WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Young Justice #10 by Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms, Nick Derington, Gabe Eltaeb, Dave Stewart and Wes Abbott, on sale now.
Ever since Jinny Hex was introduced last year in Batman: 100 Page Giant #4, by Brian Michael Bendis, Nick Derington and Dave Stewart, she has possessed a mysterious trunk passed down from her ancestor, DC's classic Western antihero, Jonah Hex. Questions about that family keepsake drove her to Metropolis in Young Justice #1, by Bendis, Patrick Gleason and Alejandro Sanchez, looking for help with some of the more dangerous artifacts hidden within.
Over the next nine issues of the relaunched series, there were hints as to the chest's contents, including one issue in which the other heroes see what's inside, and react with incredulity at what Jinny has in her possession. In this week's Young Justice #10, we get to see a flashback to when Jinny first received the chest.
Jinny's mother was dying and she revealed Jinny's secret inheritance, a number of objects that Jonah Hex collected over his years.
Not all of the objects in the chest are visible, but we will try to identity all of those that are.
AN EGG-CELLENT INTRODUCTION
The storyline in which Jinny Hex made her debut, in the Walmart-exclusive Batman 100 Page Giant (which is being collected in Batman Universe), saw Batman searching for a mysterious Faberge egg. He tracked the original owner to Jinny, who he did not yet know was Jonah Hex's descendant. Jinny explained she gave the egg to a museum after discovering its value.
It appears as though giving away the egg was one of the first things that Jinny did.
DIFFERENT KIND OF GUN-TOTING
In Young Justice, the first item we see Jinny take from the chest occurs when Robin asks her if she has some less-lethal weaponry after she joins the fight just using a traditional shotgun. So she brings out a ray gun.
The gun appears to be a generic pulp sci-fi ray gun, and not specific to DC history. When the book was announced last year at New York Comic Con, Co-Publisher Dan DiDio said Jinny would have Adam Strange's ray gun, but his signature weapon is much less-stylized (as drawn by Gil Kane on the cover of Adam Strange's debut in Showcase #17).
If anything, the guns bear the greatest similarities to those wielded by Chastity Hex, another descendant of Jonah Hex that was introduced in the 2015 Bizarro miniseries (it makes sense that Hex would have more than one descendant out there).
However, most likely that's just a coincidence and the guns are simply generic ray guns.
SIZE MATTERS
There are a few superhero-related artifacts in the chest, including Ray Palmer's size-changing belt introduced in Showcase #34, by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson.
Ray has made a number of these belts over the years, so it makes sense that at least one could end up in Jonah's possession.
FASHION ACCESSORIES
One of the trickier items is a bow tie. Jimmy Olsen, of course, famously wore a bow tie over the years. However, because most of the items in the chest are historical ones, we believe that it's more likely the famous bow tie of Johnny Thunder, the Justice Society of America member who had the ability to summon a powerful "Thunderbolt" by saying the name of the Thunderbolt, Cei-U (which Johnny would say accidentally by saying "say you").
Johnny actually didn't have a bow tie in his first appearance, but in Flash Comics #2 (by John B. Wentworth and Stan Asch), Johnny donned his bow tie for the first time.
REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE
A superhero item that always seems to make its way around the universe is the H-E-R-O dial, which debuted in House of Mystery #156, by Dave Wood and Jim Mooney.
When you dial the word "hero," you transform into a superhero. That could come in handy for Jinny.
A CANDLE IN THE WIND
That's it for the more traditional superhero items, so here are the more magical objects. In a wooden box, there is one of Neron's candles.
During Underworld Unleashed, by Mark Waid, Howard Porter and Dan Green, the demon Neron used these candles to summon Earth's supervillains to his lair where, he traded them upgraded superpowers in exchange for their souls.
DEMON-BAIT
In the early days of the Justice League of America, Gardner Fox would often have the heroes fight magical threats (in part due to Superman's vulnerability to magic), and in Justice League of America #10 (by Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs) the league faced off against the evil sorcerer, Felix Faust.
Faust's plot involves summoning Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast (better known as "The Demons Three") through their respective special magical objects, the Red Jar of Calythos, the Green Bell of Uthool and the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath. Jinny now has all three items!
AN INCREASE TO THE MARVEL FAMILY
During the year-long event 52, Black Adam expanded his own "Marvel Family" by using the Amulet of Isis to transform a human woman into Isis.
The amulet debuted in 52 #12, by Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns, Keith Giffen, Eddy Barrows and Rob Stull.
METAMORPHO CONTROL
In The Brave and the Bold #57, by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon, daredevil explorer Rex Mason came across a scepter known as The Orb of Ra.
That scepter only had a small piece of the special element that would later transform Rex into the freakish Metamorpho. The Orb of Ra, though, allowed Rex's employer, Simon Stagg, to control him.
The Orb's power mostly ties into Metamorpho, but it might have other purposes.
JONAH MUST HAVE TRAVELED THE MULTIVERSE!
So far, while some of these items came from magical worlds or possibly even the future (Jonah Hex has been known to time travel quite a bit), but one of them originates from another universe! One of the objects in the chest appears to be Flashlight's Power-Torch.
Flashlight is basically his dimension's Green Lantern (Earth-36 to be precise). He debuted in Multiversity (by Grant Morrison, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado; Eber Ferreira; Jaime Mendoza). It is amazing to see Jonah get his hands on a powerful weapon from a whole other world in the Multiverse!
There were a number of non-visible items in the chest (as well as some books that are unidentifiable), so there are likely plenty of other notable objects in there that we will see in the future!