Every week, we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer while still acknowledging that the abandoned story DID still happen. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

This week works as sort of a tie-in with this week's Line it is Drawn, whose theme was post-apocalypse. Today, based on a suggestion from reader Richard B., we take a look at how Michael Fleisher reconciled the post-apocalyptic Hex series with Jonah Hex's regular stories.

In 1985, Hex began, which told the tale of Jonah Hex trapped in a post-apocalyptic future.



When the series ended in 1987, Hex was still stuck in the future.



Later that year, though, Fleisher used Secret Origins #21 to have Hex's second wife (who is now a very old woman) explain that yeah, Hex came back.





As Richard noted in his suggestion to me, Fleisher simple approach ("Yeah, he came back") helps to get Hex back into the past for future Hex stories without other writers feeling the need to address the future stories but it also doesn't mock the future stories for those readers who enjoyed Hex.

This is an unusual example since Fleisher wrote both Hex and the Secret Origins story, but enough time passed between the end of Hex and Secret Origins #21 (ten months) that I think it still works.

If you have a suggestion for a future installment, let me know at bcronin@comicbookresources.com