Here’s the thing about this particular issue:

If you have read the first run of Jonah Hex by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray you’ve read this origin before. Albeit in a longer format. Everything about this issue we’ve seen before from his troubled upbringing, to his time during the War, to revealing how he got his scars. None if this is bad mind you, but it is a bit rough to go through something we’ve already covered. Then again, if there are two writers I trust retreading the same ground it’s these two guys. Also, to be fair, this is a pretty good issue just on that we practically ignore Hex with Dr. Arkham and Gotham City. If anything it makes me wish this series could go back to one and done stories by these guys.

What makes this retread fresher is having Moritat on art duties. His work took a while to grow on me but he is clearly coming into his own. He doesn’t hold back on any of the violence and he stages it quite well. It’s funny how Jonah’s Dad went from bad ass farmer to drunk but him using an axe makes me wish to see an issue just on him. One thing that shocked me on this issue was when we go back to the present(?) with Hex and Arkham. It’s still Moritat but it looks NOTHING like the style we’ve seen from him. It’s clean and it feels like a whole new inker is involved but somehow this is all Moritat’s doing. I can’t believe it was the same man doing the art and I gotta say I love this cleaner look. No idea if he’ll continue with this new arc but I hope we see more of it in the future.

If you are a die hard Jonah Hex fan then maybe this won’t be the best thing you’ll ever read. Regardless of that fact, I enjoyed seeing something different from this series for once. That and the art by Moritat is pretty damn good and once again showcases his many talents both as a penciller and an inker. Of course I am all for these many changes….But doing an arc based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?….Eh…