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Did Jonah Hex Become a Colonel in DC Walmart Batman 100-Page Giant?

Bleeding Cool reader and Jonah Hex superfan Susan Hillwig of Pony Express has tipped us off about an intriguing change in the recent DC Walmart 100-Page Batman Giant.

She's been reading the Walmart comics, Batman featuring Jonah Hex's great-great-granddaughter Jinny Hex, with Jonah fighting alongside Wonder Woman in Justice League Giant – now Wonder Woman Giant.

But with Batman Giant #9, she tells us she found "what I first thought was the biggest frickin' typo I'd ever seen: when Bats and Green Lantern come face-to-face with Jonah for the first time, Batman calls him Colonel Hex. Twice. And Jonah doesn't correct him."

"In case you didn't know, Jonah never achieved higher than the rank of lieutenant during his time in the Confederate cavalry, so I figured either A: Batman doesn't understand military ranking, B: Jonah's timeline had gotten royally messed up and no one told me, or C: both Bendis and the editors did zero research on Jonah Hex before writing this story. Then I considered option D: Batman was calling him Colonel not as a rank, but out of respect."

"So I did a little digging. Turns out that "colonel" is indeed sometimes used as a term of respect down South for older gentlemen, civilian or otherwise. And there are, of course, honorary colonels whose titles are granted to them by the governors of certain states, with Kentucky starting the tradition back in 1813 (which is how Harlan Sanders got his title). So while I still think it would've been more proper — and less confusing — for Batman to address Jonah by his former rank of lieutenant, it is correct from an etiquette standpoint to refer to him as "Colonel Hex"…and who knows, with all the stuff Jonah's done in his life, maybe some Kentucky governor legit granted him the title and we just haven't seen the story yet."

You know if this was Marvel, she's have totally won a No-Prize for that. Here's the double page spread…

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