Blackhawks #7 – Review

By: Mike Costa (writer), Cafu & Carlos Rodriguez (pencillers), Bit (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: A “Keep Out” sign is pretty meaningless when you fly a plane into it.

The Review: It goes without saying that getting cancelled would not count among the top ten experiences of your life.  For any creator who cares about his work, there’s the heartache, of course, not only from the realization his baby has no support, but also from the fact he won’t get to see that baby grow up.  Also for anyone who cares about his work, he now has the difficulty of trying to wrap up at the last second stories he hoped would play out for a while.

What you often get is a mad scramble to draw the act to a close and finish with a bang, much like you do in this issue.  There’s a clear feeling of haste throughout, as Costa must rely on heavy exposition, much more than he’s done in any issue I’ve read of him thus far, to speed the action toward its climax.  Hence Lincoln’s narrative spiel taking the Blackhawks from their shaky recovery from a direct attack on their turf to their de facto final mission, all within five pages.

At any rate, Costa disguises the blistering pace of the issue pretty well, using a combination of lively dialogue (“Those guys are firing carbon-fiber needles at 3,000 meters per second…You were briefed to stay out of range!  They dissolve from friction after 4,000 feet.”  Canada: “How much math am I supposed to do here?!”) and meticulously timed action sequences, throwing in a few slow-mo panels to break up the rush just before you get overwhelmed.