Hawi #3 is a comic created & written by Beserat Debebe with art by Stanley Obende. This familial pair must learn about the past, present, and future in order to find who they are searching for. Emnet and her father are on a journey and along the way we get some backstory and a better understanding of how things work in this world. Our two leads are Emnet, an Ethiopian woman from the US who has found herself thrust into an intense situation and her father Legesse, a man who she has only recently met. The plot veers back and forth from the past to the present so we get a well-rounded view of the various reasons why things are happening. There isn’t too much action featured here but we do get glimpses of the aftermath of heated situations. Though there are many stories being told here this comic does a great job of balancing flashbacks with the present day. The dialogue is mostly straightforward and isn’t filled with big words and Old English, and it reads smoothly. A couple pages do get heavy with the words though. All in all this is an issue that is leading us right into the next big moment in this series while building up the characters and making clear their motivations.

            This is a high detail, wonderfully colored comic. The location is constantly changing and the backgrounds and scenery stand out nearly every time. If they made an art book of just the environment it’d probably do numbers. The level expression has increased issue-by-issue and it has reached a point where we can easily read the emotions on their faces which adds extra weight to their words. One constant in this series has been faces full of character and the smaller details that take away the stiffness we sometimes see in comic art. The more supernatural effects are drawn in a way that sets them apart from the other things we see. You just know you’re seeing something powerful. We see a little bit of direct action but you’ll mostly see moments right before and right after something violent. But the scenes we do see are well done and easily followed.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like African-influenced stories starring black women dealing with family and revenge with supernatural elements this might be something you’ll like.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Things get unpleasant.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“If they are so powerful, why do they hide?”

 

Physical Link: https://etancomics.com/product/hawi-issue-3-english-hard-copy/

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/etancomics/hawi3/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 26

Violent Pages: 4, for 15% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 2

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”