As today marked the end of Blackhawks, and the first wave of conclusions, I thought I'd run a quick thought about each of the books that concluded their run this month... I'll also be posting a similar such entry on the mini-series, although I'm supposing (perhaps incorrectly) that there is a less vested interest in those titles.

Hawk & Dove: I hold by my earliest assessment of this book, that if Rob Liefeld is going to fit on any book in this modern day anti-Liefeld world that it would be in a book such as this. In the end, however, the ball was dropped in the delivery of the story (which I admittedly believed had promise in issue #1), after which the Liefeld art lost the pass that the book would normally afford it. I picked it up to the bitter end, but was disappointed that this potential underdog surprise hit fizzled when it could have popped.

OMAC: Of the 6 ending books, this is the one I’ll miss the most. I thought it was clever, aware of its niche, well purposed and in the end a big bucket of fun. Each issue of this title reminded me of the excitement I felt when I picked up Didio’s Outsiders crossover into the Reign of Doomsday… that realization that when he writes to his strengths, his books can be quite a lot of fun. OMAC, for me, was chock full of the best Dan had to offer… which made for a blast in a can. I only hope that his next writing project will be able to play as much upon his strengths as this title did.

Blackhawks: Honestly, there were a lot of times I had no clue what was going on in this book. The cast of characters was often hard for me to track, the mission was a bit too ambiguous and although it’ll probably read better in the trade, I couldn’t track the story from issue to issue. However, I do have to say that when it caught me by surprise, it did so rather well, particularly with the occasional twist endings… even if I hadn’t quite followed the story to that point, when those big explosive final pages came… they were a thrill.

Men of War: War comics aren’t my thing, but the first issue of this book blew me away. After that, it lost steam, suffering from the same “confusion/I can’t keep track” problem as Blackhawks… the final two issues were much more my speed and were really fantastic… although #8 was mostly just an extra issue of Frankenstein anyways. I think if the book held to more of the one-shot style stories, I might’ve dug it more on the whole. I did love that the book went out on a bang though, and it seems that Voodoo will be a potential home for at least a few of the characters for now.

Mister Terrific: Truth be told, I found this book rather amusing. Not in a mind blowing kind of way, but I quite enjoyed the whacky hijink adventures of the world’s third smartest man… sure, there was a lot of potential that never got achieved because of the book’s abbreviated run… but I was astonished when the title was announced, so the fact that they got me to buy it and enjoy the book for all 8 issues is quite a feat.

Static Shock: All the creator change drama aside… this book was a flop for me. There was little I enjoyed, in story or art… I just couldn’t get into it. I’m not sure how much of that was caused by the editorial conflict… but I just couldn’t see what made Virgil worthy of the reader’s attention. That first issue, I thought was a perfect set-up for a DC equivalent of the early days of Ultimate Spider-Man… not only was this hope lost, but it was further smeared by the fact that the New Ultimate Spider-Man actually ending up accomplishing what I hoped Static would (at least, from the issue I’ve read and the reviews I’ve heard). I know the books chances weren’t very good… but the desperate scramble to provide it some life support ended up tarnishing the quality and sending it to the same grave anyways. I hope we’ll see Static again, but it’ll take a really good writer or a really great pitch to convince me he can sustain a solo book at this point.

What'd you think? Which ones are you sad to see make their exit? What do you see in store for the characters, creators and titles involved?