Once again this series frustrates me with its inconsistency. For once though it has nothing to do with the writing. One of the high points of this series has been the art by Moritat. I’ve been a big fan of his work since he started on this title and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it with each issue. This is the first time though that I was really disappointed with the end result.

Moritat’s art always had a rough quality to it. I assumed that was because this is a gritty, Western title so it fits with the theme. In this issue though I was really annoyed with the rough quality to it. Characters are really off model from panel to panel sometimes going from the same page. There’s also some really poor depth of field in this issue. One panel in particular has the Barbary Ghost kicking a goon and I have no idea how that transition occurred from where Hex and Thallulah are standing. What pisses me off the most though is that there are some flashes of brilliance here. The double page spread of Barbary’s introduction in this issue was probably the best set of pages I’ve looked at this week. Also, there’s a horrific (one of many this week) image of a corpse in a bathtub which is nauseating but sadistically gorgeous to look at.

The overall story here is pretty good although I know nothing of Eclipso. But you get some nice moments with Hyde with, again, that horrific moment towards the end. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray do a great job with fight scenes though and I kinda wished we got more of it here. Maybe they could do a Kung-Fu comic in the near future? The back up though is really where its at and I wished we got a full issue of it. Considering I’ve read a lot about that time era involving the Northwest Territory so I knew what was going on and it made it more enjoyable. Even still, these guys do a great job with these set of characters and it makes me wanna read more about them. Considering this is called ‘All Star Western’ and not ‘Jonah Hex’ I would assume they could get away with pushing aside the titular main star for a short while.

This series has been uneven for a while and now it frustrates me that it involves more of the art than the writing. What’s here isn’t the best thing ever by Palmiotti and Gray but it entertained me more than what Moritat delivered. His art was way too rough for me to enjoy and to be honest, I’d rather see Phil Winslade do the art full time then just what we got from the great back up.