Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Hawkman!

Okay, I did a title search on this and didn't see anything, so if there is a thread dedicated to the new book, please merge this.

Okay, I've been getting the Hawkman series since the eighties on when I could find it. The last one that Geoff started was very good, and ended badly. I'm a fan of the character, and some of the latest stuff before the BN/BD stuff was great. However, there were also some misfires, like what they had Starlin try to introduce. That just fell flat.

As to the new series, I haven't read any of the Batman stuff by Tony Daniels, so I have no idea how good a writer he is. I hope he's pretty good and the writing will generate some good buzz. I also haven't seen a lot of Tan's artwork.

I can't say I like the new mask initially, but I'm not against it either.

I do like that Carter is the main character. However, apparently, this won't be a continuation of the character from recently. This could be good or bad. The character has suffered from way to many bad retcons. But, Geoff went a long way to repairing things and making it work.

This is definitely one of the few books guaranteed to be on my pull.

So, any more fans of the High-Flyin Hawkman out there?

There's a thread somewhere way back, because we all used to praise the GrayPal run on it, but I don't know where to find it or how to merge it.

When Geoff Johns relaunced HAWKMAN, I thought it was okay, nothing great... that all changed when GrayPal came onboard and started revamping Golden Age villains... those stories kicked ass... and the return of Golden Eagle had me on the EDGE-OF-MY-SEAT... (I may not have liked how it ended up but it was still a great story).

I'm giving this my good-ol' 1-2-3 "Septmember 52" chance, we'll see what happens.

The new series will be on my pull list. I'm a Hawkman fan from way back and have stuck with the character through various incarnations. Personally, I prefer the Thanagarian police officer version but enjoyed Johns and GrayPal on the most recent series.

I'm not up to speed on recent developments because I sat out Blackest Night and Brightest Day. I'm hoping that DC really takes advantage of the relaunch to simplify the back story. Visually, the Hawks work better than just about any other characters in the DC universe.

I'm also a huge Hawkman fan and I'm definately going to pick this up. I like both the Carter and Katar versions / premises of Hawkman and have always enjoyed the complexity of the franchise's continuity.

My father & I own all of Hawkman's various series, which are all historically a mixed bag. The last run started off pretty good with Johns and then got really great with Graypal. Following Graypal's departure, it took a serious nose-dive in one of the worst 'dropping of the ball' scenarios in recent memory. Making it Hawkgirl? C'mon, seriously.

Tony Daniel is a great artist but his writing has really left me cold on Batman. Billy Tan is a fantastic artist though and I've liked his work. I'm skeptical about the writing but I'll certainly give the series a chance since I like the character so much.

I agree that GrayPal were doing some interesting stuff with the older villains. But I also liked the old timey pulp feel that Geoff brought with the first arc with new villains.

As for Tony Daniels, I'm more than willing to give him a try, but he's really gonna have to be on his A game to keep me hooked and enjoying. Oh, I'll buy the book, but keeping me enjoying it.. that's another matter.

me too ...I am hoping to see Hawkman's "classic" foes will be back - Hummingbird, the Lasso, Purple Pilgrim, Lionmane, Manhawks, the Fadeaway Man, etc.

would love to see Kendra's daughter to make an appearance...who will be the new Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman this time is what I am being intrigued. hmmmm.....

so yeah I am definitely gonna read new Hawkman!

Is anyone enjoying the new book? I like it so far, but it needs a female presence now. The first year did a great job of both tying together all his lives and re-incarnations, and also gave a sense of real danger in that he "never knows" when he's saved enough lives to make up for all his destruction. (Kinda like what Marv Wolfman wanted to do on Flash after crisis, having him live on borrowed time). So he could "finally die" at any time.

Oliff as the new artist is good. And while I liked Hitch, his art seemed a little...antiseptic... to me. Don't care for the new mask much, but that's just a personal look and taste on my part.

And it really needs Sheira.

Have I said that it needs Sheira?

I’m worried about what Hawkman becoming corrupted by the Batman Who Laughs over in the big event will do to this book. It seems unlikely that it will just be ignored.

I have to admit I haven't been reading ANY of the big event books. I'm just tired of them. That said, I know something happened to effect Hawkman, he was..."Jokerized"? but no clue as to what it means.

I’ve been ignoring them too. I just know that Batman Who Laughs has created his own Secret Six by corrupting six heroes. Although they all look really evil in the art, so I don’t know how they’re secret. The six are Hawkman, Shazam, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Donna Troy and Jim Gordon. Notably, three of those headline their own books.

I'm not a particular fan of the "Dark Metal" storyline that introduced the Batman Who Laughs. I can see the appeal of including the character as another foil for Batman but the stories aren't really to my taste.

As a brief background, in his universe Batman ended up killing Joker (accidentally or on purpose I can't remember) but as he died Joker's body released a cloud of dust he had setup beforehand. This contained some sort of super joker venom that infected Bruce and twisted his brain patterns into the Joker's from of madness, creating the Batman Who Laughs - still the genius detective and superb fighter we know but with the Joker's twisted mindset. He ended up killing all the other superheroes in his earth and was the right hand of the main antagonist in the miniseries. At the end he was left in our main DC earth, at first a captive (of Luthor? not sure) and then a free agent. In the first issue of Batman/Superman we learn that he has synthesised the super Joker venom from his own body and created six batarangs containing it which Jokerise the heroes on contact.

Stile, I can't say I've read Dark Metal because I've been avoiding "event"s like they are contagious. So I don't know the storyline. Will it play well with the new Hawkman book?

Stile, I can't say I've read Dark Metal because I've been avoiding "event"s like they are contagious. So I don't know the storyline. Will it play well with the new Hawkman book?

But from Millenium / Legion we know that in eighty years Supergirl will be President... of something? So no consequences?
(Or maybe she's President of Joker Venom Pharmaceuticals?)

Sorry I haven't been following Hawkman so I can't really answer that. Storyline wise Dark Metal involved a number of alternate Batmans who had all gone bad one way or another - one stole the Speed Force from Flash, another had been in a relationship with Wonder Woman but after she was killed by Ares had then killed Ares and taken his helmet and mantle as God of War, and so on. The Batman Who Laughs had gathered them all together in service to some sort of dark bat god to invade the "light" multiverse where things hadn't taken the turn for the worse. The JL beat them back in the end using Nth metal and breaking the Source Wall (oops) but the Batman Who Laughs remained. Hawkman had a part to play in the discovery of the Dark Multiverse but I haven't followed him since.

I've been wondering about that. Still it is some 80 years in the future and although she is obviously meant to be Kara, she is only ever referred to (apart from President) as Superwoman, so future writers could easily retcon that away as someone else. That is if we don't have another universe rewriting crossover event in the meantime.

As for the other infected characters I imagine the effects won't be permanent. Someone will figure out a cure, although some may have permanent/temporary deaths.