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blkmymorris's review
5.0
David Walker tackles the superheroes but in the real world with Nighthawk. Nighthawk has always been considered a ersatz Batman (but Black!), but Walker places him in the corrupt and racially divided Chicago. In this Marvel alternative universe Chicago, Walker and Nighthawk address police brutality, corruption, gentrification, and neo-nazi groups with violence. They take real life examples and either alludes to them (kids-for-cash judge, slumlords that slowly kill the poor with lead paint, and police brutality). It's all the better (or worse) that there's a serial killer who targets the same people except he brutally kills and mutilates them in their own homes. As Nighthawk's "man in the chair" Tilda "Nightshade" Johnson, who was a former Captain America villain, points out that that this guy has the same targets as Nighthawk, but just different methods. I mean, Nighthawk kills as warehouse full of weapons dealing neo-nazis, so it's not that different.
There is also the thematic threat the collection refers to in the subtitle "Hate Makes Hate" is never fully dealt with because there's a recurring reference to his mother warning against hate consuming a person, but the collection closes on the six issues and the series was not picked up for longer.
I enjoyed the cover art by Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Sotomayor. They're in the consistent and darkly evocative style that calls on the grittiness and darkness of this violence collection. Ramon Villalobos and Martin Morazzo both draw in the Frank Quietly-style of lots of stipple and linework and the faces are elongated, especially down to the two female characters who have the same face despite different hair and races. It adds to the fight scenes and there are some great layouts like the cut-out get-away van in issue 2 and the two page 4 x 4 layout of the final battle and the 3 x 3 denouement on the last page.
There is also the thematic threat the collection refers to in the subtitle "Hate Makes Hate" is never fully dealt with because there's a recurring reference to his mother warning against hate consuming a person, but the collection closes on the six issues and the series was not picked up for longer.
I enjoyed the cover art by Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Sotomayor. They're in the consistent and darkly evocative style that calls on the grittiness and darkness of this violence collection. Ramon Villalobos and Martin Morazzo both draw in the Frank Quietly-style of lots of stipple and linework and the faces are elongated, especially down to the two female characters who have the same face despite different hair and races. It adds to the fight scenes and there are some great layouts like the cut-out get-away van in issue 2 and the two page 4 x 4 layout of the final battle and the 3 x 3 denouement on the last page.
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