Nighthawk 5-6: Okay, this one hurts. This cancellation. It's killing me. This is the book we needed, but I guess it's not the book we deserved.
Nighthawk may not have had the best supporting cast, but Nighthawk himself is a fantastic character. He's Batman plus the Punisher multiplied by racial anger, come ON. His costume is cool! His gadgets are great. His mission statement is powerful. And this book never pulled its punches.
Check out this speech he dished out as he clamped down on a gang fight:
Yep, the chief antagonist of Nighthawk was not the Revelator, it was fucking
.
Not that the Revelator wasn't a great villain. He's one of those characters who mirrors the hero in so many ways they are often indistinguishable from one another. They are both filled with anger at racial injustice...at black lives meaning less than white lives. This theme is constantly repeated throughout the arc, and it is powerfully expressed through the actions of both of these characters.
I take some small consolation in the fact that these six issues work just fine on their own. It's clear Walker knew this book was a long shot, as he produced a complete and satisfying story that can be recommended as a mini. But...god damn. Maybe Marvel will give this book another chance with Trump on his way to the White House and racial violence escalating rapidly. It deserves one, it's relevant as fuck. The last page is abrupt, and incredibly dark, and leaves the question of Nighthawk's ambiguous moral code up in the air. But it's a fitting end to this story.
What a shame. What a fucking shame.