Last month I gave this series a ‘Pick of the Week’ status. Partly because it was an insane issue but also it had the perfect blend of story and art. While this series by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Moritat has been fun to read; it’s obvious that Jonah Hex hasn’t had the best transition into the New 52. So with last issue being so good I was expecting this current issue to continue the trend of excellence….Unfortunately I keep forgetting that my predictions never pan out.

There is one fantastic sequence in this entire comic and it is almost worth the price of buying this comic. It comes right towards the end where we see the wealthiest men of Gotham playing a game of poker. It’s a two page sequence where we see the panels split from showcasing the men talking about the future of Gotham to the boots of an approaching cowboy coming towards them. We assume it’s Hex and the tension just mounts as the figure gets closer and closer to them. But then when we turn the page to show a full page reveal of not Hex confronting the men but Tallulah Black! Kudos to all three creators on this marvelous sequence that was perfectly scripted by the writers and drawn by Moritat. I’ve seen a lot of contenders for page of the year or moment of the year; but if we have a ‘sequence of the year’ then this three page sequence deserves some type of honor.

Aside from that though it was a pretty mundane issue if I’m being honest. This story wraps up a bit too quickly for me considering where the last issue ended. I mean the explanation of Arkahm in the opium den and how it all unraveled to favor the heroes is a massive cop out. There’s some good moments with Arkham and Hex, especially with Hex revealingly (thankfully) his past from before the relaunch still exists. At the end of the day it was just all too convenient for me to take it seriously. Oh and that ‘Night of the Owls’ tie-in? Waste of time and I fail to see the point of even throwing it in. Oh and also forgot the back up…..it was there.

The art by Moritat is all over the place as well. Some pages look absolutely amazing, again with the three page sequence mentioned earlier and also the GORGEOUS skyline of Gotham City. But other pages, like the Night of the Owl tie-in moment, look rushed and uneven. Sometimes Moritat’s style changes on purpose for the sake of the characters. But here it just felt like he had to draw these pages at the last second for the sake of the tie-in. Scherberger’s art in the back up is pretty good though and even though it wasn’t the best of stories he does a good job making it interesting. He had to go from damp cemetery’s, to Mardi Gras parades, to an exploding mansion. A lot of work for so little pages but it looks really impressive.

It’s a shame that the quality of this series just jumps erratically from issue to issue. This isn’t a bad issue by any means but it’s just so boring to read at times. This issue will be remembered though for an amazing sequence towards the end and it saves the issue from an overall boring experience. If only the art saves the issue but sadly Moritat’s art is also all over the place. At the very least it’s nice to see Palmiotti and Gray are going back to Hex’s roots after nine months of this new setting. I don’t want to drop this series but hopefully this return of Tallulah keeps the quality more of what we’ve seen in issue #8.