Hawkworld #1 (August 1989)

In the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC saw an opportunity to revamp and update many of its iconic heroes. One of those heroes was the high-flying mace-wielding alien avenger known as Hawkman. 

Hawkman, like many of DC's most iconic characters, has been around for a very long time. The original version of Hawkman debuted in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). This Hawkman was Carter Hall, an archaeologist who was the reincarnation of an Ancient Egyptian prince named Khufu. This Hawkman used ancient weapons (most iconically a mace with a spiked head) and a winged harness made of a special material called Nth Metal (originally "ninth metal") to fly. He would go on to be a member of the Justice Society of America.

In the 1960s, Hawkman was one of the heroes DC revamped for the Silver Age. As such, a new Hawkman debuted in The Brave and the Bold #34 (February-March 1964). This Hawkman was Katar Hol, an alien policeman from the planet Thanagar. Like his Golden Age counterpart, Hol would end up a museum curator, using the alias "Carter Hall" to live amongst humans. And also like his Golden Age counterpart, he would be a member of a superhero team: the Justice League of America.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, many characters would get revamped to take advantage of the newly-unified singular DC Universe. Hawkman was one of them. Hawkman's Post-Crisis revamp was a three-issue prestige format miniseries called Hawkworld. The miniseries sold well, leading to an ongoing series of the same name. The Hawkworld ongoing (1990-1993) would last 32 issues and 3 annuals. Timothy Truman, the writer/artist of the miniseries would contribute plotting to the first six issues of the ongoing alongside John Ostrander, who would go on to write the rest of the series solo. 

The comic I'm looking at here is the first issue of the 1989 miniseries. Did this do a worthy job of reviving the Winged Warrior for the Post-Crisis DCU, or did it crash and burn like a badly-built spaceship? Let's find out in Hawkworld #1!

The cover is a Tim Truman piece. It's a bit basic, depicting Hawkman in a snazzy uniform and holding a gun. It gives me the vibe of a pulp novel cover. 

"Flashzone"
Writer: Tim Truman
Penciler: Tim Truman
Inker: Enrique Alcatena
Colorist: Sam Parsons
Letterer: Tim Hawkins
Editors: Mike Gold, Katie Main, Brian Augustyn
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano

The story begins on naturally...a bird. A bird being consumed by a lizard-like alien residing in a slum/poor village-like area of the planet Thanagar. He is sent scattering by a helicopter in the sky. 

"Yeah, helicopter!"

The occupants are military men, there to perform an operation. One of these soldiers is a young ensign named Katar Hol. Hol notices a large statue in the area, and realizes that the statue is of Kalmoran, an ancient Thanagarian hero. His commander reminds him that he's not an academic anymore. Hol has a small statue of the man himself around his neck. The helicopter arrives at its intended location. Another soldier, named Kragger, offers Katar a pill to help with some presumed nausea. But Katar's good. 

He and Katar fly out on their antigrav wings alongside their squad, and they find their target.

"I just wanted some cheese, man!"

Katar is a bit puzzled.

You see, humans live "topside". Hol was unaware there were any down here. Kragger basically tells him, "Oh there are plenty, but he got no wings like us, so he's a dead man." The target puts a gun to a child's head. The commander, Byth, orders a full assault on the building. Kragger and Hol make their way inside and find their man. The man tries to peacefully surrender, saying he just wants to see Byth. Kragger just blasts him, thankfully missing the child. Kragger takes some children out of the building, while Hol looks around. He notices a blank poster on the wall, and it gets him suspicious.

Hol tears it away, revealing a hidden arms cache. Byth compliments Hol on the find. Hol asks who the man was, as he seemed to know Byth. Byth tells him that he's just some psycho, and he's known to a lot of these people down here...because he killed many of their friends. Welcome to Thanagar's police force, Katar Hol. Welcome to the Wingmen.

Byth points out that Hol came from Thanagar's aristocratic class. He's the son of Paran Hol, a major figure on Thanagar. He comes from a world of no crime and suffering. Living in peace and plenty. But there's a price for that: The Downside. And Hol does not belong here. Katar leaves on a craft, clearly haunted by what he saw. 

The Wingman heads home, his domicile filled with artifacts and books. He finds some nice clothes hanging. 

Threads by Karlus Torn of Polara.

They were pressed for him as Paran wants him to attend a party. Katar ends up taking a pill Kragger offered him to get him through it. At the party, Paran introduces Katar to some other people: Commissioner Andar Pul, Administrator Thal Porvis...and his daughter Shayera.

Thal offers the Hols some Polaran wine. Katar asks if Thanagarians make their own wine anymore. The group engages in some small talk about Katar's potential future in the Wingmen. Shayera asks Katar if he's a collector, and Paran brags about his son's home being a practical museum of Thanagar's past. Shayera remarks that she is a collector as well and asks to dance. Katar finds himself dancing with her. She asks if Katar resents offworlders, but it's...not that simple.

