Nighthawk was written superbly, so well I thought, "JMS is doing a damn fine job with Nighthawk" and then realised it ain't JMS at all. Really top notch. Everything was good except for how the backstory of the villain was handled.
In plays around the turn of the century, when they were all set in a manor house, it would always open with a butler and a maid cleaning the lounge or study. The butler would turn to the maid and say, "Oh, you're new here aren't you?" and proceed to tell the entire backstory of the play's characters to her in a huge chunk of exposition. It's an amateur trick because the writer is unable to effectively use exposition to turn story, so he just tells us what's going on. While the villain's backstory was good and engaging, it was told in exactly the same way. One officer turns to the other, says, "Oh, you're new here aren't you?" and tells her everything.
I think it would've been far more interesting if his backstory was a sub-plot that opened the first issue (but that would've meant we wouldn't get the "Congrattlations its a Nigger" thing which was a brilliant opening) or if it was revealed gradually to Nighthawk, turning story as it did, throughout the series.
As it is, it feels kind of wasted.
That said, now that the exposition is out of the way, I'm sure that Dan Way is going to give us a good time.