Jonah survived the DCU
reboot: All-Star Western #1
Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti
Art and cover by Moritat
Gotham City has always been a cesspool of criminals and
trouble-makers - even back in the days of the Wild West - and
things only get worse when bounty hunter Jonah Hex comes to town.
Can Amadeus Arkham, a pioneer in criminal psychology, enlist Hex's
special brand of justice to help the Gotham Police Department track
down a vicious serial killer? Find out in this new series from HEX
writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, with lush artwork by
Moritat (The Spirit)! The title features back-up stories starring
DC's other western heroes.
On sale September 28
40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
DC Comics started promoting All-Star Western #1 with the
release of preview interior art: So much for Gotham being a
one-horse town. Look at that dazzling city in the late 1800's
meticulously researched and brought to life by Moritat. Hex fans,
you can relax. We're not going to abandon seventy issues of
dedication and love for the ugly bounty hunter , co-writer
Justin Gray said about the image below. Justin was also been
interviewed
about the new title at Comic Book Resources
Justin Gray spoke to
Newsarama.com revealing
some of the changes the move to All Star Western was to
bring:
-
They were no longer writing stand-alone
stories
-
Jonah was based in Gotham City for
the longterm
-
Moritat would be the ongoing artist
BleedingCool.com reported that at the DC Retailer Conference in
the UK, Bob Wayne, Senior VP DC Comics told the assembled retailers
that he believed All-Star Western was the most under-ordered title
from the DC New 52 Relaunch. He told folk the title would have
long form, multi-part stories. He also mentioned that, as Jonah Hex
was in nineteenth century Gotham, a member of the Penguin's
Cobblepot family was to appear in #1, and the book would tie-in to the
rest of the DC titles in certain ways.
Other coverage:
Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray also discussed All-Star Western at
the New York Comic Con 2011, saying that the extra pages for the
book allowed them to further flesh out their stories and really give
the book its own identity outside of their previous collaboration,
Jonah Hex. We get a lot more story, Palmiotti said.
We're not putting in any filler. Gray agreed: It felt
important to make the book stand out more than Jonah Hex -- it would
be the same character, but it would be All-Star Western. I think
Arkham is great. Those two characters together are either hysterical
or dangerous.
Jonah Hex Vol 2 ended with sales figures hovering around 10000
which had seen other titles axed, but with the shift to All
Star Western and changes to the series format as part of
DCnU we're told the powers that be at DC have had given Jimmy and
Justin until spring 2012 to improve the readership numbers.
The percieved pointlessness of a reboot on a fairly stable
character like Jonah Hex was taken up by some folks
as an example of the absurdity of DC's plan, with the phrase
Jim Lee should have put a cape on Jonah Hex and have him kill
Superman popping up here and there in the comics blogosphere
after a its use in the Hitler
reacts to the DC Comics Reboot video.