Hawkman #26 Review

The End And A New Beginning

Written By: Robert Venditti

Art By: Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jeremy Cox, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 11, 2020

It's the end of the Hawks Eternal arc that we've been dealing with and that ultimately, for at least the time being means, it's the end of the Lord Beyond the Void.  As we saw in the previous issue, the Lord Beyond the Void plans on using the life energy accumulated by our heroes by all their reincarnations to open the doorway to our dimension so that the evil god can continue on his conquest of the Universe, not to mention have an endless smorgasbord of lives to feast on at his disposal.  Let's jump into this issue and see what our Winged Warriors will do to take down the threat that originally brought them together all those lifetimes ago.  Let's check it out.

In this conclusion to our arc, we not only see that the Lord Beyond the Void wants to use our Hawks to open the doorway to our dimension, but he wants to use them to snack on as well, because not only do they have enough life energy to get to the buffet that is our dimension, but they're an all you can eat situation as well with the number of lifetimes they've lived.  Now, I can see if this was just some kind of energy that was sucked out of our heroes, but when it's revealed that it looks like the souls or identities of the previous lives are being pulled out of heroes in a sort of ghost form, it comes off odd to me and actually kind of takes away from what we've been dealing with for the past two years because the idea of Hawkman getting his memories back and us seeing the previous lives of Carter Hall was something that seemed cool, but by the end of this issue, we essentially get rid of all of those lives......... at least that's the way it seems to me.  Who knows what could happen in the future...... or the past.  Time doesn't really have much meaning when it comes to this title.

So there's the setup for this issue, but the way that our heroes overcome it makes the Lord Beyond the Void, who we have just now finally seen, come off looking like a wimp because he's immediately taken out in a cliche way that fans of different genres have seen over and over again.  The two off the top of my head come from the end of the original Hulk movie and the Rings of Akhatan episode of Doctor Who, where there's so much energy here that they can overload the Lord Beyond the Void, where it also makes it seem like our Hawks have the ability to shoot their lives out of their chests.  It's kind of weird and ultimately, even though I'm intrigued beyond measure at the cliffhanger, makes this issue and the end of the big bad of this series lackluster.  Again, that being said, the cliffhanger is one of those amazing ones that make you pissed that you have to wait another month to see what's going on, but it still doesn't make up for the weak conclusion to not only our Hawks' reincarnation story but also the Lord Beyond the Void one.

All in all, the art in this issue of Hawkman was amazing and each page really tried to outshine the last.  The story though, it felt rushed, cliched and ultimately made everything that we've been dealing with for the past two years in this title feel less and that's really disappointing.  I do really look forward to what's to come in this title and what it means for the rest of the DC Universe and its timeline opening up and there are things to enjoy within this battle and its outcome even with the cliched nature of them, but ultimately I just wanted more out of this issue.

Bits and Pieces:

While I'm sure the majority of people will get everything that they want out of this issue, but for me I was left wanting since everything seemed to be wrapped up quickly, making all the build-up to everything that we've dealt with feel like it didn't matter and the stakes were never really there.  I love the art to this issue though and the cliffhanger is amazing, which makes me want to check out the next issue now.

6.5/10