All-Star Western #17 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: Catherine Wayne proves that no good deed goes unpunished.

The Review: I never read or review this series without a healthy dose of amazement—not so much at the quality of the work itself, but at the fact that I’m still reading it after a year and a half, when so many other titles have fallen by the wayside.  In fact, it’s even more amazing that this series has lasted long enough to give me a choice in whether to continue on.  Palmiotti-Gray clearly have something going for them, but I find it hard to say what it actually is.

There is something endearing about their total enthusiasm for the DCU.  You can’t deny they’ve lived up to the title of this series with their revolving door of interesting guest stars and plotlines.  But lately, that’s become the entire focus of All-Star Western, and this issue, featuring Vandal Savage, is no different.  Granted, we do get an interesting spin to DC’s oldest villain with the premise of Savage as disease-carrier and natural population thinner.  Sadly, Palmiotti-Gray have proven to be great at introducing a good premise, but not so great at developing it beyond that.

All-Star Western #15 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: For once, Arkham tops Hex in the senseless violence department.

The Review: I don’t know how to say this without sounding a bit mean, but I always felt this title had an inevitable expiration date.  In the last year, All-Star Western hasn’t exactly made any breakthroughs with Gray-Palmiotti’s in-your-face style of writing.  Instead, it’s gotten by on sheer novelty alone for most of its run.  At some point, however, their plot would lose that veneer of originality, exposing the inherent flaws of the series.

I think we’ve reached that point in this issue.  The introduction of Hyde and the use of the Black Diamond initially promised interesting things for this arc, but here we realize that, as written, Hyde is just a well-spoken bruiser, and while the Black Diamond may be a necessary in the context of the story, it adds nothing special or new to the plot Gray-Palmiotti have chosen.

All-Star Western #14 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: Not even Asian exceptionalism stands a chance in Gotham.

The Review: One of the more unfortunate side-effects of growing up is having all your favorite historical myths stripped away.  I would’ve been happy to spend the rest of my life believing that the proto-Americans and Indians spent at least the early parts of their relationship in some kind of harmony.  The truth, of course, involved a great deal more violence and a whole lot less comfort food.

Although the Indians proved to be hospitable at the beginning, one of them made the covetous mistake of stealing a small silver cup from Richard Grenville’s first group of British settlers.  Grenville, perhaps feeling he ought to set boundaries straight from the beginning, responded by sacking and burning the whole Indian village.  And as any history book will tell you, life between the red and white people plunged sharply downhill from there.

All-Star Western #13 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: Can we all just agree that it’s all clowns that creep you out, not just the one?

The Review: Pre-relaunch, Gray-Palmiotti wrote Jonah Hex solo for a long—surprisingly long—time, and they seemed to find plenty of success that way.  For Hex in the Wild West, cooperation wouldn’t seem natural or necessary anyway.  But in his urban environment, Hex could use the help.  Without Arkham’s intercession, he’d probably just get arrested and executed in a few months; without Tallulah’s randiness, he’d probably go crazy from the city life.

All this is to say I’m glad Arkham and Tallulah are officially part of Hex’s trio for the foreseeable future.  Although none of them would probably call it as such, they’ve developed a very functional teamwork.  Probably no one can cover Hex in a scrap as well as Talulah, and when it comes to tending to the innocent harmed, or offering some intellectual insight into the happenings, or fending off law enforcement (“I’ll explain to the authorities as best I can,” he sighs resignedly over a bloody mess at a circus), Arkham’s the man.

All-Star Western #0 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: So close to getting away with just one crazy scar, yet so far.

The Review: I must say, the timing of this review seems a bit unfortunate, given how I came just shy of calling Gray-Palmiotti mediocre just yesterday.  But All-Star Western happens to be one of those titles where I feel their specific talents flourish, where they feel so at home with the material that they can produce a #0 issue superior even to that written by Scott Snyder’s pupil himself.  It just happens to be a happy union between certain creators and certain characters.

Of course, I won’t attribute the success of this issue entirely to the writing.  Hex has the benefit of a very involved, very interesting origin story, one with some famous elements: fighting for the Confederates, adoption by the Injuns (Apache, specifically), and the inevitable scarring moment.  Gray-Palmiotti run briskly through them all, which helps out any new readers, but old fans can find some value in the way the issue clears up the chronology of Hex’s life events.

All-Star Western #12 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Mike Atiyeh (colors)

The Story: Real women speak with their fists—and guns.

