Monday, December 19, 2022

No Hawkgirl? Boo.

Or is it Hawkwoman right now? Either way, she's on the cover but not inside today's book: from 2017, Death of Hawkman #5, "Out of Time, part 5: Embedded" Written by Marc Andreyko, pencils by Aaron Lopresti and Rodney Buchemi, inks by John Livesay.
Rann and Thanagar are at it again, but this time despite their years of antagonism it's not all their fault, as Despero has been pulling the strings behind the scenes. Only Adam Strange and Hawkman can stop him, although I'm not sure why Despero doesn't hypnotise them as well: he's got Alanna filled with rage and pushing towards war, the believed-dead Sardath doing his nth metal science project, and Cyborg back on earth listening to Adam's distress call and thinking he's talking about his vacation.
I don't love New 52 Adam, who's a little too jokey; and Hawkman gets back to his cop roots by using excessive force even for Thanagar. (His boss hits all the cop show cliches except for asking for his badge and his gun! "You're a loose cannon, Hol!") This is kind of reminiscent of Wolverine's death--was that about the same time?--where Hawkman's healing factor is failing him, and he's pretty burnt out on life to boot, but he's still more than willing to throw himself on the proverbial grenade. I was more worried about the apparent death of Thanagar's greatest Green Lantern, Isamot Kol: Hawkman's cop partner Rayn Kral gets the ring, and I'm not even sure we saw him before this series. (Spoiler alert: Isamot's OK, just banged up! He makes an appearance in the last issue, along with a Kilowog cameo, which just makes you wish he had been in the series more.)
I have two copies of this one, but am missing #4. There's also a variant cover to #6 by Sienkiewicz, that'd be the one to get.

3 comments:

  1. Mr. Morbid5:28 AM

    Death of Wolverine was 7 years later in 2014.

    But speaking, my GOD was DC going in hard on making him a Wolverine clone and everything with this version. Not even remotely trying to hide it were they?

    Hawkgirl/Woman's exclusion really is weird isn't it? Did they ever explain away her absence or just not bother to even mention her at all?

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  2. I didn't even know Hawkman had a healing factor to being with. Is it some side effect of the Nth Metal, all the reincarnation stuff (I know starlin tried to excise that at one point, but I can't imagine it stuck), something else?

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  3. Mr. Morbid9:49 AM

    @CalvinPitt: Yeah that was a recent addition during the Phew52 era, and yes the Nth metal played a LARGE part in that happening.

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