In 1964, DC was having some success revamping some of its older characters for a new generation of comic readers. Their revival of the Flash as forensic scientist Barry Allen ushered in the Silver Age of Comic Books in 1956. In 1959, Green Lantern's light shone again as test pilot Hal Jordan. 1961 saw the return of the Atom as shrinking scientist Ray Palmer, and appropriate for this entry here, Hawkman was reborn as alien police officer and prince-turned-Earth museum curator named Katar Hol, who took the name of "Carter Hall" as a nod to his Golden Age predecessor.
At the time, editor Julius Schwartz had built a team of writers and artists he liked to work with: writers Gardner Fox and John Broome, and artists Mike Sekowsky, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and Sid Greene. This team had successfully revamped several Golden Age characters in the past, so who was next? Well, why not Zatara? After all, the magician had appeared in many adventures from 1938 until 1951 (He first appeared in Action Comics #1, but was quickly overshadowed by a certain blue-and-red spandex-wearing super-strong super-tough guy), and Gardner Fox had written pretty much most, if not all, of those stories.
Instead of outright reviving the missing sorcerer, they decided to create a story in which Zatara had vanished, but his newly-introduced daughter Zatanna was on the case. They also decided to do something a little different. Instead of having Zatanna's search for her father be wrapped up in one issue, why not spread it across several issues of different books, allowing her to team up with multiple heroes? Yup, Zatanna's Search innovated the multi-title crossover. The first superhero she would encounter in this innovative event was Hawkman, in whose book she made her debut.
So, with all of that out of the way, let's take a look at Hawkman #4!
The cover is pretty cool. It shows Hawkman falling towards a car with little lightning bolts falling out of it. It's a well-drawn cover, drawn from the book's second story, which I do not have (more on that later).
"The Girl Who Split in Two!"
Writer: Gardner Fox
Artist: Murphy Anderson
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: Unknown
Editor: Julius Schwartz
The story begins with a woman crashing into Katar Hol's office in the Midway City Museum. She's a guide who had been working in the wing of the museum specializing in Asian artifacts. However, one showed up that she had never seen before, and this confuses Katar. How did that artifact get there? Nothing gets displayed without his approval, and it has been weeks since he registered a new exhibit. The guide shows him the statue.
Katar identifies it as a statue from China's Shang Dynasty. But it's not the only strange new artifact. A Celtic ceremonial cup has appeared in the Irish exhibit. He takes the exhibits and shows them to Shayera Hol, his wife, and the winged heroine called Hawkgirl and in the future, Hawkwoman. And since this was a comic from the 1960s, she was the secretary. Katar tells her about the artifacts' mysterious arrival, and Shayera thinks that maybe Hawkman and Hawkgirl should investigate. Hawkman heads to China, while Shayera hits green, green fields of Ireland.
Hawkman somehow manages to fly to China, and goes towards the Henan province. The book misspells it as "Honan". A group of men spot the Winged Warrior, and fear that he's come to loot the city of Yin. They fire on Hawkman, forcing him to dive behind a wall. Shayera kept nagging him to put on a shirt, but Hawkman just has to show off just how jacked he is. Hawkman pulls out a 17th century grenade launcher from his belt, and uses it to fire some rocks at the men. He then flaps his wings, creating a dust cloud. Hawkman prepares to take the bandits to the local authorities when he sees this.
A confused Hawkman thinks it's a statue at first, until he realizes that it's a young woman, stiff as a board and talking in words that seem to be missing letters. He figures he can puzzle over the artifacts later, this woman needs some help. Meanwhile, in Ireland, Hawkgirl is flying near an ancient abbey. A group of criminals who have holed up there have spotted her, and fear she was sent by Scotland Yard to catch them. Not wanting to take any chances, they try to shoot down the Pinioned Policewoman. Should've brought your mace, Shayera.
Shayera wonders if the goblet was part of a trap. She grabs a slab of paving stone and uses it as a makeshift shield. She smacks two of the men with the stone (That would hurt), and then deals with the third with a dropkick. She spies a woman standing stiffly, mumbling strange half-words.
Shayera discovers the woman is alive, and takes her up to their spaceship in geosynchronous orbit over Midway City to run some tests. The devices on the ship don't help out much, not revealing anything about the mysterious tuxedo-wearing lady. Hawkman arrives with the girl's seeming twin, much to Shayera's shock. They then make a discovery about the twin girls' odd speech.
