Convergence week 7 (and a Sensation Comics)

On to the last two weeks of Convergence comics.  Reviews will be split into two posts.  Spoilers ahead.

Convergence 7
So we finally have some familiar and likeable heroes, boshing the bad guys.  There's a giant rocky triangle shaped thing with a face, disembodied arms and two curved extensions coming up by the side of his head.  I have no idea who he is.  Deimos is still around, causing trouble.  Apparently Demios is an existing character, not invented for this series.  He looks like Dr Strange,  I assume Telos was invented for this series.  I don't care about either,

I wonder what this main Convergence title would read like if read in one chunk.  From week to week, it's felt dull and by the numbers.  It's editorially driven and it doesn't feel like the creators care about the story, which is a shame because comics always read better when the creative team care about what they are doing.

Anyway, Deimos is destroyed, the chronal energy he was containing is released, triangular rock dude breaks apart and tells new 52 Supergirl and Superman that all of reality is breaking apart,  Nothing in this story has made me feel like this is a momentous occasion.  It just feels uninteresting.  I reviewed Zero Hour for New readers...start here recently, and even with all it's faults, that story felt like it existed on a grand scale and deserved my awe.  Convergence doesn't.  Flashpoint didn't either.

Convergence: The Adventures of Superman 2
Kal and Kara are in the Phantom Zone, fighting the Kryptonian criminals imprisoned there,  Kara knows she has to get Kal out so that he can fulfill his destiny in the first crisis, but he doesn't know about this and boots her out.    Kara thinks for a few seconds and contrives a way to pull Kal out, leaving the criminals behind.

Meanwhile Kamandi and his mates are trying to work out how to stop the ape army wanting to take over 'Greenwitch' - I guess this refers to an American Greenwich, not the London one. The Super cousins join in the fight and the apes actually think they can beat them. Ha.  The absolute certainty of the cousins and their skills is nice to read.  No second guessing, no tactics to hurt them, juts the knowledge and certainty that they will win, because why wouldn't they? Who could beat a pre crisis Kryptonian?  No one, that's who.  I loved this issue.  It's a keeper,

The preview is for Martian Manhunter.  I didn't like it and I don't think it does J'onn justice.  the story has a suspicious, dark tone and that's not what I'm keen on reading.

Convergence: Wonder Woman 2
Also a keeper.  Lovely, lovely art by Aaron Lopresti, Matt Banning, Tanya and Richard Horie and Tim Napolitano.  The character designs for the vampires are lovely too.  Diana is perfectly in character, heroic and a warrior,  She takes the time to talk to Athena to figure out her plan.  She's not fazed by the vampires.  She doesn't revel in her victory over them.  I want to be that sort of person.

The preview is for Secret Six but it's a different Secret Six to the pre 52 version.  I'm not interested in it.

Convergence: Hawkman 2
The Hawkguys are fighting giant bats and giant rats. Then they (Katar and Shay) get strapped to a giant rocket and Shayera frees them.  They work with the other Thanagarians to defeat the giant rodents and get a peak into the future - the first crisis.  Then they fly off into the light declaring their love for each other,
Possibly a keeper.

Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders 2
I don't care about this or the Batman Beyond preview in it.  To be got rid of.

Convergence: Swamp Thing 2
I realllly don't like how Swamp Thing speaks.  Pauses in sentences irritates me.  Swampy joins up with vampire Batman, and it turns out that this is a Batman I am interested in.  So clearly he dies at the end.  Interesting introduction to Swamp Thing, but not a keeper.

The preview is for Catwoman, I'm not interested.

Convergence: the New Teen Titans 2
These aren't my Titans and I've never cared for this era.  I can see why people like these issues, but they aren't for me.  The preview is for Robin Son of Batman.  It's an OK preview, but I won't be buying it.

Convergence: Flash 2
I am so bored of Barry Allen and this is a love letter to him.  The preview is for Suicide Squad, the new 52 more badass Squad.  I do not care.

Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-heroes 2
This has Atomic Knights riding giant dalmations.  I know a winning idea when I see one.  Having said that, I think I preferred issue 1 to this.  I def preferred the art in issue 1.  Superboy does the heroic thing and the Knights don't fight the Legion.  I'll probably keep these issues, now I have discovered a fondness for the Legion.
The preview is for Teen Titans, which like most of the rest of DC's line, just doesn't interest me.

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps 2
This is not as much fun as issue 1, but still enjoyable.  Hal is being a bit stupid and using old fashioned ring constructs (hands etc) which is what I like to see.  John is John like and Guys is Guy like.  He steals Hercules' armour and then gets his ring recharged.  Good fun for Green Lantern fans.
The Gotham Academy preview shows what is probably a solid book, marketed at teens and reminds me of Gunnerkrigg Court webcomic.  As I've read Gunnerkrigg court I'm not interested in reading this.

Convergence: Justice League of America 2
Good fun for fans of this JLA team.  I guess it's nice to see Vibe, Vixen, Steel and Gypsy get credit for saving the day, even if it's Zee, J'onn and Arthur that really finished everything.
The Batman/Superman preview makes me want to cancel my standing order.

Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman 10
My head was full of Convergence when I read this so I don't think I appreciated it enough. I think this book is aimed at readers who want to see Diana in explicitly feminist stories, so I think it will turn a lot of people off.  For me though, it's great.  Especially with the backup story being mythological.  It's these books that make me want to cancel my in continuity titles and just get the standalones.  They are so much better,

Convergence week 3

This week's comic are pre Crisis.  I hadn't realised some of these eras were pre crisis, but fine.  Spoilers (probably) ahead.

Convergence 3
I'm quite bored of the bat centric nature of this main series.  There is a nice Skataris scene though, so maybe next issue will be more interesting.

Convergence: Justice League of America 1
It starts with Ralph and Sue being lovely and then explains how the dome has affected the other JLA members.  Aquaman is now unable to breathe underwater, which is at odds with other domed Aquamans where he can't survive without water.  Well, it's not directly incompatible but the insinuation is there.  The Martian Manhunter was trapped in human form without telepathy.  Steel's cyborg tech shut down and he was on life support.  Now the dome is lifted and everyone is back to normal and ready to fight.

I don't get why the dome affects some guys' technology and not others.  Other than the writers deciding this is so.  Ah well, this was an OK issue.

Convergence: Hawkman 1
Another really good one.  This is less about forced fights and more a showcase of why Katar and Shayera are great.  There are Thanagarian criminals.  I'm writing the review of this comic last and now I'm out of comments, sorry.  It's a darn good comic though.  I suggest you all read it.

Convergence: The Adventures of Superman 1
This isn't really a Superman book, it's all about Kara.  Kara and Clark are in Gotham, trapped under the dome and powerless.  They decide to exit the dome via the phantom zone and try to reemerge outside of the dome.  This is actually a pretty good idea.
As I said, the issue is all about Kara being heroic, getting acknowledged by Superman, and dealing with the sudden knowledge of her death in the crisis, but still deciding to soldier on.  This is why I like Supergirl.  She's strong (emotionally), she's brave, she's kind, she always does the right thing.  She's not supercilious, she's not arrogant, she's humble and puts others before herself without being a doormat.

There are continuity errors in this book, but the core of the characters is right and it's a delight to read.  Highly recommended.

Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders 1
My boyfriend just saw the cover to this and named it Batman and the Disco Avengers.

That is my review.

Convergence: Flash 1
I enjoyed this but can't really bring myself to review it as it's all about Barry, the dullest of the Flashes.

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps 1
Ooh yeah.  This has Guy, Hal and John.  Guy is back teaching kids and is also in therapy, which doesn't seem very Guy like.  On the other hand he's not as obnoxious as he was usually depicted, so perhaps this is just the effect being domed has on him.  I was pleased to see Guy reference Hal moving on his fiancee. I'd forgotten about that, but man, it goes to show that Hal is a jerk!  John Stewart was good.  Hal is acting exactly like Hal, but doesn't look like him.  The art is wrong.  At the end they all get their powers but as Hal has the power battery Guy can't power up, so he rides off on a motorbike, reminding me of Cliff Chiang's Black Canary/Green Arrow art.

