Post-Crisis… Crisis ?!?
Crisis On Infinite Earths was supposed to fix the continuity problems that had built up in the 50 years since DC had begun publishing comics. While the series was followed by retcons and relaunches which helped to clean up many characters histories, for Hawkman that wasn’t the case. Year by year, Hawkman was thrown deeper and deeper into a morass of misguided storytelling, that nearly led to the complete loss of the character. The books were often quite good, but every attempt to make continuity make sense, only served to accomplish the opposite.
Most of the post-Crisis material can easily be forgotten, and to those who don’t wish to get a headache it would be recommended to take lots of Aspirin before trying to wade through this material in any kind of depth. In the end, with regard to Hawkman’s continuity, nothing really makes a whole lot of sense until the turn of the century. I’ll do my best to lead you through and hopefully not pass along too much head trauma along the way.
Shadow War is the first Post-Crisis attempt at a Hawkman series
The Shadow War of Hawkman was a miniseries that came out in 1985 following on the heels of Crisis. Surprisingly it did very little to reinvent the Hawks. Written by Tony Isabella, this story was sci-fi all the way and saw the Hawks trying to repel an invasion that, at first, only they were aware of.
The miniseries was successful and quickly led to the one-shot Hawkman Special which was followed in 1986 by a new ongoing series. Tony Isabella told some fun old-school stories with Hawkman and Hawkwoman in Midway City. The series brought back a great deal of elements from Hawkman’s past, especially with regard to some old Hawkman villains. The best nugget to report from this book was the oddly helpful Gentleman Ghost, long a Hawkman villain, who was now cast mainly as an ally. By the conclusion of the first year the Shadow War storyline was wrapped up, but sadly the end was near. Like most series bearing the Hawkman name, the book died a quick death, as it was cancelled with issue #17.
Hawkworld — What the hell were they thinking?
1989 was the year that saw the first effort to create a post-Crisis version of Hawkman. Green Arrow and the Longbow Hunters worked wonderfully to reinvigorate Oliver Queen, so DC commissioned a similar story for Hawkman. Hawkworld began as a three-issue prestige format mini-series written and beautifully drawn by Timothy Truman. These prestige books were the red-hot order of the day during this era.
This miniseries remade Thanagar as a Nazi-like fascist world. Hawkman (Katar Hol) was a police officer that fell out of favor and was set up to take a fall, thus ending up on a prison island for a ten-year term. Shayera Thal was an untrustworthy member of the political machine. Fear not Hawk-fans, this is not the woman destined to become Hawkwoman though. This is in actuality the mother of the child that will become the next version of Hawkwoman.
Katar served out his prison term he dedicated his time to aiding the poor living in the slums of Thanagar’s Downside. Following his return he ends up teamed with Shayera II (the daughter of Shayera that I spoke of earlier) and in the process uncovered the drug dealings of Byth Rok. If you recall from last week’s NMM Byth was the original reason that the Silver Age versions of Hawkman and Hawkwoman went to Earth. That would be the case again. As Katar was able to clear his name, he was then reinstated as a Wingman.
The unfortunate part for Hawkworld was that in the grand scheme this was a misguided attempt and just didn’t work. Instead of using this three-part tale as a retelling of Hawkman’s origin, much like the “Year One†and “Year Two†stories in the Batman titles, this was really a brand new character in every respect. The problem was that Hawkman and Hawkwoman had long been on Earth and Thanagarians had played a huge part in DC Universe, including being on the wrong side of the recent Invasion crossover event.
Still, the miniseries was successful enough to see an ongoing was launched the following year. Tim Truman stayed on as a co-writer for a short time, while John Ostrander, who seemed to write just about everything DC produced at this time, came in and followed Truman’s lead as writer. Sadly, the book took up right where the mini left and Hawkman and Hawkwoman arrived on Earth during DC’s present day.
Hawkman and Zero Hour — Is this the Hawks’ final hour?
Having Hawkman (Katar Hol) and Hawkwoman (Shayera Thal) on Earth post-Crisis created innumerable problems and made no sense…whatsoever. If DC had just made the Hawkworld miniseries the retconned origin of the previous characters then there would have been no major problems. Having them come to Earth in the present made no sense with regard to previous continuity. From here on, nothing else was ever going to work again.
