Sneak Peek: Slaughter Hawk by Dave Broughton

By Antony Esmond on June 6, 2018

Slaughter Hawk
Created by Dave Broughton
Full Colour – Perfect bound – £7.50

The Story: A dark hero stalks a dystopian city of the future. Is he merely an urban legend or is he the hero that the people of this world need? Aided by technology, a secret headquarters and some bloody weapons “Corporatism has a new foe”!

Slaughter Hawk is gonna kick your ass!

The Review: Credit to Mr Broughton. This is a full colour superhero story, its focus a dark antihero a tale full of fights, car chases, underwater escapes, over muscled villains and Uber violence. When everyone else is obsessed with autobiographical diary comics, stories about their cats and overplayed horror tropes. Dave has been busy producing something that is fun, well crafted and exciting.

I read this from cover to cover after getting a special preview copy at the recent Lawgiver IV convention in Bristol, and couldn’t put it down.

This is, of course, a superhero, albeit a rather dark portrayal of one. But it is also one that would fit in well with the tastes of a 2000AD reader. Slaughter Hawk has a grittiness about it, but also includes hilariously overblown characters who are in return in possession of numerous steroid induced muscles on muscles on muscles. We also get gadgets, tech armour, a militarised government and female ninja(ish) assassins.

Dave does all the above with a little satirical glint in his eye. He knows what he is doing and he is also having great fun doing it. What more can you ask for?

Full disclosure: myself and Dave are both pals and past (and future) collaborators. His work is always fun and full of iconic designs. He knows how to tell an adventure yarn and it can only be a matter of time before the Prog comes a calling.

The print quality on this new small press book is impressive. Done in the old Dark Knight Returns / perfect bound style, it can sit perfectly on a bookshelf. You can see the care that has gone into this project.

• Slaughter Hawk will be getting a full release at ICE Birmingham later in the year. Grab yourself a copy there or have a look at this and more of Dave’s work at www.dbroughton.blogspot.co.uk or www.comicsy.co.uk/dbroughton