This is good stuff for Green Lantern fans.

Convergence:  The New Teen Titans 1
I really enjoyed this,  I didn't think I was fussed about this era but it turns out it's fun!  Dick is wearing his stupid disco outfit.  He's married to Kory and they are having problems, because she is ruled by her emotions and really hates criminal thugs.  There is a crystal wielding girl who I never even noticed on the cover and Jericho, who pretty much just walks around moodily.  Donna is really missing her husband Terry (who I have always thought is a bit of a prick)t and others keep coming to her for relationship advice, which hurts her.  The Tangent universe Doom Patrol comes to fight them but this isn't a vicious-let's-murder-everyone fight.  The DP want tech to get back home.  One of them contacts Dick to talk.  This was a pretty solid issue,

Convergence:  Legion of Superheroes 1
I liked this so much I bought a copy for my friend's 15 year old daughter.  The art is unusual - people's eyes are really big and the colours are rather washed out, but on the whole the comic worked really well.  Not a lot happens.  M,ostly the LoSH are talking about what's going on and Superboy is rallying the city.  However this somehow makes for a very enjoyable comic.  And the cover is really nice.  It's simple but very pleasing to the eye.

Convergence: Swamp Thing 1
This started with a recap of Swamp Thing/Alec Holland's origins, which I really appreciated, as I haven't read any Swamp Thing before.  It left me wanting to read the Alan Moore run.  This particular issue reads like a mild horror comic more than anything.  I really liked it.  Worth buying,

Convergence: Wonder Woman 1
This is wonderful!  Diana is perfectly Diana and the issue is all about heroism.  I love this issue.  Def a keeper and def worth reading,

Killing Hawkwoman

So, seeing as the whole DCU is gonna be rebooted after Flashpoint, what the fuck was the point in killing Hawkwoman off at the end of Brightest Day?    I mean, Flashpoint has changed the world already so the new universe doesn't have to tie in with the old, at all, so why not let Sheira survive Brightest Day?


After reading this interview I am keeping a more open mind about Babs becoming Batgirl again.  But given the choice, I would prefer her to remain as Oracle, as a wheelchair user.

Comic reviews!

Spoilers after the jump for Brightest Day #23 (but no mention will be made of the identity of the White Lantern), Secret Six #32, Young Justice #2.
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Here's an interesting thing

Apparently when I'm an overtired zombie I can't tell the difference between Secret Six and Birds of Prey.  Which is how I came out with Secret Six #27 today and now have the title on standing order.  I blame the dinosaur on the front.

It's a very cool looking dinosaur and it's being ridden by Bane.

Spoilers ahead.









So, the Six are in Skataris fighting another bunch of villains, except they're not really fighting them as Scandal is friendly with Jeanette (who turns into the Silver Banshee at one point) and Bane (whom she's stabbed thinking he was her father).  Ragdoll is fighting a giant shark who likes pale white meat and now has one eyeball hanging out, thanks to Ragdoll.  The Six are now forced to quit the fight as they are surrounded by armoured dinosaurs. Catman is turned into the symbol of the resistance and is given a very fetching and beefcakey outfit.  Meanwhile, Spy Smasher is trying to pull a fast on Amanda Waller.  This is not a good idea.

Fuck knows the background to this issue but I quite enjoyed it.


Superboy #1 was a solid opening issue.  We get a supporting cast, ruminations on his life so far, Krypto, the Phantom Stranger being all silver age-y and ominous (Connor is all modern and cut the bullshit-y), Parasite is on a revenge spree and then Poison Ivy turns up very unexpectedly.  Last of all we have a retro 'coming up' page - Ivy and Connor work together, Connor and Bart race, there's some new titans and Connor crosses the multiverse.  Looks like fun!

