ALL-STAR WESTERN #12

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.4
 
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Story by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art by Moritat & Scott Kolins
Colors by Michael Atiyeh
Letters by Rob Leigh
Cover by Rafa Garres

Size: 40 pages
Price: 3.99

My opinion on this series seems to differ almost every issue that comes out. Last month I thought there were a lot of problems with the pacing and art of the main story while the back up was pretty darn good. With this issue? It’s almost the exact opposite (sans the backup) and it makes for a frustrating experience. Talk about bad timing but I finally got on the Jonah Hex bandwagon and it has completely changed the tone from the previous run. I really think the ongoing nature of the story is really hampering my love of the book.

I know that sounds weird but I really think Palmiotti and Gray can’t write Hex in an ongoing manner. They’ve done ongoing stories before but Hex is clearly much more suited as a ‘one and done’ type of guy. In this issue we get a finale of the Crime Bible story and it felt really rough. There were no consequences to anything that happened. Tallulah was able to get everyone out of the way quickly and we got the Deus Ex Machina of Hex revealing he was two steps ahead before getting captured. It feels like I’m reading a generic comic book and if you know Palmiotti and Gray they don’t do generic. Even the one liners from Hex and the violence in this book doesn’t feel the same as the original series. Maybe the series could do without having Dr. Arkham involved. He’s been a one-note pony since he debuted and while he brings a Batman connection to the series that idea has definitely run its course. Hell, the guys completely went away from the Owl story line without a throw away word balloon. Why even bring that up if it adds to nothing in the long run?

Moritat’s art is also incredibly inconsistent. In this book you got everything! Detailed panels, no so detailed panels, great anatomy, terrible anatomy, backgrounds, no backgrounds. Thank god he’s got a colorist now a days cause who knows how much more inconsistency this series could have if Moritat continued to do it on his own. Again, there are a lot of panels and pages to like in here. But there’s an equal amount of frustration such as not seeing a good progression of Tallulah picking off the Crime Bible’s goons. Where did she come from to kill those guys in the dark? ‘Who Cares’ is the attitude I’m seeing in the pages.

The back up by Scott Kolins though is pretty solid. It kinda ends on a clunker but it makes me happy to see Kolins go somewhat back to his old style. This isn’t the same style you’d see in ‘The Flash’ but it’s definitely better then the new style he’s been showing of late. I especially like his rain effects towards the end. It feels like the rougher the situation in a comic the better his art is. Why Kolins can’t go back to this style more often is a mystery to me.

So yeah, it’s another uneven issue of All Star Western. While I’m happy to see this series isn’t close to being cancelled anytime soon I feel like I’m struggling to find reasons to continue this. The back ups have been great and Kolins brings it with his art for once. But, for once I gotta bitch about this, I don’t wanna pay a four dollar series for 5-6 pages. I’m going to give one more story arc for this series to turn itself around cause I don’t wanna give up on old Jonah Hex. But a story involving a classic horror character? Not sure if that’s a good sign…

Story: 3 - Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

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