From what I understand, the writer, Scott Peterson, was a former Batman editor and I guess he pitched this Scarecrow story and they thought “Sounds cool, let’s do it!” I mean, stories don’t have to continue some long-running narrative, sometimes you can have just a cool one-off story that can fit in somewhere if you want it to.
I can feel you on that one – I’ve read work with Jones’ art in the past when he was on the main title, and sometimes I felt like it was an odd fit. I think it particularly stands out when those books were doing crossover events like Contagion (an event I’ve thought about doing here but considering events going on in the world, probably not a good idea). Like, it can be weird going from more standard superhero artists like Graham Nolan, Mike Wiendigo, and Jim Balent, to Kelly freaking Jones.
But on it’s own, in a story that fits his style, I think it really works.
Thanks for your thoughts! And as a hint, you’ll get a chance to better figure out how much you like his art later this month. 