Hawken: Melee #1 of 5, 20 Seconds

Hawken: Melee #1 of 5, 20 Seconds
Archaia Black Label
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by Federico Dallocchio

In the pitch of battle, you call for help and are told it is 20 seconds out. You need to keep fighting, running, hiding; you do all three to keep alive. Throw in the fact that you’re controlling a giant mech bot. GS Lusk is in this exact situation. Ambushed on a planet by other enemy mechs and they’re coming in from all sides. Lusk has to keep moving and doing whatever he can to survive until backup shows up in 20 seconds. With his mech damaged and in a place he does not know, how will he get out of this?

With the paneling, very simple squares that in this situation, fit with the story and what is trying to be portrayed. It carried you to through the story. A very gritty, detailed art allows you to get more into the story and feel that tense, life-and-death situation that is in this story. This is also portrayed in the cover art, something I want to see, a cover that shows the story and the art. I’m torn on the writing for a few reasons. One, it was not overloaded with unnecessary talk. They kept pointing out the seconds to add to that tense feeling but there are times when you kind of get lost with what’s going on. Also, I would like to know a little more about the character.

All in all, I really have mixed feelings here. As I said, I felt the stress, waiting on the backup coming, the life-or-death situation, it was setup beautifully. But yet, it didn’t flow as well as it could have. There were points that could have used either more to push the story forward. This is still book one, but something more should have been there. In my humble opinion, I’d say read this one in the store and wait for book 2 to come out, if the story flows better in that one, then get the first. I give this 3.0 caps out of 5.