Proof That 'Pure Light' Does Not Always Equal 'Pure Good'
The Good: I loved the Hawks' story at first. There was a lot of awesome things about it, and a great sense of mystery. But once their White Lantern Revelations happened, it was on a downhill train speeding into a train wreck. And sure, it did collide into a train wreck, but in that collision, it somehow mangled itself into a kind of cool work of art that might go in a museum of modern art. And it'd be one of the better pieces there. Not the best, but a lot of modern art is sometimes absolute bull. I think I've taken this metaphor as far as I can go.
The stories are actually starting to line up. And the beginning of the building of the climax is pretty sweet, especially on Deadman's end.
The climax of the battle with Queen Shrike is actually pretty awesome, despite how terrible the build up to it was last issue. I felt quite a bit of satisfaction from it.
I was moved a bit by Carol's admission that 'She and Hal' could never be 'Carter and Shiera.'
Hawkman and Hawkgirl's earned rest after this odyssey, freedom from the curse, and acceptance of mortality; for all the suck of their arc; is just so GOD DAMN HEARTWARMING.
The Bad: It's kind of awkward to jump right over from a scene from one of the latest issues of The Flash. I feel like Johns sometimes forgets that not everyone will be able or willing to buy all of the tie-ins. And I normally like a good connected continuity in a story like this, but this one's a bit too much. Not that anyone should NOT be buying The Flash, because it IS excellent. But if you're not, this scene will be odd and a bit out of place.
There's a scene with Deathstorm that seems to be setting up a big reveal, even if it would only be like a page or 2, but we don't see it It's kind of awkward to make us wait an extra issue the way it was set up.
I would not have known Lorena was Aquagirl had it not been for all the raving character support on The Source when they posted this preview. (Honestly I have no idea why. All I've ever seen her do is try her hardest to be a whore. But maybe that's because I only know her from Teen Titans and everyone hates Felicia Henderson's. Although I kinda liked it. What was it that everyone thought was so terrible beyond terrible? Ugh, got way off track again.)
Although the writing was a bit better, the Hawks' story is STILL filled with A LOT of unnecessary huge panels and full pages images.
Shouldn't Hawkgirl have accomplished her mission before now? The exact command was, "If your lover dies here there is no more resurrection. Save him from Hath-Set." When she killed Hath-Set 5 issues ago, didn't that count as 'SAVE HIM FROM HATH-SET?
Conversely, shouldn't Hawkman have kind of failed? His exact command was "Don't let them leave this world. Stop the Queen." I mean, sure he STOPPED The Queen, but AFTER she left Hawkworld. Hawkman didn't 'stop' her or the manhawks, from 'leaving' as he was commanded. And some of the manhawks may have escaped still. I feel like Johns and/or Tomasi wrote that one with intentionally vague conditions so they could exploit a loophole, but with The Entity being what it is, it seems like it would have no tolerance for loopholes, being very forward and to the point. Max Lord achieved his mission word for word what The Entity showed him.
In Conclusion: (An admittedly generous) 4/5
Your opinions may vary on the overal quality of this issue. After spiraling the drain badly the last few appearances, the Hawks' do manage to get a pretty decent ending. I was honestly surprised by how much satisfaction I felt from it. There were a lot of minor pacing glitches, a few odd plot inconsistencies, but overall, the ending makes up for a lot of it. It proves a lot of things people had been guessing about Brightest Day and The Entity, and all-in-all is just a really epic shock punch to the face. And at least now there's only 4 stories left to be wrapped up in either 6 or 8 issues. Which is a decent fit.
[Can anyone answer that? I spent a long time thinking Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost were supposed to be year-long biweekly series, but a handful sources I've seen have said 26 issues. Which one is it?]
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