Review: Justice League Vol. 3- Hawkworld

Quick Summary

Pros: The majority of the collection’s story arcs are highly entertaining. The entire volume has a great combination of exciting and action-packed moments alongside emotional and character-driven ones. The conclusion leaves the series in a great place. The artwork is positive throughout the majority of the volume.

Cons: Some elements of one story arc are not that great.

Overall: This collection has everything one would hope for from this comic. It uses engaging storytelling to advance a narrative that is becoming more and more interesting as it progresses. In addition, meaningful character development is taking place and the quality of the visuals match the quality of the storytelling. This is definitely a volume for any fan of this Justice League or anyone who is a fan of their villains.

Story

Justice League Vol. 3: Hawkworld, by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, is another major success for this series. The volume tells an exciting story in outer space, seriously advances the Justice League’s mission by having them attempt to fix the Source Wall, and gives a fascinating glimpse at a few individual members of the Legion of Doom. Besides a few minor moments in the Thanagar story arc, the vast majority of these adventures are highly entertaining. In addition, the entire collection leaves the series in a great place, building excitement for the future and giving readers plenty of reason to come back for more.

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The first major arc in Hawkworld has members of the Justice League travel to Thanagar in order to solve pieces of the mystery surrounding the Totality. There, they are met with deception, leading to some tense moments, and are ultimately forced to fight their hosts in order to get the answers they need, leading to some fun action. The arc also successfully corrects some confusion surrounding the history of Hawkman and Hawkwoman in a way that fans of these characters are sure to appreciate. All of this helps create an exciting arc that works well in most places.

However, there are also a few places that don’t work quite as well. The time spent on correcting the Hawks’ history will be rewarding for longtime fans but might come across as nonsense to readers unfamiliar with their history. In addition, the volume spends too much time describing the security surrounding the vault on Thanagar only to have the heroes bypass this security relatively easily. These are not major detriments to the arc but are what prevents it from being as good as previous arcs in this series.

From here, the Justice League uses the secrets learned on Thanagar to attempt to fix the Source Wall, where they are opposed and defeated by the Legion of Doom. This is an engaging battle that feels like a pivotal moment for the series as a whole. It exhausts resources the League has been saving for a while and also sees the Legion achieve a major victory. By the end of this chapter, Luthor and his allies have released Perpetua and the series appears to be on the brink of a major crisis.

The rest of the chapters in Hawkworld mostly focus on character development. The Joker terrorizes his Legion compatriots, Martian Manhunter learns some dark truths about his past, Luthor learns some disturbing truths about his own past, and Luthor is even able to convince Brainiac to listen to him. Both Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV write these characters so well that it is an absolute joy to see them take a moment and focus on them like this. The development accomplished here also provides a great foundation for future character moments to take place.

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Art

Hawkworld achieves its visual successes from the way it pairs beautiful artwork with relevant storytelling. Guillem March gets the volume started with a creepy-looking chapter that focuses on one of DC’s creepiest villains, the Joker. Then, Jim Cheung and Stephen Segovia take over to deliver several creative, detailed, and generally impressive chapters on Thanagar and beyond. Then, Daniel Sampere takes over for the collection’s annual chapter, which matches Sampere’s dynamic and bombastic visuals with an equally dynamic and bombastic story. The only chapter that does not impress is the collection’s final chapter; however, even this chapter manages to look alright. In the end, the high-quality of the visuals and the wonderful way in which they complement and even enhance the storytelling is why the art in this collection is successful.

Continuity

Justice League Vol. 3: Hawkworld continues the story from Justice League Vol. 2: Graveyard of Gods (Review).

The story here continues in Justice League Vol. 4: The Sixth Dimension (Review).

This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• Numerous references are made, throughout this volume, to the invasion of the Dark Multiverse, from Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order), and to Earth’s fight against the Omega Titans, from Justice League: No Justice (Review) (Reading Order).
• Shayera Hol’s presence in this comic brings up elements from events in the New 52 Hawkman’s life.
  • The New 52 Hawkman’s adventures are mostly told through the Savage Hawkman series, a title mentioned in this volume’s text. This series is collected across Savage Hawkman Vol. 1: Darkness Rising (Review) and Savage Hawkman Vol. 2: Wanted (Review).
  • Shayera Hol appeared in Savage Hawkman #12-16, collected in Savage Hawkman Vol. 2: Wanted (Review).
  • This version of Hawkman died at the conclusion of the Death of Hawkman (Review) miniseries.
• Hawkwoman’s connection to the Blackhawks was revealed in the Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order). This version of the Blackhawks debuted in All-Star Batman #9, collected in All-Star Batman Vol. 2: Ends of the Earth (Review).