Brightest Day #13 continued the retcons that we've had so far - nor Geoff Johns is fleshing out the backstory of Chay-era's mother.  It struck me that I probably shouldn't be pissed off at this, because Rebirth was all retcon too and that worked out fine.  Surprisingly, Hath Set appears to have now been killed by Hawkwoman.  There's some fantastic splash pages of Hawkman, and some not so fantastic alpha male-ing of Batman.  I do not want Bruce to be the goddamn White Lantern (altho the Goddamn White Lantern might be fun).  Bruce Wayne is not the answer to fecking everything.

I write more things

This weeks comics reviews coming up.  Spoilers for Brightest Day #4, Jokers Asylum II: The Mad Hatter, Joker's Asylum II: The Riddler.
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Brightest Day #4
Well this was interesting.  One of the things I like about these weekly or bi weekly books is the character studies we get to see.  52 was very good at that as it introduced me to Renee, Isis and Osiris.  Brightest Day is going to re introduce me to characters I haven't read in a while, and woudl otherwise not really get to see.

Looking at the Hawkpeople, I am mostly relearning that Carter is a bit of a dominating bonehead and that Sheira is letting him walk all over her.  I am willing to be shown that initial interpretation is wrong though.  And I still miss Kendra.  I love the land they've ended up in.  There's something about flying cities and/or flying lumps of earth that's makes me shiver.  I particularly love the chains linking the earth lumps, how intriguing!!

I'm really excited about seeing Dove in this book.  We didn't get to see enough of her in Blackest Night so I'm glad she's being picked up in here.

The new Aqualad story is off to a good start, and hey it's nice to see they've managed to being in a black guy instead of killing them all off.  I have no clue who this Mera lookalike is, but to me she looks like a cross between a pink and red lantern Mera.

Lastly the Firestorm story has me intrigued again.  Ronnie in civilian clothes bores me, much like how Kid Devil in human form bored me.  The skinny white skater boy look is dull.

Jokers Asylum II: The Mad Hatter
Ahh, now this was bloody excellent.  Far and away the best book of the week, and not something I had expected to be written by the same guy who did Supergirl Cosmic Adventures (Landry Walker).
There's a lot of repetetive dialogue in this (mostly about tea) and it works, as it reinforces the Hatters madness and struggle within himself (mostly not to drink the tea).  I've only come across the Hatter in Secret Six before but this Hatter fitted with that Hatter really well.

Keith Giffen and Bill Sienkiewicz did the art, which is also excellent.  Half of it is like the cover, scratchy and threatening, and half of it is childlike in primary colours.  Which also fits quite well with the Secret Six book too I suppose.

Anyway, it's really really really good.

Joker's Asylum II: The Riddler
I didn't intend to buy this.  I meant to buy the Harley one instead.  But as I didn't check the DC website before I went down to the shop I just picked up the first 2 Joker's Asylum books I saw.  Then got home and realised I should have bought the Harley one.  Oh well.  This turned out to be pretty good as well.

Like the other books this week (is this an 'I get to re-discover characters week' or something?) I have only come across the Riddler a few times elsewhere, mostly in the Gotham City Sirens books.  This story is from before he reformed and features him searching for love.  Except cos he's unhinged he's actually a stalker and then threatens the young lady into being with him.  Still, a good book.

I think I'll have to remember to pick up the Harley one next Thursday.  I shall buy it instead of GA #1.

Wednesday Comics!

Finally, finally I get around to reviewing this!  It’s been a busy few months for me, but now I finally have a new job (!!!) I should have lots more free time.  So I reckon I will use it to blog.

What did I think of Wednesday Comics?  Well, the Supergirl and Wonder Woman strips were far and away the best, I think.

I really enjoyed the layout, colours, lettering and dreamlike quality of WW.  Not to mention that Etta Candy was fantastic and the portrayal of Diana herself excelled all expectations.  Fans of the silver age Wondy should have loved this strip as so far as I can tell it’s got all the components of that era’s work.

