Hawk the Slayer: The Last of Her Kind (2025)

Hawk the Slayer: The Last of Her Kind (2025)

Author: Alec Worley | Illustrator: Simon Colby (line) / Gary Caldwell (col) | Page Count: 52

"She is like a child absorbed in her own cruel fantasy, forcing us to play along."

A continuation of Hawk's story set after Watch for Me in the Night (2023). The Last of Her Kind was serialised in 10 consecutive issues of the weekly 2000 AD magazine (#2413-22), for a total of just 52 pages. Rebellion might consider that enough page count for a proper TPB of its own, but it's considerably less than the previous story, so it seems unlikely that it'll get one - not unless there's a similarly-sized third part to add to it.

So I decided to feature it as is, with no official cover art - the pic to the right is Cliff Robinson's cover art of #2419 onto which I added a Hawk the Slayer logo. [1]

The creative team are changed from last time, but Hawk's story continues. His companions feature a little, but it's mostly a solo adventure for the sword-wielder. It has him coming to the aid of a people who are controlled by Lady Morlaine of Valensfort. Once a kind individual of good repute, she's now a sickly, tyrannical ruler with an evil guard. Hawk strives to find out why such a change happened.

There's some gubbins about him feeling like her owes her a debt, having once fought alongside her father. It's not very original, but it adds additional sheen to Hawk's character, and explains why he's willing to put himself in such immediate danger by entering Valensfort.

The artwork and colouring are dramatically apt, making it feel like a better than average movie-adaptation from the early 90s; I mean that in a complimentary way. But there's some weird shit going on with characters' hands that make it look at least partially A.I. generated. I don't know if that is the case. Maybe illustrator Simon Colby just had trouble with them.

The dialogue is standard medieval fantasy era stuff, with characters using things like 'behold...' and talk of 'destiny...' and 'to whom...', etc. It can seem stilted and uninspired at times, but it's a defining part of the genre, so would feel less 'authentic' without it.

[1] Given how the story ends, there's a good chance more is / was planned, and an equally good chance that image will be the actual cover art because it's the most suited of the two that the serial got (see below). Cliff Robinson did art on both, with colours by Dylan Teague.