Katar points out to her that everything around them is made by offworlders. The music, the wine, the goblets they're drank in, the clothes they wear. None of it Thanagarian. Paran Hol created the wings the Thanagarians use, the last innovation they can call their own. While they dance, the two accidentally bump into an alien waiter, causing him to spill the contents of his tray. 

"YOU HAVE TO PUT WET FLOOR SIGNS ON FRESHLY MOPPED FLOORS!"

Shayera's dress gets stained, and she is infuriated. The redhead attacks the waiter, screaming that her dress is basically worth more than him. The manager assures Shayera the waiter will be punished for this, despite it not being his fault. As she returns to her table, Andar and Polvis grumble about the alien species the waiter is from. Paran is more sympathetic to the waiter's plight, though. 

The next day, Katar goes on patrol with Kragger. The Wingmen have discovered that someone has been passing down weapons to the people in the Downside, and they're looking into who is doing so. The two find a potential lead. 

Meet Kutch'm "Kutchie" Ht'tar. Katar wants to ask him a few questions, but Kutchie is in no mood to do so.

Kragger takes the phrase "shoot in the foot" literally with the green alien. he then starts trying to beat some answers out of the alien...only for the two Wingmen to get ambushed. The two Wingmen fight back, only for Kragger to end up shot and killed. Katar takes his body away, much to the delight of the weapon supplier.

Yeah, Byth himself is the supplier. We then switch scenes to an island where Carter, Shayera, and Porvis are doing a bit of hunting. Provis provides a rifle to Carter, but he's got one of his own. An Impirium model Thanagarian-made rifle. Porvis flies off, leaving Shay and Carter to bond a bit. The two find a statue of Kalmoran on the island. Shayera's never seen it before. Carter explains the island they were standing on was where Kalmoran died. 

Back then, Thanagar was part of an empire as well, but not as the head...as one of the member planets. He was a slave of the Polarans. He killed his master, raised an army, and razed the Polaran homeworld. He had no interest in ruling the planet, he just wanted freedom. He came back to Thanagar and built a wonderous city. An elderly Kalmoran came to the island Katar and Shayera are on now. Joined by his beloved queen, he laid in her arms, looked back on all he had achieved, and then died. 

Shayera snidely calls it romantic, and then offers him a pill. He turns it down. The two find some ape-like beings on the island. Katar notes that they're foraging. He's fascinated by it, as it's something he's never seen before. Shayera shoots at them. She wounds one of the beings, and Katar goes to finish it off. He tracks the wounded creature to a cave. he finds the creature's mate and child...as well as wall drawing implying to be made by the creatures.

The story ends with a horrified Katar leaves the cave, and he leaves his gun and the little necklace of Kalmoran he wears on the statue.

I really like this comic. I think it's a fantastic, modernized take on the origins of the Silver Age-era alien Hawkman. I liked that the comic touched on themes of class inequality, and also touched on the irony of Thanagar, once an enslaved planet, now enslaving other worlds itself. The post-Crisis Katar Hol is shown to be a child of privilege, an avid student of history, fond of studying the past of Thanagar. One thing I did notice was characters like Kragger and Shayera casually using and offering various drugs to Katar, as if the Thanagarians' lives are so empty that they need drugs just to actually feel anything. It's...somewhat sad.

Truman also did the art for the comic. It's really nice, with a very moody vibe. The details in it kind of remind me of Murphy Anderson. I don't really talk about colorists often, but the colors also help contribute to the moody vibe of the art. 

Hawkworld would unintentionally end up causing some problems with Hawkman's history. You see, in the late 80s, a lot of characters were being given revamped origins. John Byrne's The Man of Steel, Miller and Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One, Jones, Giffen, and Priest's Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn, etc. Hawkworld was intended to be set in the past, like those miniseries. However, DC decided to use the mini to reboot the Hawkman mythos, much like they did with Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel. Problem was, by the time this miniseries came out, Hawkman had already spent time briefly in the JLI. This reboot would render not just all of Hawkman's Silver/Bronze Age history non-canon, but his Golden Age history non-canon as well. 

Future creators tried to fix it, but it got so bad that for a time, the character was considered "radioactive" by DC editorial. That meant creators were not allowed to use the character in anything. This is what led to the introduction of the angel Zauriel in Grant Morrison's JLA run. They had originally intended him to be Hawkman. Hawkman would properly return in Geoff Johns's JSA book.

In my opinion, the Hawkworld miniseries is a hidden gem of 80s DC. If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2014 trade paperback Hawkworld. Thanks for reading this blog entry!

Hawkman #4 (November 1964).

Zatanna. One of the DC Universe's premier magical-based superheroes. The mighty backwards-speaking spell-casting mage has been a long-standing member of the Justice League, had solo adventures, and has appeared in numerous media. Most notably, in Batman: The Animated Series, in which it was established her father, the Golden Age character Giovanni "John" Zatara, was one of the future Batman's teachers (mainly in escape artistry), and in Smallville, portrayed by Serinda Swan.

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...