DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers & Review: Does Death Of Hawkman #2 Have DC Rebirth’s Hawkman On Center Stage?

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Editor’s Note:

The below review is written by Tim Board! Tim is the founder of the popular Hawkworld group on Facebook and the growing Hawkworld twitter. Feel free to share any feedback in the comments section.


DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers and Review for Death Of Hawkman #2 follow.

Introduction

Issue No. 1 was almost completely about Adam Strange, which for a Hawkman fan, was a bit of a disappointment. After just a few panels of Hawkman, the rest of the story was all about Adam Strange wanting to escape his humdrum life of video games, take-out dinners and driver’s license bureaus. Along the way, we see Strange’s wife Alanna and her father Sardath attacked by what appears to be Thanagarians. Strange finally gets his wish and is suddenly zeta-beam zapped to Rann, which he finds in ruins.

And now on to Issue No. 2!

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

The Team: Marc Andreyko (writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciller), John Livesay (inker), Blond (colorist), Aaron Lopresti (cover art)

The Main Cover:

The cover by Aaron Lopresti is great and even better than the first issue! His clean, easy-to-look-at style is perfect for a comic book. Love the close up of Hawkman.

5 out of 5 Maces

The Art:

Lopresti’s art is hard to criticize. He even draws a lot of shots from the back which isn’t easy to do. Inker John Livesay’s ink is sharp and colorist Blond’s bright colors goes perfectly with Lopresti’s style The costume designs are OK, except for Hawkman’s helmet looking more like the JSA’s version that he wore during the late 70s to early 80s, and that odd mostly-white outfit Strange is wearing this time around. Lopresti’s drawing of blood continues to give me a craving for pancakes with raspberry syrup, but he draws a great Hawkman.

4 out of 5 Maces

The Story:

The story opens up at Rann Now with Adam Strange and Hawkman in the war zone. We are again introduced to Hawkman’s toughness where he is bleeding all over but shakes it off and “savors” a fight. As they charge into a fight, we are suddenly whisked away to Thanagar Then. Hawkman (Katar Hol) is a rogue cop, taking matters into his own hands and beating the criminals to a pulp. We see him getting chewed out by the police chief, who mentions Katar’s special connection to the Nth metal. He is the only one with bird-like wings, while the other officers have the metallic wings. It appears that the Hawkman from the Savage series is trying to adjust to life back on Thanagar. His career as a policeman is going nowhere, he gets drunk in bars and he ends up in “unsatisfying” one-night stands.

Meanwhile, Strange finds his wife Alanna alive, but her father Sardath was killed in the suicide attack. She is thinking of nothing but getting revenge on Thanagar and even accuses Strange of siding with Thanagar because he “fought beside the one Thanagarian you know and you like him.” Strange discovers someone messing around with the Zeta-beam teleportation and starts to suspect something. Then we are finally introduced to Despero, who is up to something but no details yet.

Back to Thanagar Then. We find Katar in a bar, drinking heavily and getting picked up by a Emma Ziegler (Savage Hawkman) look-alike. It’s interesting that we saw Adam Strange on Earth, desperately wanting to return to Rann, while here we see Hawkman pinning for his life back on Earth, where he “was a hero”, fighting alongside the Justice League. His career as a policeman is going nowhere, he gets drunk in bars and he ends up in “unsatisfying” one-night stands.

On Rann Then, Strange decides he needs the help of his Thanagarian friend to solve the mystery. He zeta-beams himself right in front of a naked Katar, who just got out of bed. And we’re left with that lovely image until the next issue.

Best Panel:

Hawkman crashing through the window in his usual style.

Worst Panel:

Hawkman bleeding all over Adam Strange

Best Quote:

A Thanagarian does not shy away from a fight. A Thanagarian…savors it! – Hawkman

Worst Quotes:

“Care to help a parched lady rehydrate?” – Emma Ziegler look-a-like
“Well, wet is always preferable to dry.” – Katar Hol

Issue No. 2:

Issue No. 1 and No. 2 were used to let us know the two heroes’ current situations. Neither is happy on their home planet and both want to go back to the life they had on their adopted home. But the situation on Rann has thrown them back together. It seems that they will be running around the next couple of issues fighting their own people while trying to track down Despero, who Strange maybe suspects already. The scene of the Rannians protesting against Thanagarian terrorists only made me think of our own current situation. Terrorists are out there, and sometimes we need someone to blame and attack, even if we don’t have sufficient proof of their involvement. Andreyko seems to be channeling our own situation through this story and it will be interesting to see how it works out. With a big election coming up, this story did leave me wishing that we had a Hawkman or Adam Strange to help us in our own perilous times. Issue No. 2 definitely picked up from the first and it should really start rolling from the next issue.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 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!