Welp, back to the daily grind. No more New York City. No more bruises from the trip. Just a week of nice, normal comics, like Hawkgirl and Uncanny Avengers.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Void Rivals #3 for another enjoyable little chapter in this space saga.

Meanwhile, still enjoying Baldur’s Gate 3. I’ve got a couple of games running and am very much enjoying myself with the game. I also really enjoyed the Blue Beetle movie and I’ll be disappointed if/when it bombs. We’ll see.

Comic Reviews: Hawkgirl #2, Uncanny Avengers #1 and Void Rivals #3.

Hawkgirl #2
Writer: Jadzia Axelrod
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

I felt like checking out the second issue of Hawkgirl, because why not?

Hawkgirl hangs out with her new friend Galaxy and they talk trauma and life and stuff. Galaxy also uses her powers to mentally and spiritually connect Kendra with her wings at long last, so she feels more complete. Galaxy and her girlfriend convince Kendra to go out to the club with them that night, and Kendra has a moment to cut loose. But then the fox villain shows up hunting for her Nth metal, and she’s brought along some more kids/adults turned into monsters to fight.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something claustrophobic about this comic. I don’t know if the art is too detailed, too packed full of stuff on every panel. Or if it’s the narration boxes, which are dark and very daunting. The story feels like it wants to be a bit light and breezy, but the comic itself feels very tightly packed in. The writing is solid, even if the writer is clearly more interested in writing another comic about their character Galaxy than Hawkgirl, necessarily. There’s just nothing very…Hawkgirl about this comic. Granted, I don’t know much about Hawkgirl or Hawkman, but Kendra seems like a perfectly ordinary person with a very unassuming life. There’s a lot more going on with the supporting cast than with Kendra herself. Still, it’s a very breezy comic, and I like stories where superheroes are allowed to be real people, so I’m not undone just yet. The fox villain leaves a lot to be desired as well.

TL;DR: There is some strength in this series, but it’s a little unfocused and feels very tightly packed.

Uncanny Avengers #1
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Javier Garron
Colorist: Morry Hollowell
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham

Fall of X continues with a new Uncanny Avengers! I barely touched the previous one, so let’s see how this goes.

In the wake of Captain Krakoa’s attack on Washington DC, Captain America puts together a new Unity Squad. He recruits Psylocke and Penance as they kill some Orchis goons, and he’s already got Deadpool, Rogue and Quicksilver. They all check in with the underground X-Men and head out to take on Captain Krakoa, who has recruited his own new Mutant Liberation Front: Wildside, the Fenris Twins and, sadly, Blob. They all get into a fight!

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Man, all this time of Blob as one of the good guys, and he’s immediately tricked into joining the bad guys in Fall of X. There’s some hope that he’ll come around based on the writing of this issue, so I’ll cling to that. He deserves a chance! Why couldn’t he be an Uncanny Avenger? That would really shake up the roster!

Anyway, this issue is fine. It brings in all the characters, most of them in interesting ways. It doesn’t have much of a chance to really establish what the whole team will be about, but that’s fine. There’s time to build, and I’m in favor of the idea in general. I like most of the team members, even if they’re seemingly randomly assembled. It also doesn’t help that the inciting incident for this series was in a Free Comic Book Day issue several months ago. I didn’t read it, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. There’s a dangerous new villain, and Cap is putting a team together to fight them, and maybe take the fight to Orchis at some point?

Mostly I’m just worried about Blob…

TL;DR: The new team is off to a pretty strong start, with a lot of good character recruitments as we gear up for an ongoing series.

Void Rivals #3
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Lorenzo De Felici
Colorist: Matheus Lopes
Letterer: Rus Wooton

As much fun as this comics has been so far, I’m definitely ready for the actual Transformers comics at this point.

Darak and Solila flee deeper into the Skuxxoid ship (he’s not that concerned) and face off against a giant, robot scorpion, and team up with a Quintesson prisoner to make their escape. When they bump into the Skuxxoid again, he’s pretty chill about the whole thing because there’s no bounty on their heads. So he trades them a working ship for their old hunk of junk (wants some alloy from it) and the Quintesson. Darak and Solila take the deal and head for home, trying to think of the best way to approach both peoples. But when they get close, Solila knocks out Darak!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

One of my all-time favorite tropes in fiction is when a villain can be reasonable, so I absolutely loved this issue and it’s Skuxxoid twist. Dude looks like a pig alien villain, but he’s totally alright. Talks with our heroes like a normal guy and makes them a very good deal. I thought that was great and a fun bit of writing. I also liked that our heroes took him up on the offer, funny stuff. I don’t know anything about Quintessons, but I’m sure they’re bad.

So the story is still moving along at a solid, steady pace. No idea where it’s going in the big picture or how the Transformers are going to be involved, but for a contained story for now, it’s solid. The characters remain fun, even if they are pretty broadly drawn. And their adventures are fun to read, even if the obscure cameos haven’t amounted to much. Void Rivals is just a well-constructed little comic about some space characters on a space adventure. And that’s enough.

TL;DR: Another solid and enjoyable chapter in this ongoing space adventure series, though I kinda wish the larger picture would start to show itself.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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