DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers & Review: Death Of Hawkman #1 Reignites Sci-Fi For DC Rebirth, But At What Cost?

News, Reviews, Spoilers, Top Story

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Editor’s Note: Welcome to Tim Board to Comics Nexus. Tim is the founder of the popular Hawkman / Hawkgirl group on Facebook and the growing Hawkman / Hawkgirl twitter. The below review is written by Tim Board! Please join me in welcoming Tim and feel free to share any feedback in the comments section.


DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers and Review for Death Of Hawkman #1 follow.

This past July, six months after the announcement of DC Rebirth, Hawkman fans finally had some good news. DC Comics announced a six-issue mini-series, teaming Hawkman back up with old pal Adam Strange in a series called “Out of Time.” After being pretty much invisible for the last couple of years, after being horribly mishandled in CW’s poorly written show, after being killed off no less than eight times since 2010, and after three years since his last series was canceled, Hawkman is finally back. Sort of. Even though it was announced as a mini-series, Hawkman fans were a bit relieved to know their hero actually had a place in DC Comics’ plans.

And then the “sudden” announcement; the new series’ title was changed to “Death of Hawkman”. Really? After being killed off eight times in the last seven years, the title doesn’t exactly send comic book fans tripping over their Funko Pop dolls to get to the comic book store. After a couple days of typing anger-fueled Tweets and deleting them before pushing that send button, it started to make sense. What if DC Comics is doing a lame reverse psychology joke on its fans? There were suddenly visions of hope, where Hawkman would actually survive this series (haha, fooled you!), officially triggering the true Hawkman Rebirth, bringing the most beautiful reunion with Hawkgirl and all would be right in Hawkworld again.

So, it is with hope and expectations that only a long-suffering, masochistic fan of the Hawks can believe in, that we finally come to issue No. 1 of “Death” (wink-wink) of Hawkman.


Editor’s Note: Ratings are out of Five Maces; that’s the most you can get!


The Team: Marc Andreyko (writer) and Aaron Lopresti (artist) – Five Maces

When I saw who was doing the comic, my absorbascon blew a fuse. These guys are two of the best in the business and whatever the outcome, they should make it a series to remember. Whether it approaches the epic Tony Isabella and Richard Howell’s “Shadow Wars” is another matter but the possibility is definitely there.

The Main Cover: Five Maces

The first cover starts things off with a bang with Hawkman and Adam Strange engaged in intergalactic battle with a huge Despero smirking in the background! Lopresti has a clean, easy-on-the-eyes style that is beautiful to look at. He did a great job with Hawkman in the Futures 52 series and he didn’t disappoint with this first cover. Hawkman still has his Savage look and Adam Strange’s costume is a bit too white, but nevertheless it’s a fantastic cover to get the series started.

The Art: Five Maces

Some might say Lopresti’s style lacks detail and his blood has always looked a bit like thick raspberry syrup, but every panel looks great and it’s perfect for a comic book. Four Maces.

The Story: Three Maces

So we start off right in the middle of a battle, with Hawkman minus a gallon of blood and Adam Strange helping him as they seem to be making an escape. Judging by all the arrows sticking out of Hawkman, I would have thought that they had time-slipped into General Custer’s Last Stand if the first panel hadn’t said “The Planet Rann”. While Strange is looking around, we get reintroduced to Hawkman’s badassery by seeing him yank out the arrows with a smile. As if we had forgotten.

Strange goes into flashback mode and that’s the last we see of Hawkman this issue. Strange seems to be living a humdrum life, just passing the time by shooting shower walls with Windex, playing video games, staying amazingly fit despite all the Chinese food and pizza, and renewing his driver’s license while he waits to be zeta-beamed back to Rann to his wife, Alanna. The zeta-beam trip doesn’t go as planned and we see Alanna and her father attacked by Thanagarian suicide bombers.

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When his zap doesn’t happen, Strange tries to find out why. The zeta beam has been firing on Earth, but apparently missing its target. Strange gets some help from Cyborg at the Justice League satellite (once a member, always a member), who teleports him to several cities as he tries to solve the mystery but comes up empty.

While he’s wondering what to do next, the zeta beam finally locks on to him and he is teleported to Rann in full Adam Strange gear…

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…only to find Rann in ruins.

  • Best Panel: All the panels that show Adam Strange holding up his Justice League membership card.
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  • Best Quote: “Teleportation is my jam.” (Adam Strange)
  • Second Best Quote: “Never say that again.” (Cyborg)
  • Eye-rolling quote: Of course we can’t get through one DC Comic without a mention of Batman.
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  • Worst Panel: Close up of Hawkman yanking out an arrow with a “CHUK!”
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The first issue seemed like it wasted a few pages with Strange teleporting all over the place, looking for clues and coming up with nothing. Maybe all these locations (Metropolis, Gotham City, St. Roch, Coast City, etc) will make sense in later issues but with Hawkman only sharing the opening scene, and a bunch of filler pages (seemingly) in the middle, the issue as a whole felt a bit lacking. What happened to Rann? Did Alanna and her father die in the suicide bomb attack? Which Hawkman is in this story? Where the Nth is Hawkgirl? Most importantly, will this issue get the readers anxiously waiting for issue No. 2? I picked up the issue to get some Hawkman, so I’m definitely along for the ride but not so sure about the casual reader. The art of Lopresti is awesome and hopefully the story will pick up the pace a bit in the next issue.

Verdict: Three Maces!

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!