THE HOLLOWS reaches its conclusion. Does it end on a high note?

Here’s the official description from IDW:

Everything has gone wrong, and the growing mass of Hollows threatens even the tenuous security that the residents of the tree-cities thought they had. In this concluding issue, Ryall and Kieth might leave nothing but a scorched earth in their wake.

This series has been one of the more interesting ones to come from IDW in recent years. It’s wired like a manga, it even takes place in Tokyo. It took a bold step with the art, but for the most part the book has succeeded in having its own unique story, look, and atmosphere, The previous issue ended shockingly with the tree city collapsing. In this issue we see Craig on a mission to save his sons while reflecting on how everything went wrong. It’s a solid closure that ends the story on a high note.

Chris Ryall from the start of the mini-series succeeded in making Craig a great protagonist. Here we see him desperate to save his sons from the collapsing tree. One of the best scenes is when it’s just him against the legions of Hollows. The second half of the story focuses on Craig’s wife and the girl from the Hollow-infested streets. The latter is truly happy at the thought of a real family  The narration boxes does a really good job reflecting on past events  In the end, the thing is that ‘life goes on.’ The ending gives the reader a sense of joy. Sadly the title creatures technically don’t do much. Strangely they haven’t really done much at all during these four issues, they’ve been a background force.

Sam Keith’s art could be called controversial. It’s very different, sometimes it could look unique while rather sketchy and critically un-detailed. The Hollows here especially, they look scary while at the same time horribly lacking detail. The cover is pretty standard, this series isn’t known for its covers. Still, gotta love Urp, whom has served as the story’s mascot.

Overall, THE HOLLOWS #4 is a very good conclusion to this very interesting mini-series. Great writing and some pretty surprising stuff in here. If you haven’t been reading the book, I recommend giving the trade paperback a shot when it releases.

4/5

My name is Daniel (@Destroyer_199), the main guy for comic reviews here at Unleash the Fanboy. I was born in 1995 in the Big Apple, spent my formative years in Staten Island, and currently reside in the awesome state that is New Jersey.