In 1992 the JSA were finally released from the pocket dimension they had been trapped in. The Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl were back in circulation again. Oddly enough, this wasn’t so much the problem. The real difficulty concerned just who the Thanagarian’s that had been running around during the Silver Age were?
You ready for a doozy?
It was explained that the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl now occupied those stories. What, what, what! You may say: “Weren’t they in the JSA?†Of course they were. But, they also served as liaisons from the more historic group to their younger superhero friends. Talk about stupid retconning. Instead of tweaking an already solid origin, DC tried to make wholesale changes, and they ruined the broth by having too many cooks in the kitchen.
Further complicating matters was the point when the entire JSA disappeared. So who were the Hawks in the JLA during that time?
Do you even want to know the brilliant solution? These were now a Thanagarian spy (remember the Thanagarians were now cast as a not so kind race) named Thal Andar posing as Carter Hall Jr. and a human named Sandra. Talk about over complicating things.
Well at least it couldn’t possibly get any worse? Right?
Zero Hour made a surprisingly strong effort to worsen an already bad situation. I like Dan Jurgens, but his writing in Zero Hour ravaged the JSA of many outstanding members and almost destroyed the character of Hawkman for all-time.
During Zero Hour the Katar Hol and Carter Hall versions of Hawkman were fused with Shiera Hall (the Golden Age Hawkgirl) into one amalgamation. This synthesis was really nothing more than a bastardization. It’s unreal just how little respect was shown to the JSA and Hawkman during Zero Hour. This attempt to clean everything up created a character that almost no one liked, and nearly damned Hawkman for all-time.
Following Zero Hour a new Hawkman book was launched that John Ostrander stayed with following the cancellation of Hawkworld. He didn’t stay on long; William Messner Loebs quickly took over the writing chores, and unfortunately things only grew worse. Hawkman was found to be the “Hawk Avatar†of the DC Universe. This whole Avatar concept was gaining momentum around the DCU at the time, with Firestorm and Red Tornado cast in this new light.
Thankfully this stupidity was soon forgotten; although the stories were somewhat interesting including some dandies by writer Christopher Priest as the series came to a close, this just wasn’t Hawkman and nobody cared. As the fourth Hawkman book came to a close, the sorcerer Arion cast an out of control Hawkman into a nether realm. For a while it looked like he would be forgotten forever.
Geoff Johns saves the day!
The attempt to create one Hawkman from an amalgamation of all the previous versions was doomed to failure. The American Indian influences and the reliance on the “avatar†concept made Hawkman an unapproachable character. Even though a new Hawkgirl was introduced early on in the pages of JSA, Hawkman was left in limbo for a little while longer. It appears that Geoff Johns and David Goyer were taking their time putting all their boats in a row before relaunching the concept.
Thankfully the time away did Hawkman good. “The Return of Hawkman†storyline finally went down in JSA #23-25. Goyer and Johns found a way to bring back Hawkman sans all the crap that was done to him Post-Crisis. The pair didn’t invalidate any stories that had occurred in Hawkman’s past, nor did they further convolute matters, instead commonsense and simplicity finally ruled the day. And what do you know… success followed.
So how’d they do it? One word: reincarnation…that’s it.
Like I said, it was utterly simple. During the course of this plotline, we find out that Kendra Saunders is actually the reincarnation of Hawkgirl. Hector Hall, who just recently gained the helm of Dr. Fate, is the son of one of the previous incarnations of Hawkman, Carter Hall. Using Hawkgirl as a beacon the JSA travel to Thanagar to help pull Hawkman out of the limbo he was trapped in by Arion. There’s a bunch of goobledygook, but it’s really done quite simply. Following this we’ve got our Hawk back. Not the bastard amalgam from before, but what’s essentially the Golden Age Carter Hall version.