The Review: All-Star Western is yet another one of those titles you’d think I’d have abandoned by now, and yet here we are.  Considering that the western is hardly the barnburner of a genre it used to be, it’s even more remarkable this title has lasted this long on my pull list.  But maybe it’s precisely the rarity and specialized nature of westerns that has protected it from a more rigorous standard of judgment.

Then, too, Gray-Palmiotti have delivered some fairly original material on this series.  Hex in industrial Gotham would’ve been good times enough, but with the addition of Dr. Arkham as sidekick, as well as mixing it up with lineage villains like the followers of the Crime Bible or the Court of Owls, we’ve gotten a pretty lively title on our hands.  Gray-Palmiotti may not have done anything worth alerting the presses about, but they’ve got the guts to try new, interesting things on a consistent basis (Dr. Jekyll as Hex’s next client?  I’m game.).

All-Star Western #11 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Gabriel Bautista (colors)

The Story: It’s like Yankees versus Red Sox, only with organized crime.

The Review: Now that the Court of Owls arc on Batman has reached its unforgettable end, it feels like a bit of an anticlimax to be reading a tie-in delving into the Court’s history after the fact.  Or, it would but for the fact that the Court of Owls is not meant to be a one-story creation; Scott Snyder clearly made it available to the DCU as a whole to mine its potential.  Palmiotti-Gray have an opportunity to enmesh the Court of Owls into the world beyond Batman.

It seems pretty natural, then, that their first thought would be to pit one Gothamite secret society against another, and you’d be a fool not to choose the Religion of Crime as the Court’s opponent.  Considering the biblical origins of the criminal cult, they have a venerable history which, as they claim with a condescending sniff, “predates Gotham.”  While the Court has already become an urban legend in the city, inspiring old wives’ tales and nursery rhymes of their presence, the European-born followers of the Crime Bible see the Court as American rookies in their game.

All-Star Western #10 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art), Gabriel Bautista (colors)

The Story: Anyone care to guess the one thing that puts a merry smile on Hex’s face?

The Review: Don’t tell anyone, but I actually don’t care too much for these short features Gray-Palmiotti keep inserting at the back of this series.  This is no reflection on the concept of back-ups themselves; Nick Spencer’s Jimmy Olsen bit was a fantastic bonus to Paul Cornell’s already solid run in Action Comics, and was even better collected.  But the All-Star Western short features have been mainly jumbled, pointless, underwhelming at best and dull at worst.

The tale of Bat Lash generally follows in this vein.  Despite fun art from José Luis Garcia-López (colored by Patrick Mulvihill), the story makes only a weak attempt at fun by portraying Lash as the most hustlin’ swinger in the Wild West.  The idea isn’t bad, but Gray-Palmiotti just try way too hard to sell Lash’s bon vivant manner, to the point he just comes across as the dirtbag you don’t even care enough to hate: “Aside from my enviable gambling skills, did I mention that I am also devastatingly handsome?”  By the end of the feature, you have no idea why it exists in the first place, other than to take up space no one knew what to do with.

All-Star Western #6 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Phil Winslade (feature artist), Dominic Regan (feature colorist)

The Story: Don’t expect an informercial, but Hex wants you to save the children.

The Review: Not that Jonah Hex is a blisteringly popular character in the DC galaxy of stars, but he does have a certain, cultish appeal, one that’s a little difficult to pin down.  He has that scar, of course, and he’s a sharp shot, but plenty of heroes have scars and great aim.  If you can pin down one thing that separates him from the rest of the pack, it’s his grit.  When a thing gets in his way, he just pounds it into submission—there’s no finesse, grace, or elegance about him.

More than that, he makes no apologies for being what he is, nor does he feel the need to change his ways so long as it works out for him—and it always does, since Hex will be a monkey’s uncle before he changes for anyone.  So when a giant, underground bat-monster attacks, does he try to come up with some fancy, elaborate plan to take it down?  Nope.  He just runs into it head-on and kicks it in the face.  Make no mistake—he’s a man’s man to the core.

And yet we see in this issue that he’s not exactly the same as when he first rode into Gotham.  He’s gotten to the point where he not only tolerates Arkham’s presence, he actually banters with the doctor now, which is probably more consistent conversation with a body in his whole life.  What’s interesting about their dynamic is that neither on his own has much of a funny bone, but when they rub shoulders, that’s when the humor comes out.  Who knew Hex could be dry (“We just…battled a prehistoric bat…”  “Ah didn’t see a whole lotta we back there.”), or Arkham sassy (“Do mind your manners, though.”  “Don’t ah always?”  “No, not always.  In fact, please let me do all the talking.”)?

