Hawkman - Is the truth really out there?

[Emerald Archer]

Fellow forumite Barry Allen started a tread about what title people were considering dropping. After some thought it came down to Hawkman for me.

Why? First it's because Hawk is still mired in the disaster that was created for him by the retrocon of Crisis, and then the worse retroconing of Zero Hour. A few months back I asked a question in the forums as to which comic character had been abused the worst by their publisher. At the time I said Green Lantern. But I was wrong. Hands down it's Hawkman. What was once a noble character has been turned into a shadow of his former selves. All of them.

So the question I ask is simple. Can Hawkman ever regain his stature in the DC universe, and is he so broken as a character, that perhaps it would be best for DC just to let him fade away?

Those who are reading the Hawkman comics, are you enjoying them, or do you find something lacking like I do???

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I say there's plenty that can redeem Hawkman as a character, but if and only if the Powers That Be at DC wave their magic editorial wands and just say the whole thing never happened. Start over. Give him his own little mini-Crisis, wipe everybody's minds clean, and make the continuity mess go away. I'd settle for a little letter at the start of a new Hawkman #1 that says, "Boy, did we goof this one up" right before it starts all over again. Most Hawkman fans really, truly hate the continuity mess that is Hawkman. Everybody else isn't going to care.

There's nothing wrong with Hawkman as a character. I've always had a soft spot for the Winged Wonders, and I thought a lot of John Ostrander's stories in the Hawkworld comics of the 90's were quite good. I really like what they've done with Hawkgirl on Justice League, and think she could form a great foundation for newly revived Hawks in the DCU (though maybe without the ludicrously overpowered mace).

-- Ed/Ace

[Emerald Archer]

A year or so back I found a website that tried to give a coherent history of the Hawks. THe site went for several pages trying to bring some sort of internal logic to the messed up back story. The author did a really good job of trying to bring sanity to the story. He went almost story by story from Hawks first appearance to the more recent Hawkworld story line. Some stories fit into the consistancy without problems, others the author basically said to ignore. After pages and pages of scholorship the final paragraph just amazed me. He basically siad that the best thing DC could do was to wipe out the chracter, apologize for being so stupid, and start from scratch. Sounds familiar:)

[Jor-El]

Archer,

I don't think that they necessarily even need to go back into the difficulties of Hawkman's past. At least, I didn't think that they did. I felt that when he returned to the DCU in JSA #23 and the subsequent issues, he was on the right path. For many issues, they never really took the time to go into a huge back story of how he could exist and how he was related to the other Hawkmen or anything. I thought for awhile that they were just going to ignore it and effectively start back from square one.

And that's how they should leave it. Trying to deal with the mess created by the editorial decisions regarding Hawkman will only bog down the book further, and right now, it's bogged down heavily by truly bland artwork and next to zero story. The best thing Johns can do with this title (and that's what hurts about this title, isn't it Archer? The fact that the modern greats are on it, Geoff Johns & James Robinson, and the book still isn't good!) is to ignore the past and keep telling new stories.

[Emerald Archer]

Barry,
I so agree with you. If they can't, or won't start over, just ignore the past. However, it looks like that isn't going to happen. They are about to launch into a story arc that goes into the former lives of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I cringe when I see that the first past life is going to be a western gunslinger named, "The Hawk". Just want Hawkman needed, another past life to really confuse the picture. Seems like they may be about to make things a lot worse.


Emerald Archer