Top of The Pile: Hawk The Slayer #4

Hawk The Slayer #4 arrived this week, along with the first issue of the direct market print

The penultimate issue of the Garth Ennis-penned five-part comic book sequel to cult '80s sword-and-sorcery flick Hawk The Slayer opens with the confrontation between Hawk's party and the evil Black Wizards that we were teased with in the final pages of Hawk The Slayer #3, 

In the caves beneath the Holy Fortress, Hawk and his friends find themselves facing the coterie of powerful Black Wizards as well as Hawk's resurrected brother, Voltan, and his army of eyeless zombie warriors. 

But not everything is as it seems.

Amidst Voltan's scheming skulduggery, Ennis weaves in some more worldbuilding, expanding on breadcrumbs dropped during the movie and filling us in on the fate of Crow's elfin people and the devastation of The Silver Forest.

This is also tied in to the backstory of the "elfin stone", famously clasped in the pommel of Hawk's mighty, magical Mindsword. 

The revelation of Voltan's greater plans not only allows him to step out of the shadow of The Black Wizards, but sets the stage for an epic showdown in next month's concluding issue of this sublime mini-series.

The finale had to be Hawk versus Voltan, no other combination of antagonists would have felt right.

Ennis has clearly done his homework as his scripts have dug deep into the fantasy world created by Terry Marcel and Harry Robertson for the original, low-budget movie, extrapolating elements without the need to inflate the Hawk 'verse into another Westeros or Middle-Earth.

Complementing the tight scripting of Ennis, Henry Flint's fine lines continue to bring this story to life, especially in his impactful full-page illustrations and detailed action scenes. 

As well as issue 4 of Hawk The Slayer, (coming packaged with this month's Judge Dredd Megazine), arriving this week, I'd also added the American/direct market iteration of the title to my pull-list with Andy at Paradox Comics in Poole, and the first issue is now out.

Besides the nice cover by Greg Staples; an introduction from Jason Kingsley OBE, co-founder of publishers Rebellion, explaining his personal connection to Hawk The Slayer; and a couple of full-page ads for appropriate collections from Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics (Black Beth and Karl The Viking), this printing of the Hawk The Slayer #1 appears identical to the issue I reviewed back in January.

Here are the Greg Staples covers for the upcoming issues three and four in their direct market formats: