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32nd out of 110 books
—
115 voters
All Star Western, Vol. 1: Guns and Gotham (All-Star Western Vol. III #1)
by
Justin Gray (Goodreads Author),
Jimmy Palmiotti, Moritat , Phil Winslade , Jordi Bernet
Even when Gotham City was just a one-horse town, crime was rampant--and things only get worse when bounty hunter Jonah Hex comes to town. Amadeus Arkham, a pioneer in criminal psychology, enlists Hex's special brand of justice to help the Gotham Police Department track down a vicious serial killer!
Paperback, The New 52, 192 pages
Published
November 6th 2012
by DC Comics
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Gotham, 1880s, and Jonah Hex rocks up to the burgeoning city with his eye on a bounty for a trio of bank robbers but gets more than he bargained for when he becomes embroiled in a plot involving Gotham’s richest and most powerful and a series of grisly murders.
I was hoping for a more inspired take on the western genre but unfortunately all the stories here are pretty standard hero + sidekick vs. the baddies templates. Joining Hex is Amadeus Arkham, a prominent psychologist yet to establish the...more
I was hoping for a more inspired take on the western genre but unfortunately all the stories here are pretty standard hero + sidekick vs. the baddies templates. Joining Hex is Amadeus Arkham, a prominent psychologist yet to establish the...more
Reprints All-Star Western (3) #1-6 (November 2011-April 2012). Jonah Hex is a bounty hunter and just rolled into Gotham City. Matching wits with a serial killer, Jonah and his unlikely ally Amadeus Arkham find themselves in more trouble than expected. A trip to the underground in search of stolen children also leads to a confrontation with the legendary Miagani and a demon of immense size. Also El Diablo confronts a town overrun by the undead and a girl known as the Barbary Ghost sets out to ave...more
All Star Western’s main tale is about Jonah Hex and his “sidekick” Dr. Arkham (who later founds Arkham Asylum, natch) and their adventures in Gotham City, circa 1880s.
Jonah has his own brand of justice and Jimmy Palmiotti knows how to write a good yarn. Lately there have been a lot of early history comics on Gotham involving Batman’s ancestry and this book is no exception.
Loved the early Batcave, with cannibals and ancient Indians plus a prehistoric bat the size of a horse. The book is not rea...more
Jonah has his own brand of justice and Jimmy Palmiotti knows how to write a good yarn. Lately there have been a lot of early history comics on Gotham involving Batman’s ancestry and this book is no exception.
Loved the early Batcave, with cannibals and ancient Indians plus a prehistoric bat the size of a horse. The book is not rea...more
All Star Western features Jonah Hex, an anti-hero so grizzled that Hollywood executives decided they had no choice but to cast Megan Fox by his side when producing the movie edition:
Alas, this book does not feature the talented Ms. Fox. Instead, Jonah spends the six issues in this collection running around 19th century Gotham City. In the first half, the hardworking whores of Gotham are being targeted by a serial killer, and the inept Gotham police department isn’t able to solve the problem (I g...more
Alas, this book does not feature the talented Ms. Fox. Instead, Jonah spends the six issues in this collection running around 19th century Gotham City. In the first half, the hardworking whores of Gotham are being targeted by a serial killer, and the inept Gotham police department isn’t able to solve the problem (I g...more
I read a lot of the pre new 52 jonah hex trades by Palmioti and Gray and I really liked those. So naturaly I did pick up the new 52 jonah hex series by those two. Jonah Hex has by editorial decree relocated to Gotham city and solves murders, finds criminals and rescues people over there. He is allied with doc Arkham, an early adaptor to psychology and scientific ways to crimesolving.
I liked the jonah hex in gotham story less than I liked the pre 52 run of jonah hex. I feel that there is somethi...more
I liked the jonah hex in gotham story less than I liked the pre 52 run of jonah hex. I feel that there is somethi...more
Holy F@&$. I'm so sorry for just straight out dismissing this book from jump street. It's just... I mean, your Jonah Hex run was just so damn terrible, unreadable even, that I thought this would be more of the same. Gray and Palmiotti though must have had a serious education in both Sherlock Holmes media and a boatload of spaghetti Westerns to boot. Because they nail this one. They nail it and own it. I can't recommend the book enough.
But before I go too far, really, the shining star here i...more
But before I go too far, really, the shining star here i...more
All Star Western Equals All Star Reading
It’s a book I never thought would catch my attention, much less become one of my favourites.
It’s a western. It’s a gritty western. It’s a gritty western living in the DC Universe.
And all those factors help make All Star Western a great comic, an anthology showcasing the amazing talents of creators Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and a corner of the DCU that is edgier then most.