As I’ve said in previous reviews, I loved the Supergirl strip.  Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti did really really well.  Connor’s simplistic art worked very effectively, (she draws very good cats) and with only a few lines she creates a wonderful sense of mood.  As to the last strip, I thought it very dull and a bit of a let down until I got to the twist.  This is a somewhat overused twist but it worked and left us with a feeling of fun.  Great stuff.  I also feel somewhat vindicated over my love of Kara, in that she got headline status on the last issue.

Honourable mention goes to the Hawkman strip, which has to be the manliest thing I’ve read this year, and possibly the manliest thing I’ve ever read.  He taunts a T-rex then takes it on single-handedly.  He nearly yells that he’s the goddamn Hawkman.  He dives into the mouth of the aforementioned T-Rex and cuts his way to the reptile’s brain with a handy knife he had stashed away, in order to kill it.
Now if you’ve ever read anything more manly I’d like to know!

So, apart from Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Hawkman I wasn’t really impressed with Wednesday Comics.   I won’t be buying the hardcover, and until they reprint the 3 strips I do like in a cheaper and more collectible format, I think I shall be sticking with the weeklies.  This is unfortunate, as I have a space problem.

Reviews part 7: The what makes a good (comic) story edition?

Covering comics from last week, herein lies spoilers for Red Robin #2, Superman World of New Krypton #5, Booster Gold #22, Green Arrow/Black Canary #22 and Buffy #26.

I feel like I’ve been reviewing so much lately it’s getting a bit tiresome. Due to this, I have taken a themed approach to this week’s reviews, apologies if it’s a bit wanky.

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What makes a good story? Everyone has their own tastes and definitions but I reckon that there are also common defining traits. You want engaging characters, you want an interesting plot, you want something to excite you and there’s that age old cliché – you want conflict. Of course, each individual defines this in their own way, which leads to all the differences in opinion.

Take Red Robin #2. nevermore999 didn’t like this issue. She feels that Tim is a complete ass. I agree, he is moody, rude, disrespectful and possibly having a little breakdown. He’s completely isolated from other heroes and this issue shows that he’s doing that on purpose.

Now, nev doesn’t say whether she thinks the issue is good or not, and i’m not going to assume anything, I’m more using her post as a jumping off point. To me, even though Tim is an ass, I think it’s a good issue. It’s illuminating (darkening?) to see how far Tim is pushing those closest to him away, and it also shows how much support he does have, should he choose to utilise said support. We are again shown Tim’s fighting skills, deduction skills and vigilante methods (the voice). With Bruce gone I think we need to see how Tim is growing into a darker identity – the costume was the first indication of this, now we’re getting the other day to day stuff. I think Tim’s anger with Steph spying on him reinforces this.

For once the cover to this book enhances the story inside. We see Tim-as-Robin fighting Spoiler, in the light, we also see Tim-as-Red-Robin fighting ninjas, in the dark. So he’s fighting everyone, in both aspects of his life.

So, this comic shows that you can still have a good story without liking the protagonist.

Superman: World of new Krypton is a different beast. Whereas Red Robin is an ongoing and therefore has more time to build plot and character etc, this book is a maxi series and has to move the plot along to a pre-determined end, within a set number of issues. Whereas Red Robin was reinforcing Tim’s ‘new’ character, brought about because of the recent events in Gotham, this Superman book has a whole new world to show us. We need to get to know, in a short space of time, as many characters as facets of Kryptonian society as possible. This issue brings us a lawyer, insights into dissident factions of Krypton, the trial system, new knowledge of how much Kal-El inspired his fellows, a traitor, the hope of a new planet and an assassination. Each factor listed above is dealt with clearly and concisely, so despite this being a packed issue nothing is confused and everything serves a purpose.

This book is borrowing much from the Superman films – I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to get chills when viewing the trial scene for the first time. The artist and inker have done a fabulous job in reflecting the mood of the text – the trial scenes are so dark and gloomy and the last few pages when the dome is lifted are so colourful and gentle, perfectly in keeping with the mood of events being depicted.

