Convergence: Hawkman #1: "Revelations"

[superboyprime]

'I just want to show people that you don't have to change what it is about these characters that made them appealing back then. You can jump right in and show them as they were, and people will accept it. I always learn this lesson watching my kids read old comics. They're never thrown because they're reading a reprint of something made 50 years ago. That never messes with them. They just accept it. They don't care that the characters don't have cell phones. People have really weird ideas when they say, "This book is so dated because they're riding skateboards" or whatever. That stuff never matters. What you do is strip down to the classic things we all relate to. All the basic humanity in the world doesn't change, and everything else is just some weird dressing.' - Jeff Parker

Comments

[captainbellman]

Ganesha, God of Wisdom, Remover of Obstacles, Son of Shiva and apparent poster boy for Hinduism within every aspect of Western culture. Sigh.

[lieut_kettch]

Well, she was going for the theme of the juxtaposition of animal and man in mythology. Though you wonder why she didn't use an Egyptian diety like Anubis or Bast given the Hawks' (arguably confusing) background.

[quatoria]

Well... she did. I mean, Anubis is right there on panel, and she mentions the 'egyptian displays' they've already covered in her lecture, before we joined the action.

[sagrada]

Hey, Ganesha is a great guy. At least it's not like back in the olden days when all people knew about Hinduism was human burnings and Kali the Murder-Goddess...

[captainbellman]

True, true, it's just...it carries the risk of people seeing it as a monotheistic religion, and worse as a stereotype. They had a beautiful exhibition on him in the British Museum last year, and when I showed it to my (then) girlfriend, literally the first thing she said was "Mr. Simpson, please do not offer my God a peanut".

(She joined UKIP later that year, so maybe my anecdotal evidence is inherently biased. But still.)

[sagrada]

She joined UKIP later that year

I am so, so sorry to hear that.

On the other hand not a lot of the devas have such clear animal attributes. There is Hanuman, I know. Mostly I think modern writers don't want to accidentally make a sticking point in the story that needs those IGNORANT SHEEPLE to do a Google search while trying to read a comic. It's a shame Ganesha's become the de facto Hindu Deity Man to stick in the background or reference. Like if Christian iconography was most-associated with images of the Magi or the Jordan dove, or something.

[bruinsfan]

I knew about Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva from Thor comics long before I ever had a class that dealt with world religions.

[captainbellman]

True, but that was a better time. What've we got now? "God Is Dead"?

[jekylls_salvation]

No one will ever fix Hawkman.

[captainbellman]

...Mayyyybe Christopher Bird could?

http://mightygodking.com/2008/08/11/just-when-i-think-i-am-out-they-drag-me-back-in/



Quite honestly, I would buy so many trades of "Big Dumb Scumbag" Hackman blundering his way in and out of situations.

[silicondream]

I just want to show people that you don't have to change what it is about these characters that made them appealing back then.

So you say, but what's that newfangled Silver Age "Thanagar" nonsense doing up in this story then, hmm? The only Carter Hall I recognize is the original character, from the penny-dreadfuls of 1814, a hod carrier of good breeding whose patented Ultra-Invigorated Pneumato-Hawks defended the Atlantic seaboard against rum-runners and Catholics.

[halloweenjack]

I feel like the lede is being buried here: Tim Truman is still around, and unlike Howard Chaykin's latter-day work, I feel like Truman's art may have actually improved with age--it's less heavy than his stuff on Scout and Grimjack.

[philippos42]

I was going to say. They got Tim Truman to draw this? Wow.