Captain Bill Lawton is the titular main antagonist of the 1995-1996 comic book miniseries Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates, the seventh and last Indiana Jones comic series published by Dark Horse Comics.
He is a pirate captain who used to work for Panama Hat before his death at the hands of Indiana Jones in 1938. Even though Jones saved his life, Lawton resents him for losing his leg to a shark, leading him to try to kill Jones one year later before the two come across the Sargasso Pirates.
History[]
Past[]
Around 1938, Bill Lawton was a gunrunner who served aboard the Portuguese freighter known as the Vasquez de Coronado, owned by the antiquities collector Panama Hat. One stormy night, the American archaeologist Indiana Jones broke into the Vasquez to recover the Cross of Coronado from Panama Hat, who had Jones beaten up by Lawton's name and ordered them to throw Jones overboard, but he broke free, seized the Cross, fought back against the sailors and the ensuing fight led the ship to blow up. Lawton and Jones were the only ones who survived, but Lawton lost one of his legs to a shark before Jones was able to rescue him.
Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates[]
In 1939, one year after the events of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Bill Lawton comes across Indiana Jones again when Indy hires him and his crew to take him with their ship, the Black Pete, to the North Atlantic Oceans glaciers in search of a knarr. As they reach their destination, Lawton gets angry at his crewmate Mr. Sickles for suggesting him to kill Jones with a poisoned dagger–as he wishes to be the one to kill him and doesn't want his crew to take away the pleasure from himself. Jones disarms Lawton from stabbing Sickles for that and notes that the crew has been trying to kill him and that he only hired them for not other salvage ships being willing to go into the glaciers, so he forces Lawton and Sickles to accompany him into the iceberg where the knarr is encased to make sure he doesn't try to kill him.
Upon finding the knarr, Jones discovers that a Viking axe from one of the ship's occupants has written a map to Vinland, leading Lawton and Sickles to assault, disarm and knock him off the iceberg. As Jones clings with his whip to the knarr, Lawton prepares to drop him into the cold waters by cutting off his whip but a polar bear appears and bites him on the arm, leading Sickles to desert and take over the Black Pete and its crew, leaving Lawton and Jones for dead. Jones climbs up to safety and shoots the bear dead, but as they have nowhere to go, all they can do is to stay there consuming their supplies moderately until the iceberg hopefully drifts into the shipping lanes.
With no options, Lawton and Jones are forced to coexist for weeks until the ocean liner the Normandie finds their iceberg just as Lawton tried to murder Indy, leading Lawton to drop all weapons and lie to the liner's crew that he saved Indy from dying. As the ship sails to New York City, Lawton discovers that Cairo, an enigmatic woman whom he has met before, is aboard and forces her to trick Jones into going to the deck. Once there, Lawton manages to knock Indy out with a crowbar but Cairo shoots him on his injured arm to prevent him from beating Jones to death. As Cairo's associate New Jersey Jones distracts them, Lawton knocks her out and forces New Jersey to escape with her in a lifeboat, but Indy wakes up and fights Lawton until they both fall into the lifeboat, stranded on the seas yet again.
The next day, Lawton makes yet another attempt on Indy's life, forcing Jones and the con artists to tie him up and keep him that way until they enter into the Sargasso Sea, full of abandoned ships. As Lawton has far more maritime knowledge, Indy and the con artists let him free under the condition he doesn't turn against them again. Lawton keeps his word and even fishes an eel for dinner before tending his arm wound with fresh water, but that night, they are attacked by the Sargasso Pirates, who subdue them and take them all prisoners before the Sea Witch at Sargasso Bay, a ship-composed city. In contrast to Jones and the con artists, the Sea Witch lets Lawton join them for being a man from the sea. Lawton's companions are later accepted, though Lawton takes the opportunity to taunt Jones during his life-threatening test by pointing out how similar the Kraken is to a snake.
However, it turns out that Lawton has gathered some disgruntled pirates of the Sea Witch's crew to mutiny against her so they can take over the Sea Witch's ship the Freedom, that has multiple treasures from different ages in history and the capability to leave the Sargasso Bay, cornering her in her private quarters and shooting her seemingly dead. Jones appears on scene and engages in a shootout in which most of Lawton's men die. Undeterred, Lawton orders his crewmates to dispose of the Sea Witch's corpse in Sargasso's waters and pins the blame of her murder on Indiana, turning all the pirates against him. Indy is eventually captured and sentenced to the "sweating": being chained to a ship's mast and circle it as he gets whipped, beaten and slashed by Lawton and the pirates, but Lawton's fun comes to a premature end when a lit oil lamp that was inadvertently knocked loose below deck by Jones while trying to escape from the pirates causes an explosion that claims all of Sargasso's ships minus the Freedom, so Lawton spitefully kicks Indy and leaves him chained to die there.
Jones escapes and even helps saving the Freedom, but Lawton still tries to have him killed by shooting him dead until a Grey Wolf U-boat submarine that had been trapped by the Sargasso's seaweeds emerges from underwater. Realizing that he is now in charge of the Sea Witch's former crew, Lawton names himself the leader of the Sargasso Pirates and promises them to keep robbing and plundering all of the Atlantic Sea in search of fortune and glory like pirates used to do centuries ago, leading all of the Sargasso Pirates to support and accept Lawton as their new leader. Boarding the U-boat, Lawton orders Indy to check that the submarine isn't carrying any plague, but then Lawton has Indy locked up under the excuse that he may be infected, threatening to blow up the brains of any pirate who approaches him while quarantined as the Sargasso Pirates make the preparations to leave for the Seven Seas.
Just as all hope seems lost, the Sea Witch resurfaces thanks to Cairo and Indiana, cleaning Indy's name in front of the pirates and leading Lawton to shoot Quartermaster Segar dead for threatening him and threatens New Jersey to serve as his new First Mate, taking him into the U-boat as his gunner while dragging the Freedom with them. Jones, Cairo and the Sea Witch get aboard the Freedom but are spotted by New Jersey, who inadvertently makes Lawton realize they have escaped from Sargasso as well. Angered, Lawton orders his men to finish off the trio, but the Sea Witch fires a cannonball to the U-boat, damaging its aft hull to prevent them from submerging. Losing his cool, an angry Lawton demands to his crew to torpedo the Freedom under the rationale that the lost loot can be replaced with the treasure that the Viking axe has a map for. Lawton's crew does so, but Jones, Cairo and the Sea Witch find their way into the U-boat's deck, leading Indy to duel Lawton as he threatens to hurt Cairo and replace New Jersey as his First Mate.
As New Jersey locks all of Lawton's crewmembers inside the U-boat by closing the hatch, Indy and Lawton fight with a sword and the axe until Lawton hurls the axe towards Jones, who gets distracted as he looks at it sinking into the depths of the Sargasso Sea, leading Lawton to jump onto him to break his neck with his heavy leg. Furious, Indiana manages to knock Lawton away with a rope, but Lawton lunges at him as he taunts Jones on either killing him or riskying himself of seeing him again. Realizing that Lawton is too dangerous to be left alive, the Sea Witch orders Jones to cover and shoots at Lawton with the U-boat's deck gun, riddling him with bullets and knocking him into the sea, finally killing Lawton and ending his threat to Indy's life once and for all, leaving his corpse to float adrift in the Sargasso Sea.
Trivia[]
- Bill Lawton is easily the only Indiana Jones villain created for the Expanded Adventures that was retconned as having been present during the events of one of the films, this being Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
External Links[]
- Bill Lawton on the Indiana Jones Wiki
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