It turns out that the mysterious speech of the twin girls are actually half-words. Put them together, and it's revealed that the "twins" are actually one woman that was somehow split in half. Thanks for the spoiler, title. The woman is Zatanna Zatara, daughter of the magician/superhero Giovanni "John" Zatara. She needs to be put back together. The Hawks push the two Zatannas together, and the sorceress explains that Zatara had disappeared some years ago, and she had sent out to find him. She also has followed in his footsteps as a stage magician/crimefighter. Hawkgirl uses that Zee's usage of magic is why her Thanagarian machines couldn't help Zee.
Zatanna had gone into a mystical trance in an attempt to locate her father, and she found him in the lost city of Yin...and at the Hill of Tara in Ireland. Zatanna is unsure of which vision is the true one. She also recalled of two menaces her father was trying to go after, a nameless Asian villain, and a being called the Druid.
In Zatanna's haste to find her father, she mystically split herself in half so she could investigate both places at once. However, despite her studies of her father's magical techniques, she overestimated her own skills and power. Her two halves ended up appearing in China and Ireland, but they ended up in places where groups of criminals were hiding out...and Zee herself was left immobile and nearly powerless. In China, the bandits didn't notice her. The criminals in Ireland did find one of her halves, but luckily for her, the men felt that she was harmless. Zee had to use most of her remaining power to teleport some artifacts from those areas to Midway City, hoping the Hawks would notice them and investigate.
Hawkman wonders why she chose the Midway City Museum, and Zee explains she knew the Hawks would help her if she sent them there thanks to her magic. This, understandably, makes Hawkgirl suspicious. She wonders if that means Zee knows about their secret identities. Hawkman outright asks if Zee knows who they are, but gets a mischievous smile in response and a suggestion to leave things the way they are. Yeah, I get the idea she did know their identities, but how she found that out is not revealed. How did she find out is my question. Did she use magic?
Zee wants to continue on her search, and Hawkman suggests that they could help. Using the Absorbascon (A Thanagarian device that allows the Hawks to read minds. This was how the Hawks were able to learn about Earth cultures and customs so they could live among humans without raising suspicions they were aliens), Hawkman scans for Zatara's mental signature...but finds nothing. Nobody knows of him, or knows where he is.
A horrified Zee thinks that means Zatara is dead. Earlier in the story, Hawkgirl was unable to help Zatanna due to her being a magician...maybe that's why the Absorbacon can't find Zatara. He may be mystically hidden away, and the Absorbacon can't detect magic. Would make sense. But instead, Hawkman suggests that maybe Zatara is alive, but amnesiac. Because...reasons. He tells Zee that if there's anything they can do to help, just let them know. Zee vanishes, out to continue her search, which she will in Detective Comics #336 (February 1965). Hawkgirl wonders if they'll see her again. Heh heh, they'll be in the Justice League together in the future.
The story ends with the Hawks heading back to Earth, planning to return the artifacts to their countries of origin, hoping the governments of those countries don't ask how they got there. They'd never believe it. Considering those artifacts are being returned to them by a pair of alien cops dressed as birds in a universe that has a superpowered alien, a superfast guy, an Amazon, the King of Atlantis, and an Earthman becoming a part of a group of space cops...I'd believe it if I was a government official.
Before I give my verdict, I want to fully disclose something. The scans for this come from the 2004 trade paperback JLA: Zatanna's Search. The trade has the story that introduced Zatanna. However, the actual comic (which I do not have), has a second story: "The Machine that Magnetized Men". The trade does not have that story. As such, I can only judge this story.
And as for the story, I think it's a bit thin and overly basic. It's short, but it's better a thin story be short than stretched really long. Zatanna is the primary focus, which is fine, as the whole purpose of the story is to introduce her. We also do get a bit of snippets of her personality, mainly that she's a bit of a daddy's girl, and she can be rather eager and impulsive. Despite this, Zee is shown to be a rather nice person, although I am wondering how she knew how to summon the Hawks. At least she has the decency to not go babbling the Hawks' identities. But I did like the nod to Chinese history here. Gardner Fox was a bit of a polymath, and his works often referenced various topics.
Murphy Anderson turns in some fine artwork here, with an amazing amount of detail. It's utterly beautiful, and I can't help but think that Anderson could be one of the more underrated artists of the Silver Age. People talk about Kirby and Ditko a lot, but I don't think Anderson is mentioned as much. Based on his art here, that's a shame.
If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend the 2004 trade JLA: Zatanna's Search. It collects the whole crossover, and it also includes a short story from DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (December 1980) that detailed the origins of her father Zatara. It took a while to figure out which comic it was from as the trade didn't say.
This'll be my last blog entry for about a week. I'm heading off to Las Vegas for my sister's wedding, so I won't be able to write anything for a little while. But I shall return, so don't any of you worry! When I return, my next comic review will keep us in DC's Silver Age! We'll join Hal Jordan as he battles Sinestro for the first time...
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