Now this was a surprise. A team-up between Batwoman and Jinny Hex, with no other Outsider in sight.
If you don’t know Jinny Hex, she’s a descendant of classic DC Western hero Jonah Hex and a member of the last version of Young Justice. She inherited a trunk of weird weapons. And one in particular has got her in big trouble.
Cocky as she is, Jinny needs help, and Kate Kane’s extensive experience with the supernatural comes in very handy. But even she’s a little shaken when one particular spook gets past her salty defences. Happily, while it’s not Casper, it’s still a friendly ghost – Jonah Hex himself.
The curse attaches itself to anyone who uses the ghostbusting gun, with only one way out – death.
Writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing play about with the storytelling, having talented series artist Robert Carey draw Jonah’s flashback in the style of a dime novel.
It’s clever, and not unattractive as a change of pace – the colouring by Valentina Taddeo and typesetting by letterer Tom Napolitano is spot on – but I found it a bit of a slog. More to my taste was the flashback sequence tying into the bigger story of this series, showing us that Kate – who walked away from Lucius, Luke and Jakita last month – was told about Jinny’s problem by recently discovered Century Baby Jenny Crisis.
So Jinny is a Century Baby too? And by the sounds of it, so is another new DC Universe character, City Boy, which makes sense as he’s already a little linked to the world of Planetary, from where Jakita comes, being a mini-Jack Hawksmoor. But who is ‘the big guy under the waves’?
Kate acquits herself well this time, after her really painful impersonation of a human being in Outsiders #7.
A big question, is Jinny’s cursed gun related to the similarly dodgy firearm wielded by the current Crimson Avenger? Mind, so far as I’m concerned any gun is a curse.
Carey provides a terrific splash page, with moody shadows as Jinny confronts Kate in the town named Zero. Unfortunately, that means the abandoned hostelry is named…
‘Something for everyone, a comedy tonight!’ Just me?
Favourite line of the issue? ‘Nothing’s just anything.’
A terrific chapter of the serial is topped off with a fine cover drawn by Roger Cruz and coloured by Adriano Lucas.
If you’ve not been following this series and have DC Infinite, pop along and try earlier issues. I think you’ll be intrigued.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Another big question; what good does grabbing the gun away from Jinny do if the curse attaches itself to a wielder until death? Are the ghosts still after a now defenseless Jinny, or are they all standing around looking sheepish & saying ‘of course y’all could have *given* it away’?
But I guess that’s just nitpicking when we’re given a book as well done as this was, for what’s turned out to be an excellent series.
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