Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Get reincarnated like three hundred times, maybe you'd be suave as hell too.


Aside from the constant need to reboot, relaunch, and retcon him; I'd say Hawkman's biggest problem is that when a creative team finds something that works for the character, by god they're going to ride that horse into the ground. I don't know if this issue is there, yet, but...from 2004, Hawkman #29, "Fate's Warning, part 2 of 4" Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, pencils by Ryan Sook, inks by Mick Gray.

This was mid-way through Hawkman's possibly most successful revival, the origin involving multiple reincarnations for himself and Hawkgirl. While they had been lovers in all their prior incarnations, they weren't here yet; and this issue Carter Hall was working his sexy "professor voice" on pretty jazz singer Domina Paris. He was using his museum to pick her up, which seems somehow crazy impressive here. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl had been continuing to fight crime in St. Roch, and may have been at least a little jealous; at least some of the cops didn't like the Hawks, and the sensationally-named "Angel Killer" had been murdering people and leaving the bodies staged in poses like said Hawks. Attempting to save a victim, Hawkman is surrounded by the cops at the end of the issue...

If this hadn't been the second part of four, Domina's fate might not seem as obvious as it does here: that she's totally dooooooomed. But she's also shown as prone to "spells," possibly having second sight. She describes blood and feathers and a monster wanting her to sing to him; Kendra almost seems to put more credit in Domina's prophecy than Carter does. On the other hand, without the grounding influence of Kendra, Carter seems more curious about what his life would be like with a new love. You may have to keep wondering, Carter; but I wonder if this issue wasn't a tipping point for overuse of the reincarnation angle. Possibly because I was thinking Domina may have herself been reincarnated, but she may have merely been precognitive...

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

What also pissed me off was how DC undid all of Johns' work in the span of one issue where Starlin basically undid Johns' creative fix. So stupid.