Broken Frontier

The extreme vigilante, Nighthawk, and the psychotic killer, Whiteface, have a bloody final confrontation.

I’m not a very fast reader. On average, most comics take about ten to fifteen minutes to read, interpret and fully enjoy (or loathe). This concluding issue of the Supreme Power: Nighthawk miniseries read so fast that it was almost anti-climactic--I’m going to conservatively estimate it took five minutes from open to close. That is not to say that this is a bad ending so much as it is just too abrupt. Essentially, the story begins in a Chicago hospital and in lightning quick fashion goes to a city water treatment facility where the nemeses have their final conflict.

Daniel Way seems to have been stockpiling Marvel stories over the past year or so. He has about a half-dozen books either in development or on the shelves at the moment. For the most part he has been a very solid choice as the "go-to guy" for titles such as Wolverine and The Incredible Hulk. This series has mostly been a great addendum to the Supreme Power mythos, as well, but I can’t help but wonder if the story couldn’t be compressed a little. What we get is about five-and-a-half issues of necessary story in six issues. Although there is some dialogue involved in this issue it was almost superfluous to the outcome.

A few years ago, Marvel had a gimmick month they called "‘Nuff Said," where issues of some of their most high-profile character’s books were nothing but visual storytelling. Very few of those stories worked, but one that I recall being worthy of a recommendation was Garth Ennis and (mostly) Steve Dillon’s Punisher issue. If nothing else, that issue showcased Steve Dillon’s ability to turn out a good "read" solely with visual storytelling. Those same strengths carry this story and make it more than just passable.

This miniseries was not terribly insightful where the title character comes into play. Through J. Michael Straczynski’s and Gary Frank’s Supreme Power series (to become Squadron Supreme under the Marvel Knights imprint next month), readers have already seen the motivations and a little character development of Nighthawk. What this series did achieve was bringing out the further adventures of the masked vigilante…and more closely paralleling him with his DC counterpart because of the Joker-esque Whiteface.

Of the three Supreme Power miniseries so far, this was certainly the most enjoyable. With Daniel Way emulating Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon returning to the sort of shock-realism we haven’t seen much of since his stint on Preacher, this series was fast-paced and fun (albeit often twisted), even if its conclusion left a little to be desired.