Top Of The Pile: Hawk The Slayer #1

Before being released to the general comic-buying public in April, Rebellion's new Hawk The Slayer comic has been packaged with issues of the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine.

The first issue came with Megazine 440 this week (which features a three-page interview with the creators of the Hawk comic), with the next issue arriving on February 16, bagged with Judge Dredd Megazine 441.

I don't really understand this policy, as I'm not sure how many die hard Hawkheads are going to buy both the Megazines and the standalone comic (with a fresh cover, but, I'm guessing, the same contents) when it arrives in stores in a few months' time.

Isn't the Judge Dredd Megazine available in the States? Won't this move affect the sales of the actual comic, and thus diminish any chance of future Hawk The Slayer comic books?

Before we get to the meat of the story in issue one, The Message of Death, there's an eight-page recap of the events of the legendary swords-and-sorcery flick, for those opening this up who are not already privy to the unique majesty of 1980's Hawk The Slayer.

Recounted by Roy Kinnear's Barkeep, it's immediately obvious that writer Garth Ennis has an ear for replicating the mannered dialogue of Terry Marcel and Harry Robertson's original film script.

The new story picks up the adventure some time after the end of the movie, with Hawk and the giant Gort back at their favourite open air bar, where they run into a possible servant of dark forces while trying to protect a rather useless bard, Wain, from hostile customers.

Having seen Hawk at work, Wain decides to tag along as our hero - who has a bit of a bee in his bonnet about the possibility of his evil brother Voltan being resurrected by the infamous Black Wizards - is off to find the Wise Woman and learn what evil is still rumbling through the land.

Meanwhile, at the Holy Fortress in Dainsford, serving wench Bella has noticed the monks are getting a bit feisty, and finds herself drawn into the machinations of a mysterious prisoner being held in the castle.

Forty years on from the movie, this Hawk The Slayer is certainly bloodier than its first iteration, and a lot saucier with its double entendres, but Henry Flint's fine art never lets us forget these are the same characters we've admired over the decades.

The movie remains, for me, the definitive Dungeons & Dragons film, and I'm already pretty certain this run of comics will be equally inspirational for those of us who prefer their swords-and-sorcery on the gritty side.

As a Hawk fan of old, I'm was in for the long haul already, but that final splash page gave me goosepimples and was worth the price of admission alone.