All-Star Western #5 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Phil Winslade (feature artist), Dominic Regan (feature colorist)

The Story: Instead of seeing the situation as a death trap, Arkham, consider it an adventure!

The Review: I think the real fun of these buddy stories—although calling Hex and Arkham buddies is admittedly a stretch—is not only the misadventures they can get up to, or even the energy that comes from their interaction, but seeing how each one affects the other over time.  Obviously, that kind of thing works best when you have characters who are polar opposites, and you can’t get more polar or opposite than our two stars here.

In the long run, it’s doubtful Hex will change much under Arkham’s mild-mannered influence, but we can see that this extended companionship with the bounty hunter has definitely opened the stodgy recluse of a doctor to a whole new world of experiences: the numbing horror of hard exercise, the value of violence in a pinch, the rush of excitement and hysteria that you only get when you know death is imminent.  It might be too much to hope that Arkham will take to these things as habit, but he should buck up after a while, and grow hardier for it.

Besides, it’s great fun to see his usual, intelligent composure completely undone as he tackles the sweatier side of the emotional spectrum.  In short order, he expresses paralyzing fear (“Oh God…I fear I’ve soiled myself.”), biting sarcasm (“I should have anticipated your keen intellect would factor into our liberation from this hellish…”), and screaming panic (“Hex?  Where are you?  HEX?!?!”).  Breakdowns are often entertaining to watch, and Arkham’s is no exception.

As it turns out, Arkham’s outbursts turn out to be the saving grace for both men at the bottom of Gotham’s cave network, although the sudden appearance of the Miagani (Grant Morrison’s tribe of Batman-inspired natives) doesn’t really seem as such.  On the other hand, you got a cowboy in Hex and now a passel of Injuns before him—can circumstances be any more perfect?  Palmiotti-Gray aren’t the most inspired of writers, but this scene is very clever, and quite enjoyable, too.

All-Star Western #4 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Phil Winslade (feature artist), Dominic Regan (feature colorist)

The Story: Gee, it’s good to be together again.  I just can’t imagine that you’ve ever been gone!

The Review: The beauty of Jonah Hex and Dr. Arkham’s partnership is not only how well they work off each other, but also the uneasy tension that remains, and will perhaps always remain, a part of their dynamic.  At any rate, the dynamic between the duo has easily been the best part of this title, so it was a bit dismaying to see them part ways so suddenly last issue.  It’s actually hard to imagine one without the other now, like Sherlock and Watson, or Starsky and Hutch.

For that reason, you’ll be glad to see them back together again, when Hex’s latest commission brings him face-to-half-face with Arkham once more.  While you can’t describe their reunion as anything like happy, you can see how their relationship has evolved over the course of three issues.  Arkham’s no longer surprised by Hex’s lack of social graces (for example, calling a nun “Sister Hardcase”), and even demonstrates a measure of influence on the bounty hunter.

For his part, Hex keeps a pretty cold shoulder towards the doctor, but whether consciously or no, he has also come to take advantage, if not rely upon, Arkham’s presence in his life.  When the two of them discover a cavern of mining slave-children in the depths of the Gotham sewers, Hex not only clues Arkham into what he’s planning (an unthinkable move for Hex in the past), he gives Arkham a role to play in his plan: “Start movin’ the kids out when it looks safe.”

That last line is evidence that for the mercenary attitude Hex projects (he ostensibly accepts this quest for missing children only after being offered an obscene amount of money), he has a soft spot somewhere in his body.  Even he can’t be totally untouched by the pitiful sight of a boy, left malnourished, ghoulish, and mindless after years of slaving.  And who knows?  Maybe we’ll see more of his sensitive side the longer he sticks with Arkham, but don’t bet on it.

All-Star Western #3 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Jordi Bernet (feature artist), Rob Schwager (feature colorist)

The Story: A rough beat for a Gotham cop is…pretty much everywhere in Gotham.

The Review: One of the more intriguing elements to this series has been the “fish out of water” story placing Hex within the trappings of an increasingly urbanized city.  Gray-Palmiotti haven’t played up this aspect so far, but they’ve made it clear Hex can’t wait to get the men on his list and leave this crummy town.  At the same time, the plot has slowly revealed that even if Hex has no use for the city, the city needs him.

