SOS Hawkman...( part 1)

[iskander]

Poor Hawkman. Few character have been through the ringer like he has. Carter hall/Katar Hol has been crushed by crossovers, bad retcons and just really,really bad editorial desicions.

This is his big return. After the "hawk-god avatar" version bottomed out in the summer 1996 and the series ended witha merged Katar Hol, struggling with the spirits of the other Hawk Avatars, being banished to the realm of the Hawk God or some such mystical nonsense. The upshot was, both Hawkmen were gone, and it didn't look like they were coming back anytime soon.

In fact, DC editorial was of the opinion that the character had been revised and redone and rethought so much that he had become incomprehensible, and declared the character radioactive,forbidding his use as a guest-star or any attempts to revive him for several years. Around this time came the absolute low point for poor Hawkman: when Warner Brothers licensed him out for a humiliating Baby Ruth candy-bar commercial, which showed Katar flying into windows like a parakeet until he got the necessary burst of energy from a delicious Baby Ruth.

Now Five years later Hawkman returns to the JSA.

Comments

[tishooo]

Love sadowski's pencils. I wish he got more DCU work.

[iskander]

He drew the most luscious Hawkgirl ever. Those hips.......................

[tishooo]

And he drew her with a small chest - on purpose, as part of her character design. When I see her with gigantic breasts it looks so wrong - for example the gross covers by Chaykin with the half-melons stuck onto her.

[iskander]

Yup. Let's hear it for the Dancer's/athlete's body !!

[iskander]

Well I think there is some variance from panal to panal but she is supposed to be a "B cup" . Most female characters go right to D and beyond, size wise.

[iskander]

No Milla is a n A cup .

[iskander]

Not really interested in arguing bra sizes. I would just say she she is supposed to have small breast. Weather small is relative to the typical torpedo type many artists draw I up to the individual. The only other characters that spring to mind would be Raven or Kitty Pride.:)

[tishooo]

Actually, I think you are right, those are some pretty big breasts compared to how she was portrayed when she first appeared. I think I was just subconsciously picturing that when I replied and was thinking of comments I had heard Sadowski made after he left the book. I know he wasn't always keen how Bair's inks changed his pencils either so perhaps this could be related.

However, it should be noted that those aren't that big compared to your average comic book portrayal! And a sample of those awful Chaykin covers to illustrate what I meant in my original post:

[iskander]

The book got cancelled right ?

[jaybee3]

Yep. Survived 50 issues with steady sales with Carter/Hawkman as the lead (as a museum curator/adventurer) but then he "disappeared" and in yet another failed One Year Later DC gimmick the book became "Hawkgirl" and sales plummeted quick.

[iskander]

Yeah, I left around 38 I believe.

[geoffsebesta]

sorta what I was thinking there.

[kainnived.livejournal.com]

And now they're both dead, again.

[iskander]

Really what happened this time? Last I heard they died in Final Crisis only to have it pulled back (AGAIN! STOP THE INSANITY...)

[galateus]

Blackest Night #1 happened.

Now it's Hawkzombies vs. Ray Palmer.

[iskander]

eck. Any work on the future of the two ? If anyone can kick Magog's ass to the moon it's Hawkman.

[kainnived.livejournal.com]

It was sad really, Kendra and Carter finally work out their issues only for their hearts to be ripped out on pannel by the blackest night zombies of Ralph and Sue Dibney.

So yes Geoff John's saved Hawkman only so he could graphically murder him later.

[jlbarnett]

hey, it's possible they'll be resurrected.

Damage is a BL in Blackest Night and around in JSA All-Stars.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, considering that they're the two characters who canonically ALWAYS get resurrected - who, in fact, have lived thousands of lifetimes since the days of ancient Egypt - I'd say they have a better chance of being brought back than most.

[jlroberson]

It gets better. The original couple, who were the heart of the power battery on Zamaron(explain? Is that something that's ever been mentioned before?), have been revived as BLs too.

So we have at least TWO Zombie Hawk Couples.