Booster Gold 22 is an exercise in nostalgia. This issue is produced for old school Titans fans and is mostly all fight. There’s not a lot of depth, there’s no insight to the characters and nothing is resolved. It may appeal to the aforementioned Titans fans but it’s not got a lot of substance. Verdict: Interesting characters, bikinis and a couple of fight scenes doth not a good story make.

Wednesday Comics is the new format comic from DC. What Booster Gold failed to do in a normal length book Wednesday Comics does in nearly all 14 of it’s one page stories.

The Supergirl strip introduced us to the action with a father and kid looking at puppies, giving us a human angle to countermand Kara’s Streaky and Krypto chase, and threw in some humour to boot.

The Hawkman strip uses very few words, most of which consist of ‘flap’ but conveys a sense of loyalty and unstoppableness from the Hawks that left me intrigued as to how it will play out.

Metamorpho is an example of an author having a blast writing something. Gaiman has such a feel for the style he’s emulating you can’t help but smile at it.

Wonder Woman is very surreal and stands out amongst the other stories because it’s very ethereal and because it depicts a much younger Diana than we are used to seeing.

I won’t go through any more, but will conclude by saying that this format showcases the variety of comic writing and art styles and gives us 14 examples of how to write comics without pandering to continuity.

Continuity brings us neatly onto Green Arrow/Black Canary #22. Looking to the stars hates this issue. I think this is chiefly because of the retconning of Dinah’s origin and the way she has been written out of character. I do not believe that this makes it a bad story in itself, although I do accept that it may be considered a bad story in view of years of continuity.

It is the concluding story of the deaf arc which has featured a lot of one Dinah Lance. I have previously written about how I thought this book was rubbish because of it’s failure to live up to the shared name, that if it was called Green Arrow it would have been fine, but with a double billing you need to reflect the title in the plotlines. That’s now been fixed, just before they revert to calling it Green Arrow and give Black Canary her back up feature.

I have enjoyed this storyline, despite the retconning of Dinah’s teenage years. I am happy for retcons to occur, believing that what is written at the time is correct for the character and to say otherwise if fan entitlement, which isn’t for me. I’m more concerned about whether the plot is done well, regardless of whether it is a good idea or not. I think the flashbacks to teenage Dinah are done well, the relations between Ted, Di senior and Di junior are believable and what’s more the art fits. Young Dinah looks like adult Dinah.

Discord’s origin was done well, Dinah’s saving of herself and Discord from the roof explosion did her credit and showcased her as a hero. The parallels between her teenage self and her adult self were drawn, although to what purpose I’m not sure. As it is, that particular aspect and one other are the only faults I have with the story.

In order to make a story good you need to have everything in place, it needs to flow and what you don’t want is for something to jump out at the reader and make them go wtf. If that happens is spoils the story. My wtf moment in this issue was the discussion between Discord and his brother about deafness.

Discord: What I do cannot be considered true hearing. The device I am wearing, of my own design, transmits audio information directly into my brain, bypassing my damaged hearing organs. Yes, I hear, but the sound in my mind is gritty and coarse. It has been stripped of tone and poetry. And beauty.
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Brother: This could revolutionise the world for the hearing impaired. Deafness could be cured.

Three problems – firstly, the effect of what Discord is describing sounds very similar to a cochlear implant. Which is quite a small thing, certainly not a great hulking piece of machinery strapped to your arm and head. They’ve been around quite a long time.
Secondly, due to the existence of the cochlear implant this makes the brother’s comment redundant. Thirdly, Deafness doesn’t need to be cured. In fact, ‘curing’ Deafness could be tantamount to linguistic and cultural genocide. It looks to me like the writer has done fuck all research on Ddeafness. This exchange threw me out of the story and will discolour it for me.

The back up story, of Green Arrow this issue, presumably because the main story was about Black Canary, had Dinah confront Ollie about his violence. This has been a long time coming and is one of the nice things about comics – because they are such a long running media you can tie everything together and seemingly innocent words or actions can be shown to have great value at a much later date.

