Review by Ian Keogh
As seen by the cover portraits, Eden’s Fall unites the primary cast members of three other series Matt Hawkins has worked on, in order of publication Think Tank, The Tithe, and Postal, the latter written with Bryan Hill who also collaborates here. Postal also supplies the town of Eden, a well concealed place where criminals can escape justice, but which is controlled by ruthless Sheriff Laura Shiffron.
In The Tithe Vol. 2 a right wing extremist responsible for thousands of deaths was spirited away before he could be arrested. It doesn’t sit well with FBI agents Dwayne Campbell and Jimmy Miller, who set up an infiltration operation with the help of technological genius David Loren. Unfortunately their best plan involves Miller infiltrating Eden with Loren’s technology, which ought to evade detection, and winging it from there.
While the emotional sympathies are attached to the characters from The Tithe, this is a different type of story from those found there, one more dependent on suspense and personal violence than deductive procedure. The writing’s not as sharp either, with characters all too often explaining for the benefit of the readers, not each other, and neither is the art. Atilio Rojo provides static digital figures, often with staring eyes, although tells the story well enough.
Another shock awaits halfway through. What seems to be building into something big is closed off halfway through the book, with the deal handled by someone introduced from nowhere, or perhaps another Hawkins series. The good aspects are that Eden’s Fall progresses the cast of The Tithe and solves a character problem the series has, but depsite his being the central figure on the cover, there’s little involvement from Loren, and the Postal cast continue as normal.
So if everything is wrapped up in 62 pages, what fills the remainder of the book? That would be the opening chapters from all three series concerned. None are poor, but readers are in effect paying for Top Cow marketing their warehouse stock. It’s a shabby trick. You’d be better off just buying The Tithe Volume 3: Samaritan, which also includes the main story here.
