ADVANCED REVIEW: Wastelanders: Hawkeye #1: Wait, Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One…

A blind, deaf archer walks into a bar… the man behind him ducked! *rimshot* I don’t know what it is about the Wastelands that just draws me in over and over again but here I am, once more looking at that villainous hellscape with some of favorite geriatric heroes and just enjoying the ride. Ethan Sacks returns to Clint Barton, now blind but still going after tutoring under Matthew Murdock, now bearing the mantle of Stick, after his Old Man Hawkeye maxi-series a few years ago and manages to recapture the tone of that series quite well. One-shot stories can be tricky because there’s always that desire to leave doors open but still not leave the reader without any sense of closure. The art of the open-ended yet complete story eludes many but not Ethan Sacks. By the end of the issue, I was left with the feeling of just having hung out with a friend I hadn’t seen in a couple of years and am not sure when I’ll see again but I’m glad for the experience.

Roberson and Lima take over on art duties here but also manage to capture the tone of the previous series with art and finishes that have a somewhat high art sensibility to them. Each page is clean and crisp and the layouts are dynamic enough to move the story forward at a remarkable pace. Wasterlanders: Hawkeye #1 is certainly not a must read book but if you like the characters and the lore surrounding the Wastelands, you don’t want to miss this sweet little slice of that mythos.