The Tithe #8 - A Review

The FBI team led by Agent Campbell has discovered the unthinkable! A Senator with dreams of moving into The White House and a domestic terrorist have joined together to bring about a new American Republic and a new crusade against Islam. A daring nighttime raid may be the only hope they have of stopping the plot, but will all of Agent Campbell's team make it out alive?

There are some who will say that the plot of The Tithe is unrealistic. And yet, as Matt Hawkins points out in his commentary at the end of the issue, the idea of an American Senator manipulating domestic terrorists and blackmailing Muslim immigrants into becoming suicide bombers in a bid for political power is no more outlandish than some of the conspiracy theories bandied about the mainstream media. Indeed, such a plot seems downright mundane given that a conservative radio host this week was claiming that Justice Anthony Scalia did not die of a heart attack but was offered up as a human sacrifice by Texan pagans to increase the power of President Obama. But I digress.

Regardless of the claims of some critics, Hawkins takes great care to present a centrist view regarding the political and religious matters inherent to the story. It would be all too easy to paint all Christians or Muslims as rabid extremists or all people of faith as misguided but Hawkins avoids this. Indeed, our lead FBI investigator, Agent Campbell is a devout Christian conservative Texan who has an open and understanding attitude toward people of other faiths. He jokes at one point that he can forgive his daughter converting to Islam but that he cannot reconcile her abandoning The Cowboys for The Lions.  It is through lines such as these, and a number of other litle character moments, that Hawknis crafts true characters rather than the cardboard cut-outs that fill most political fiction.

Previous issues of The Tithe have suffered for a lack of action, but this one makes up for that in spades. Most of the issue's second half is devoted toward a tense, action-packed scene of the FBI storming a terrorist compound. Rahsan Ekedal, Phillip Sevy and Jeremy Colwell have truly undone themselves this time.

Alas, this may well be the last we see of The Tithe after a planned crossover with Postal and Think Tank.  Apparently the sales on the individual issues have not been high and we may never get to see the planned third volume, in which Sam and James go rogue to rob The Vatican  More is the pity, for this thriller has thrilled me like no other comic of its kind.

The Tithe #7 - A Review

Another church bombing has been blamed upon radical Islamic immigrants but the FBI team investigating the attacks isn't so sure things are as cut and dry as they seem. An old hacking contact of Samantha's confirms the unthinkable - that the encryption used by the terrorists is US Military. And the trail from there leads straight to the office of a Senator with his eyes on the White House and dreams of a new American empire!


The Tithe continues to be a tense, timely political thriller as well as a brilliant police procedural under Matt Hawkins' pen. The drama involving our heroes' personal lives suffers a little for that this month, with the drama between Sam and Agent Miller seeming a little forced and the subplot involving Agent Campbell's family problems having disappeared completely! Still, Hawkins did his homework on the real-world aspects of  the story and his comments in the back of the issue are as educational as ever.

Like many thrillers, this book doesn't  have a lot of traditional action-scenes. Despite this, artists Rahsan Ekedal and Phillip Sevy do a good job of matching the pace of Hawkins' script and shifting the perspective of the story so that things are rarely static, even if most of the book involves people talking. There are still many striking images and the colors by Jeremy Colwell are nice and vivid.

The Tithe #6 - A Review

Tensions continue to mount around the country, as random citizens begin attacking Muslims in the wake of a bombing that totaled St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The violence hits home for FBI Agent Dwayne Campbell, whose daughter converted to Islam years earlier and is arrested after helping defend a local store owner from bigots. But things are about to get worse as a second bombing destroys the largest Mormon church in San Diego and a terrorist group known as the Brotherhood of The Islamic Crescent takes credit for it.

There's just one problem. Apart from a series of YouTube videos, The Brotherhood of The Islamic Crescent doesn't exist!  There's no other evidence of them in the physical world or the virtual one. And the trail of Muslim teens in America leading from the boy who supposedly plotted the first bombing doesn't lead to any hard evidence - only more suspicion.


Matt Hawkins' writing continues to impress. As before, Hawkins takes care to depict his characters as three-dimensional beings who are not inherently flawed or gifted.  Agent Campbell is perhaps the best example of this, being comparable to Henry Drummond from Inherit The Wind - a man of principle who does his job in spite of his beliefs, who does not view people as enemies just because they disagree with him. Not only do we see Campbell reconciling his personal faith with those who have apparently turned to violence to express theirs but we also see him trying to mediate between his Muslim daughter and Christian wife.


The artwork by Phillip Sevy and Rahsan Ekedal proves the equal of Hawkins' writing. There is little in the way of action in The Tithe but the visuals remain interesting as the point-of-view varies from panel to panel.  This helps to maintain visual interest even when most of the story is made up of conversations between talking heads.