“Yesterday’s” Comic> Hawkman #0

Hawkman pays a visit to Burning Man.

Hawkman #0

DC Comics (October, 1994)

“Eyes Of The Hawk” prologue: “Old Scores”

WRITER: William Messner-Loebs

PENCILER: Steve Lieber

INKER: Curt Shoultz

COVER ART: Lee Weeks & Steve Buccellato

COLORIST: Buzz Setzer

LETTERER: Albert DeGusman

EDITOR: Jim Spivey

With Zero Hour behind him, Hawkman returns to his friends, only after events in his own comic that included merging with different versions of himself or something, even his love interest feels so distant from him. But he’s still willing to protect his friends when Badblood, a guy whose blood can become deadly acidic tentacles…I think…comes seeking revenge. Hawkman kills him and his own gang and even Badblood’s blood is used against him. Meanwhile, someone watches and plans his next move against Hawkman.

Who is he? I don’t know and I don’t care. This feels like someone who doesn’t know what to do with the character and doesn’t understand Grant Morrison’s obsession with combining all incarnations of a character. Merging the current Hawkman with his previous selves? Something about hawk gods and hawk champions (and of course tying it all to those mystical Cherokee because that never fails to be one-note and insulting–yes, yes, I’ve defended this line of thinking but it does reach a point of stupid, like this comic) and it’s not the Hawkman I remember from the Filmation and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This was the first time I saw Hawkman in comic form and I just came away very confused. Not surprisingly I didn’t buy the series after that.

I also didn’t like seeing Hawkman straight up killing bad guys. Fictional worlds can operate any way the writer wants as long as it’s believable to that world, whether it matches ours or not. (Show me the talking magic ponies or space lesbians made out of crystal.) So I reject a lot of the reasons given for why heroes should kill. (The big problem with the Joker is that the writers went too far with him and that’s why his being kept alive is stupid.) Then there’s the whole part of him being distant from his supporting cast…which I assume based on what I know of certain writers to be an attempt to push away the supporting cast, his not knowing who he is, or just his characterization in general. The parts I can figure out despite not reading the previous issues still makes no sense to me.

If there is a positive it’s the artwork, which is very good at times, but that’s not enough to keep my interest in this train wreck of a story. I’m adding this one to the purge pile, and starting with Anima I knew this was going to be happening a lot with the rest of the Zero Hour Aftermath comics I picked up. They did all seem like good starting points but now we’ve gotten to the stopping points, and a few of them are new series being introduced. This is one to skip unless you want to see the artwork, coloring, and lettering.