All Star Western, this current version, was born out of DC Comics The New 52 la...more
It’s a book I never thought would catch my attention, much less become one of my favourites.
It’s a western. It’s a gritty western. It’s a gritty western living in the DC Universe.
And all those factors help make All Star Western a great comic, an anthology showcasing the amazing talents of creators Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and a corner of the DCU that is edgier then most.
All Star Western, this current version, was born out of DC Comics The New 52 la...more
I started reading this series solely because I have a soft spot in my heart for classic Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, and thought it'd be interesting to see a comic book twist on it. It also didn't hurt that Palmiotti & Gray's year-spanning run on this series has reached relative acclaim.
It gets the job done, I guess. It had less of the wacky spaghetti western feel, and more of a realistic western atmosphere, kind of like the movie Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (i...more
It gets the job done, I guess. It had less of the wacky spaghetti western feel, and more of a realistic western atmosphere, kind of like the movie Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (i...more
The old Jonah Hex series that just ended before this was great,gritty western series. One of the most acclaimed series on the US comics market. I enjoyed it because it was the only great western out there.
This series is not badly written or bad art but it has completely sold out its western genre,fans who enjoyed Jonah Hex. The title lies the stories are more supernatural Gotham stories i read 8 issues and they were all set in Gotham,about Batman villains,sects. About Dr. Arkham and recent issue...more
This series is not badly written or bad art but it has completely sold out its western genre,fans who enjoyed Jonah Hex. The title lies the stories are more supernatural Gotham stories i read 8 issues and they were all set in Gotham,about Batman villains,sects. About Dr. Arkham and recent issue...more
"He had no friends, this Jonah Hex ... but he did have two companions ... one was death itself ... the other, the acrid smell of gun smoke".
I'm not sure that Johan Hex belongs in a city setting, but he certainly has been in stranger places. This is a character I've always liked, a bounty hunter that ignores what he isn't being paid to do, but yet has a strong moral code and will right injustice (if it doesn't conflict with his being paid).
In this collection, Jonah comes to Gotham City to track...more
I'm not sure that Johan Hex belongs in a city setting, but he certainly has been in stranger places. This is a character I've always liked, a bounty hunter that ignores what he isn't being paid to do, but yet has a strong moral code and will right injustice (if it doesn't conflict with his being paid).
In this collection, Jonah comes to Gotham City to track...more
The book starts out wonderfully, reinventing Jonah Hex for DC's New 52. It has the feel of Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name being a Sherlock Holmes-type investigator (with guns) of some brutal crimes in post-Civil War Gotham City. The initial mystery gets solved a lot faster than I would have liked, and additional chapters are not as compelling, as additional small mysteries flow into a much larger conspiracy. The artwork is excellent, reflecting the dark tone of the writing. There are many Eas...more
Half way thru it. Gotta say, the batman-isms and forshadowing of future gotham events is cute at first, but then gets annoying at some point. Bats flying in the skyline over Hex as he rides? - just lame. And a villian spouting some nonsense about a guy in the future who basically sounds like the Joker is silly, too, Overall i like this, i do like Moritat's art, he draws a beautiful harlot. Kind of wish this were more Sergio Leone/Clint/Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western and less a supernatural batm...more
I gave up on DC Comics' capes and tights setting several years ago, and haven't been a fan of the majority of what's come out of their New 52 publicity stunt over the past year, but the combination of Jonah Hex and Gotham City in the 1880s makes for a fun read that lays an intriguing foundation for comics' most famous fictional city. It's no classic by any stretch, and Jonah Hex traditionalists (seriously?) may scowl at the mashup, but Wild West Gotham Central works for me.
Bonus: Volume 2 moves...more
Bonus: Volume 2 moves...more
The Jonah Hex/Amadeus Arkham team-up was very clever and I enjoyed it as a Gotham City prequel. (References to Alan Wayne, the Gates brothers, etc.) Other than that it didn't seem very inspired, but westerns aren't really my genre so I can't comment much more about that or the El Diablo story. I loved the story about the Barbary Ghost, though. It was more original than any of the others in the collection, and it was awesome they had a story about a woman in the first story of All Star Western. (...more
Jonah Hex can stand on an exposed porch and shoot down 12 men coming at him with horses and rifles. Jonah Hex can take out ten men in a saloon with nothing more than his fists and a knife. Jonah Hex can survive being thrown into an underground raging river and falling over a waterfall into a pitch-black bottomless pit. Jonah Hex can kill a gigantic man-eating bat by stabbing it in the chest with a torch. How can Jonah Hex do all this without even getting a piece of dirt in his eye? Because he's...more
The stories were great, the action was top notch, and I really dug Moritat's artwork. The powerful backup stories by the Jordi Bernet and Phil Winslade were deftly drawn and executed. I was pleasantly surprised the Hex world was very much still a western as I was aware the "new 52" relaunch was going to be based in Gotham City, but there wasn't anything superhero-like to cause a distraction, just some subtle tip of the hats with settings and ancestral characters. Thankfully, it's still a magnifi...more
Jul 05, 2012
Alex Sarll
added it
Westerns don't normally do much for me - I've never even seen a whole John Wayne film - but this I like. Interweaving with all the creepy backstory about pre-Batman Gotham which Grant Morrison did so much to establish, you've got the gruesome gunfighter Jonah Hex reluctantly teaming up with the Arkham who founds the asylum, investigating creepy crime against some stunning backdrops from the wonderfully-named Moritat. The back-ups aren't bad either.
I picked this one up used, and didn't expect much, but I came away very impressed. Rooting Hex in the early days of Gotham City was a smart move, as was pairing him up with Dr. Arkham. The stories are fun, fast-paced, suitably violent and have a great gothic atmosphere. Moritat's art is certainly an unusual choice for this type of thing, but it works very well here, adding to the mood. The back-up stories are more old-school in approach, but are both fun, espcially the Barbary Ghost tale. Wouldn...more
Of the new 52 from DC, this is one of my favorites. At first I didn't like Gotham setting and including Dr. Arkham as a Watson to Hex's Holmes. It went so far as to have Arkham refer to Hex's amazing deductive abilities.
After a while, I started to enjoy the references to the Batman storylines with the Bible of Crime and later The Court of Owls. Hex is one of my all-time favorites and this was by far not the worst take on him.
After a while, I started to enjoy the references to the Batman storylines with the Bible of Crime and later The Court of Owls. Hex is one of my all-time favorites and this was by far not the worst take on him.
I thought they really had something with the pairing of Amadeus Arkham and Jonah Hex at first, but this collection as a whole suffers from a deliberate attempt to make it more of a "serial" than a cohesive work.
It held true to it's roots in the westerns and noir books it was trying to honor, but ultimately that detracted from a more interesting pairing that they tossed aside in order to pursue it. Disappointing.
It held true to it's roots in the westerns and noir books it was trying to honor, but ultimately that detracted from a more interesting pairing that they tossed aside in order to pursue it. Disappointing.
Jonah Hex paired up with the man who founded Arkcham Asylum, working together to rid Gotham of a Jack the Ripper style killer backed by a criminal underbelly. If that isn't enough to interest you, then I can't guess what is. A great read!
Jonah Hex comes to Gotham and gets involved in some local politics. There's some nice touches about the history of Gotham. Some good character stuff, with Hex surving up his own type of justice. A good read.
I enjoyed this, but not as much as I enjoyed the pre-New 52 Jonah Hex book. Moritat's art was excellent, although it was nice to see "Jonah Hex" standout Jordi Bernet doing the El Diablo stories at the end.
I actually read the single monthly issues instead of the Trade paperback but I did enjoy them. I actually enjoyed it enough that I am now pulling All Star Western every month...
An interesting Western tale that in places seems a bit too familiar to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the nods to later Batman continuity such as the Court of Owls, Penguin and Bruce's ancestors and Bats underneath Wayne Manor didn't really work for me and the art wasn't the greatest either. However, the storyline was otherwise strong and I enjoyed the Hex/Arkham interactions as well. This arrived in the post today from Amazon but on reflection I probably should have waited for the TP...more
If it weren't for the art I would have never given it a chance, the Jonah Hex movie just looked so bad but this story was so good.
An interesting and varied addition to the New 52, though the fact that the main protagonist is little more than a grumpy gunslinger kind of hurts it. If not for Dr. Arkham, I don't think this would have been quite as good. The back-up stories are also great, considering how short they are, and I'd like to see both characters appear in the main series at some point too.
An interesting story, but I really think that bringing Jonah Hex to Gotham City was a bad, bad idea.
Love Westerns, like Hex, like pre-modern-day Gotham. Only weakness was the backup stories.
Loved the art but transplanting Hex into Gotham just doesn't work. Another DC title fizzles
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Justin currently writes Comic Books, Video Games, Screenplays, Animation, Children's Magazine Fiction and Web series.
He has held various jobs including, fossil hunting, microphotography of 20 million year old insects and plants trapped in amber, seminars and exhibitions on the cleaning, mining and identification of prehistoric insects for the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian...more
More about Justin Gray...
He has held various jobs including, fossil hunting, microphotography of 20 million year old insects and plants trapped in amber, seminars and exhibitions on the cleaning, mining and identification of prehistoric insects for the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian...more
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Nov 02, 2012 10:54am