The reboot here is a soft one, as the same Jonah Hex we’ve come to know and love arrives in Reconstruction-era Gotham City. The bounty hunter’s methods are ill-suited for, well, civilized Gotham, and so he partners with Amadeus Arkham, future namesake of the asylum, to solve a series of murders.
Since it’s a Western–although, since it takes place in Gotham, an analog for New York City, that’s subject to debate–here’s an appropriately quick and dirty review:
The Good: Writers Palmiotti and Gray have been writing Hex for years, and therefore understand the character intimately, and they've accepted the herculean task of revealing how this Gotham City will evolve into the kind of place, 150 years hence, that needs a guy in a bat costume to keep the peace. The density of the story is a welcome relief from the flimsiness of other relaunch titles. Moritat provides fantastic art.
The Bad: The book has seemingly abandoned the done-in-one format that made its previous incarnation so appealing. Moritat replaces a rotating crew of artists that included such luminaries as Phil Noto, Jordi Bernet, Darwyn Cooke and others. The book has ties to current (pre- and post-relaunch) Batman titles, including references to the crime bible, which may be a distraction to those who are not deeply immersed in DC continuity.
The Ugly: Jonah Hex, of course.
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