All-Star Western has been a continued exercise in tying Jonah Hex to many assorted and sundry elements of the present day DC Universe. This current storyline sees Hex and Amadeus Arkham battle Mr. Hyde and the corrupting influence of the Eclipso diamond. As has generally been the case with this series, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti refrain from letting these familiar DC elements overwhelm the Wild West adventure. The problem issue #15 faces is more straightforward. It's too heavy on repetitive action and too light on character development.
Mr. Hyde in particular could have used more fleshing out. Instead, the man formerly known as Reggie just spouts a lot of generic villain dialogue and eventually vanishes into the night without a proper resolution to the fight. The two main brawls between Hyde and Hex play out more or less identically. Meanwhile, the more fertile material involving Arkham and his unleashed Id is sadly second fiddle. The strongest material in this issue is when a horny Arkham rampages through a saloon and causes a ruckus. More humor like that would go a very long way with this series.
Moritat's art is characteristically uneven in this issue. As always some panels are fantastically detailed and dynamic, while others are dull and flat. Moritat's backgrounds seems to disappear and reappear at a whim. He provides a great sense of gritty, Wild West-meets-cultivated-East Coast style for the series, but not consistently enough.
The current Tomahawk backup is notable not for the script, which is fairly by-the-numbers and a little overwrought at ties, but for the visuals. Phil Winslade delivers panel after panel of bold, energetic action. The strip looks like a lost relic of DC's classic Western era in many ways, but this is hardly a bad thing.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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