I can’t harp on this enough. In one fell swoop Goyer and Johns did the impossible, they made Hawkman’s continuity make some semblance of sense. Everything could now fit into continuity. Everything doesn’t have to somehow be shoehorned into one character. These are all just various versions of everyone’s favorite-feathered hero. It goes back to the roots of the character and makes them work for today.
Another Hawkman title…
This simplification led to Hawkman being relaunched in his own book once again. The new Hawkman series debuted in early 2002. Co-written by Geoff Johns and James Robinson (of Starman fame). The book didn’t have to waste a lot of time struggling to put the character in his proper place. That was already done. Geoff and James worked to better characterize Hawkman and Hawkgirl as well as their new hometown, the New Orleans-like setting of St. Roch.
While Carter and Kendra would team-up in their Hawk-outfits, Johns’ threw a nice curve, as the pair don’t end up together—hell they don’t even get along most of the time. Anytime they appear to be growing closer, something serves to pull the two apart. The pair get their own separate love interests as the series progresses, which lends the book a very odd, but pleasingly new dynamic.
Surprisingly the book struggled in the beginning. Not sales wise, where it was success from the start. And not because of Hawkman’s convoluted past, but more to find its legs as a series. Issue #9 was a real turning point for the book. In this issue Carter Hall and his son Hector finally came to terms on many issues. This father-son chat really got the book heated up.
As the first year drew to a close, James Robinson bowed out of his co-writing chores, and Geoff Johns took things on his own. These are the stories that further humanized Hawkman. Geoff even sprinkled in some nice nods to the past. Issues 15-17 were entitled “The Thanagarian,†which was a great example of Geoff’s characterization, as well as his ability to weave the past into the modern day stories. This plotline resolved much of the loose threads from the Hawkworld era of the character.
Geoff Johns was also successful in bringing a new villain into the Hawkman fold during the last year. Hawkman has a couple of decent rogues, like Shadow Thief and the Gentleman Ghost, but is largely devoid of any class “A†villains. Geoff’s attempt to give Hawkman an arch-nemesis brought us the Headhunter. A savage foe that really brings out the worst in Hawkman and serves to launch Carter in a new even more brutal direction.
Hawkman has played a big part in the just concluded “Black Reign†storyline, which crossed over from JSA to Hawkman for the last six weeks. As I write this, the final part has not yet shipped (it will have arrived in stores this past Wednesday). It’s been apparent throughout that this is no lousy marketing stunt. Geoff Johns is telling a powerful story, which will have lasting implication on all of the characters involved. You would be greatly remiss in your duties as a comic reader if you don’t check it out.
Sadly, Hawkman appears to be at a crossroad once again. The book’s now facing the loss of the man chiefly responsible for saving the character from oblivion. This week’s issue #25 was Geoff’s last on the book. Two issues have been solicited following Geoff’s departure; each with a different creative team, and a regular team has yet to be announced. Big things just happened in the book, and if the right person doesn’t step in quickly, the advances will go down the tube in very short order.
Thankfully issue #27 features the work of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (the creative team behind the amazing Wildstorm book Sleeper). Unfortunately, following that issue the creative team is unknown and Hawkman’s future is again in potential jeopardy. Keep your fingers crossed, or the another ongoing series featuring Hawkman will soon reach the point all others did: an early cancellation.
The Reading Rack
JSA: The Return of Hawkman – This trade paperback collects issues 16-25 of the series, which includes the prequel issue as well as the main three parts of the “Return†storyline. This is the first place you need to go if you’re interested in the current incarnation of Hawkman.
Hawkman: Endless Flight – Here’s a collection of the first six issues of Hawkman’s current foray as a monthly. These stories are decent, but set the stage for some great storytelling as the book progresses.
The Legend of the Hawkman – Check out this wonderful three-part story which came as a precursor to the “Return of Hawkman†storyline. Ben Raab and Michael Lark tell an amazing tale of the Silver Age version of the couple. Dynamic storytelling and amazing artwork. This is everything that the Hawk’s should be in a neat three-part prestige tale.
Hawkman Archives – Volume 1 is out and retells the early exploits of the Silver Age’s Hawkman and Hawkgirl with many stories beautifully rendered by comic art legend Joe Kubert.