This issue makes that need very clear.  Commish Cromwell turns out a pretty decent guy, and now armed with the knowledge of how far the Religion of Crime goes, he plans to clear out the roots of evil before they implant themselves into Gotham’s fabric (terrible mix of metaphors, but this isn’t Shakespeare, so…).  Unfortunately, all his hopeful plans, as so much does in Gotham, comes to naught.

From the very start we saw the number of high-powered men whose rings identified them as the followers of Cain, and last issue showed they’ve already laid down their plans for taking control of the growing city.  Add that to the fact they’re well aware of how much Cromwell knows about them, and you can easily predict that no matter what, the Commish’s time in office would be limited, even if the Crime believers have to go all Rambo to do it.

All-Star Western #2 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist), Jordi Bernet (feature artist), Rob Schwager (feature colorist)

The Story: As long as there are donuts at the end of it, sign me up for the Religion of Crime!

The Review: At first, it wasn’t clear why of all the new 52, this one had the rare price point of $3.99 while even the most popular titles clocked in one dollar lower.  But now it’s clear that even in this latest era of DC comics, the co-feature has its place—which is fine, so long as their stories feel self-contained and substantial on their own merits, rather than novel pieces of filler material.

Unfortunately, the latter is exactly what “El Diablo” winds up being, with the titular character a mix between Hangman (of Archie Comics fame, star of a short-lived DC series) and your typical wandering vigilante who happens upon a frontier town in its hour of need.  A cowboys and zombies mash-up was only a matter of time, and here it comes off just as ludicrously as you can hope for: “Once the dead have been called, only a demon can kill the cursed.”

Not surprisingly, the co-feature, with forgettable art from Bernet, appears thin and uninspired compared to its bigger counterpart in this issue.  Given your druthers, you’d probably forego the distraction of El Diablo for more of Jonah Hex and Dr. Arkham’s mystery in early industrial Gotham.  This is especially the case when considering the interesting new developments in the story that don’t quite get to play out as far as you’d like.

Gray-Palmiotti do a good job linking up all of Gotham’s major historical threads together by introducing the Religion of Crime and its Bible into the investigation.  Speaking as someone who apparently never read the original work where these concepts came from, I appreciated the brief explanation Arkham gives us early on: “…a dark faith…of crime based on the story of Cain and Abel…”  It’s nice to actually have some substance put to the names.

All-Star Western #1 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (writers), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista (colorist)

The Story: Sounds like y’all have need of a pop-eyed cowboy ‘round these here parts.

The Review: DC has devoted itself to many genres in its publishing history, even those that have fallen out of favor in modern times, like the western.  Give credit where it’s due, because only DC continued supporting Jonah Hex, far from a paragon of popularity, through seventy ongoing issues, keeping its place on the stands between Iron Man and Justice League, and developing a respectable following, such that he even got a movie out of it.

Then, too, you have to give credit to Palmiotti and Gray, whose rollicking, anything-goes style of storytelling has produced a stunning variety of strong work.  That style will serve them well as they take the character which made them famous and mash him into the world of Gilded Age Gotham.  Hex always carried a reputation for being Batman of the frontier, and now he can play up that image in Batman’s home turf, long before the Dark Knight himself has been conceived.

Hex obviously feels out of place amidst this urban setting, and just because he’s a cowboy surrounded by Gothic architecture.  Or because he sticks to a distinctly Confederate wardrobe in a very Yankee-ish city.  You have to remember, in the sparsely settled territories, Hex was pretty much the only law of the land, which he could exercise freely.  Gotham already has a law enforcement system in place, and it doesn’t take kindly to those who step on its toes.

You’ll find it hard to tell if the moon-faced police chief, Cromwell, has a bone to pick with everyone simply because he’s a fastidiously insecure fat man, or because the seeds of Gotham’s infamous corruption have already been sown in him.  Cromwell obviously cares more about his department’s public image than doing everything necessary to find a serial murderer, and his willingness to fall back on cover-ups is a bad sign of things to come.

But since the murderer in question seems mainly interested in targeting your common whores, maybe Cromwell has little motivation to discover who’s behind it all.  Serial killers with a fetish for prostitutes are nothing new, not even ones who leave foreboding, bloody messages on the walls behind them, and not even ones who perpetrate their sordid acts during the Industrial Revolution.  I’m just saying, if you want a villain with a groundbreaking M.O., he’s not here.