Buffy # 26 is part of season 8 and in a similar manner to DC comics has a lot of back story and universe history to build upon. Sadly, it is not doing such a good job of this as GA/BC. I have lost sense of the overall plot, the art is horrible and I have no idea where this is going. I don’t have a feel for it the way I have a feel for the TV based seasons. The writing isn’t too shit hot and the odd quips that are thrown in can seem rather forced. There are a few humourous moments but these are mainly reminiscent of incidents in previous, not a new action/event/piece of dialogue that occurred due to where the plot is now.

A (very) personal niggle about Buffy season 8 is that every issue I am liking the art less and less. In the comics medium this is going to be a problem. To get something really outstanding, you need to have that match between the dialogue, plot and art, and you need all 3 areas to be good. For me, the art just isn’t very good. This throws me out of the experience (much like the Ddeaf stuff in GA/BC).

So, now I conclude. In my own (highly personal and definitely subjective opinion) I think what makes a comic good is the juxtaposition of good art/dialogue/plot, believable characterisation and relationships and research. Sometimes this believability can exist only for that story arc (GA/BC), sometimes it comes from building on years of character history (Red Robin).

Incorporating a fight or other popular characters is not always a recipe for a good comic. As much as I’m keen on explosions and high kicking ninja shenanigans they don’t mean a lot if there isn’t any substance behind it.

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Thank you for reading this exercise is self importance. Ooh heck, I feel like a bit of a wanker now. Crumbs.

Hawkgirl dissatisfaction

I was *so* pleased with Hawkman, I really enjoyed all of it, there was so much good stuff happening and it was a really layered and mature story. OK the last few issues before One Year later were a bit off, but tbh I haven’t yet found a DC title that wasn’t a bit off in the few issues just before and around Infinite Crisis.

Hawkgirl had a change of writer in Walter Simonson and it was crap. The depth of relationship between her and Carter has gone and thought bubbles were introduced. Ugh. I think Simonson used the narration boxes and thought bubbles to echo more old fashioned styles, so maybe other readers got a kick out of it, but I hated it. Or would it be the letterer (Rob Leigh) responsible for this? Either way, I’ve read other Simonson books and I’m sure they’re usually more enjoyable than Hawkgirl, so maybe it is just a matter of taste (or generation?).

The end of the run saw Kendra and Carter fighting Hath-Set again, and after 3500 years, defeating him. This should have been more interesting than it was. Hawkman was written by Geoff Johns, then Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and any of them would have done this last fight far better.

This fight irked me in that it was a reminder of how Hath-Set had been dropped by Johns early on in Hawkman and then ignored until the last few issues of Hawkgirl. Suddenly Hath-Set can possess many people’s minds and not just one descendent at a time. An explanation for how this came about would have been nice.

Also, Kendra suddenly has telekinetic powers over her wings. Why? My final jibe is over the art – about half the panels in every issue has Hawkgirl’s nipples on prominent display. I guess after Infinite Crisis she always gets the horn when fighting baddies.

There were a couple of good bits, the 2 issues with the female furies and a giant robot Kendra were pretty cool, but that’s more about the art than the writing. Simonson also expanded on how Sheira’s soul joined with Kendra, which was useful to me. On the whole though, I’m very glad I never bought the Hawkgirl trades.

To take away from the crapness have some cover and internal art, mostly from Hawkman:







Kendra does make a damn fine robot:

Turns out I’m a sucker for eternal romance

Take Hawkman v4. The Hawk folks are destined to meet life after life after life after life and be together. Isn’t that what the books and the fairytales tell us is best? To be together forever and ever? Maybe that’s not such a shit hot thing.

Every life you live you will make friends, find new people to love and care for and lose them. You’re trapped in a cycle which never changes, offers no possibility of change and in which he can never have peace. Prince Khufu and Chay-ara will never get to heaven; they will be reborn again and again and fight crime and evildoers again and again and be murdered, by the same reincarnated soul, again and again.

Imagine knowing how you will die. Imagine knowing it’s inevitable. Most of us think we’re immortal. We don’t want to die and we can at least pretend we’ll die of old age in our beds surrounded by our loving families. