“Two Faced Terror, Part II”
First print date: August 5 1978
Prog appearance: Starlord Issue 13
Writer(s): John Wagner
Artist(s): Carlos Ezquerra
Total episodes: 4
Johnny and Wulf reach the Big Dusty, and ride into a town called Immunity, above the entrance to which they note two people hangin upside down. When Johnny questions them as to Billy Joe's whereabouts, they reply that it was him that hung them up, to punish them for not paying enough taxes. Johnny snarls that they owe a criminal like Billy Joe no taxes and shoots the ropes, releasing the men, who seem more fearful than grateful to the bounty hunter: they believe Billy Joe will kill them for daring to escape his punishment. They tell Johnny that Billy Joe is also a mutant, and is the law around here. This of course does not sit well with the S/D agent. He's even less impressed when the freed men hastily begin re-hanging themselves, and one snarls that he will radio ahead to Billy Joe, ensure it's the bounty hunters who get the blame. Johnny growls in disgust at the cowards as he and Wulf ride on.
As they make their way into town, the two are ambushed by a squad of floaters, basically like hoverboards with men lying flat on them, but armed. Johnny takes out one but there are too many and in fact they're done in by the one they hit, which crashes into them. Dragged from the wreckage, they are just in time to see the arrival of Billy Joe, who, it turns out, is indeed a mutant, but one that makes Alpha look like a norm! He has two faces, one on either side, and each speak independently, as if there were in fact two personalities in one body. A little like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, except they're one person. Maybe a litlte more like Zaphod Beeblebrox from The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Anyway, one face tells him he's Billy, the other claims to be Joe, and both hand Alpha a las-whip, his (their?) weapon of choice, challenging the bounty hunter to a contest.
Johnny is not very familiar with las-whips, but having been stripped of all his other weapons he has to take any advantage he is given. He's easily outmatched though, and Billy Joe has the upper hand, resulting in Alpha's defeat. As he stands sneering over the bounty hunter's corpse, Billy Joe takes Johnny's badge to add to his collection and leaves the body with a grieving Wulf, then leaves, taking his henchmen with him. What the criminal does not know is that Johnny is trained to make his body simulate death, and this is one of the times he has had to employ that skill. However, they are not yet out of the woods: if Wulf can't get him out of this desert and to some medical attention soon, it may be too late.
Quotes
Citizen 1: “Billy Joe's a mutant like you, mister – only meaner and uglier. He likes hurtin' people! He can skin a man alive with those laser whips of his!”
Citizen 2: “You don't understand. Billy Joe's word is law round these parts. He'll kill us for this!”
Citizen 1: “I'll radio Billy Joe, that's what I'll do. I'll tell him it was you who did this. Then it'll be you who gets skinned!”
Johnny: “Do that, pal. Tell him I'm coming for him.”
Billy Joe: “So this is the brave bounty hunter who came for our head. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves. I'm Billy (head turns to show different face) and I'm Joe.”
Johnny (thinking): “Severe mutation!”
Henchman: “His heart's stopped beating!”
Billy Joe: “Dead, eh? Pity. I'd hoped to do a few wrap-rounds on him.”
Wulf: “Johnny! Oh Johnny!”
Billy Joe: “Johnny doesn't live there anymore, ape. We'll take his badge as a souvenir, the rest you can keep. Now get his carcass off of the Big Dusty. If we catch you here again, you're dead.”
Wulf (thinking): “Johnny's vounds are bad. Vulf must find help soon, or Johnny vill return to der land of der dead!”
Tools of the Trade
The las-whip: Here we're introduced to the equivalent really of Johnny's Electronux, but whereas they require actual contact with the body in order to be effective, the las-whip, or laser whip, does not. It sends out a snaking whip of energy that fries everything it comes in contact with. There's evidence that Alpha has either used one or come up against one before, as he mentions to himself that the one Billy Joe uses is just like the ones on Earth.
The Powers that Be
An incredible power, or a superhuman feat of mind over matter? Perhaps standard training procedure in the Search/Destroy academy, if such a thing exists, but it seems Johnny can control every muscle in his body, including his heart. This allows him to temporarily “stop” it, or give the illusion that it is stopped, in order to fool any enemy he can't beat. However, it does seem more than an illusion: Johnny's heart must actually stop, as when Wulf coaxes him back to consciousness he speaks of a place that was very peaceful, and it's pretty obvious he has had a near-death experience.
Laughing in the face of death
It's quite amusing when the townsfolk, rather than anger Billy Joe when he sees that Alpha has freed them from the punishment he has decreed, are so scared that they attempt to hang themselves back up. As one hauls the other up he asks “Hey! I just thought of something! If I pull you up who's going to pull
me up?” The other responds, as he is hauled up, “That's your problem! C'mon! Get pulling!”
Also quite funny is the automatic water dispenser in town, called a “watering hole”. It's labelled “Property of Billy Joe” and another sign proclaims “Drinks 25 cents, Wishes 10 cents” while a third warns “No bent coins!”
PCRs
Essentially, what Wagner is seeking to do here, obviously, is reinvent the Western. You have all the ingredients: frontier law, a small town in the middle of nowhere run by a brutal criminal whom the law can't or won't touch, Alpha and Wulf on some sort of sandbikes that substitute for horses. The wanted man. The bounty hunters. The scared townsfolk. It's all here. Even the las-whipping Billy Joe dishes out to Johnny is taken from the Clint Eastwood movie
High Plains Drifter, where Eastwood's character is whipped to death. And then there's the Big Dusty, an obvious reference to the Big Muddy, an area of water controlled by the rich baron in the classic western
The Big Country. To say nothing of the two hard-bitten gunfighters riding in to bring law to the lawless town, or at least take on its ruler.