns on Rick they reveal Dix's plan to kill Rick as well, since Dix does not trust the son of a Texas Ranger With the help of his hawk, Rick manages to to turn the tables on the men taking them out. At the same time, Rick's father is able to get the drop on Dix sending him of the train and to his death. Rick then flees the scene to avoid being captured by his father. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1 TPB (2006).
Next is a text story, "And the Sun Beat On" by Mike Friedrich, is about a train robber being chased by deputies. The robber is on the wrong horse at the wrong time.
We end this issue with a real gem, We are to learn the origin of El Diablo in "Call Him Satan--Call Him Saint!" by Robert Kanigher and Gray Morrow. Morrow's artwork on this entire series is just stunning and this issue is no exception. When an old prospector, Pop Woods, is bushwhacked on night, he is rescued by the masked rider, El Diablo. Pop says that he recognized the men as being members of the Hanged Man's Gang, who made his daughter, Ellie, a widow and his grandson an orphan. Like a shadow, El Diablo disappears.
We go back 33 days to the town of Puerta Del Sol in Southern California, where we witness bank teller Lazarus Lane being humiliated in the streets by a group of men accosting Nora Hayes. A few hours later the same men come into the bank in masks and kill fellow teller Albert before making away with a month's payroll. Later Albert's wife calls out Lazarus in front of the town for being a coward and doing nothing to stop Albert's murder. Ashamed and saddened, Lazarus rides out to his hacienda where he is met by Wise Owl, an old native medicine man taken in by Lazarus after he was shunned by his own people. While Lazarus explains what happened in town , Wise Owl tells him that all men are "given a chance to even accounts...sometimes in mysterious ways."
A week later, Nora has visited Lazarus and talked him into taking her for a buggy ride. However, they are stopped by the Hanged Man Gang and this time Lazarus is determined to protect Nora, But he is lassoes and drug into a river. When a soaking wet Lazarus stands up to the men, he is struck by lightning and before the gang can react, a barrage of bullets erupts from the other side of the river and they hightail it out of there. Wise Owl emerges from the trees and ride across the river. He takes Lazarus to the hacienda while Nora heads off to retrieve her father, the town doctor.
When they return, they hear Wise Owl singing an Apache chant for the dead and fear they are too late, but inside they find Lazarus sitting in a chair. Though his heart is still beating, he appears to be in a waking coma of some sort. Wise Owl explains that "Paleface medicine is useless here, It is best that you leave us alone. I will look after him." As they leave they hear Wise Owl taking up the chant of the dead once more. For days and nights Wise Owl looks after Lazarus, administering herbs and root drugs till finally, he opens his eyes. Lazarus speaks of strange dreams and how is now living on borrowed time, how the lightning which should have killed him instead split his soul asunder. He is now two men, the husk of Lazarus Lane and someone else, "a shadow...a phantom...a devil of a man with a task to be done before I can rest. Tonight the part of the man that is Lazarus Land sleeps, while his other self rides as...El Diablo."
Meanwhile, at Pop Woods' ranch, The Hanged Man and his gang have broken in and are eyeing the widow Ellie. The Hanged Man explains that it was Ellie's husband who was the foreman of the jury that found him guilty and that it was only by freak accident that he did not die when he went through the trap door. When his men cut him down and revived him, he swore revenge on her husband and his whole family. When one of his men go to the well for water he is attacked by El Diablo's bolo and a few minutes later the cabin starts to fill with smoke. The Hanged Man sends one of his men to see what has happened but he is gunned down by El Diablo, up on the roof.
The Hanged Man comes out holding a gun to Ellie's head and tells El Diablo to drop his gun, which he does. HE chides El Diablo for being a fool but is silenced when el Diablo's bolo strikes him in the neck, hanging him once again, this time from a porch post. El Diablo rides off, returning to the Lane Hacienda where he removes his costume and returns to his chair by the fire. "The watchful moon listens..." as Wise Owl once again takes up the Apache chant of the dead. This classic DC western has been reprinted in Weird Secret Origins #1 (2004), DC Universe: Secret Origins HC (2012) and DC Universe: Secret Origins TPB (2013).
Edited by Dick Giordano.
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