[iskander]

I'm sorry I quite BN after the first issue. I picked up 6 after I saw good thing. I was amazed at how little had happened and easy to pick up the story.

What do you mean Hawks in the lantern ?

[jlroberson]

I mean, there they were(with wings yet), the Egyptian originals, sealed in crystal inside the Zamaron battery and, apparently, powering it.

As far as BN, actually it's been pretty easy to follow the story if you just read every other issue. The last one amazed me, because of the seriously nasty cliffhanger ending to the one previous, and, you know, NEKRON SHOWING UP AND EVERYTHING. And then? Well, to be honest, only one thing actually happened in this issue, Nekron had only one goddamn line(once again whining about his growling stomach or something), and everyone gets a power ring. The issue is so full of double-page spreads that, in story terms, it amounts to the length of a preview, and, um, can I see Nekron doing awful things and revealing big cosmic secrets yet, because THERE'S ONLY TWO MORE ISSUES, YOU KNOW?

The issue was a heavily-padded waste of pages. I don't like that because it really did start off strong and mean, and it's getting weaker all the time. Not only that, but now, when bad things happen to our heroes, it gets undone too fast for you to even feel anything. And so all the deaths now feel cheap, where they were actually shocking at the beginning and I liked that. But in the same month you not only have Kyle die and then have it be immediately undone, but Diana too. I'm not saying they should have stayed dead. I'm saying if you're going to pull that at all, you have to give the death some dignity by giving it JUST a little time and some sense of loss.

[iskander]

How did they get in the Zamaron battery ?

[pyrotwilight]

A group of Star Sapphires took their bodies from earth as a source of power since they're legendary lovers fated to die over and over etc...

[iskander]

When was this ? Hmm, you might have thought Carter would have had them in safekeeping if something ???? JOHNS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pyrotwilight]

Hmm, couldn't say exactly without looking through my issues. Pretty sure in 45 or 46 of in Green Lantern. 45 showed them being taken to Zamaron and put into the battery and then I think in Blackest Night or the following GL issue they (Khufu and Chayara) were turned into Black Lanterns.

[iskander]

Look, I just want a nice stable ,consistent Hawkman back...(pounds head into desk several times in frustration)

[jlroberson]

I have no idea. It was news to me. But there they were.

[jlroberson]

It's what they do best.

[autumn_lily]

OoOoOoOO...Baby Ruth! Yum!

[iskander]

Yeah the ad used to be on Youtube, but alas taken down. Truly one of those "what the hell were they thinking" moments.

[galateus]

a humiliating Baby Ruth candy-bar commercial

That sounds hilarious. *searches*

Ah, here we go! Can you copy/paste this into the entry?

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</embed></object>

[mcbangle]

Thank you! That was golden.

[iskander]

Wow thanks !

[silverzeo]

So not only do they pick Hawkman of all people for a commercial, but stuck with his 80s outfit, with mullet and ninja start armband, but they also mention Lion-Mane, a character that nobody but hard core comic nerds and furries would know about? Wow.... this commercial is more faithful to Hawkman than that Dragonball Evolution movie was for Goku.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Now I'm curious. Who is this Lion-Mane?

[silverzeo]

http://www.comicvine.com/lion-mane/29-5798/

[psychopathicus_rex]

Ah - a space-were-lion. I was kind of expecting something like that. (Well, not necessarily the space part, but the were-lion bit, yes.)

[anewchallenger]

I've never understood the appeal of Hawkamn (or, by extension, Hawkgirl) because at the end of the day, he's a guy who flies and hits thing hard.

Half of the heroes in the DCU can do this, and then some.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, sure, if you judge your heroes by their powers, he's not terribly interesting, but he does have other things going for him. There's the whole Planet Thanagar thing, there's the ancient Egyptian aspect, there's the fact that he wields various types of ancient weaponry, there's the stuff with him being reincarnated - there's plenty of stuff to find interesting about Hawkman, if you look a bit closer.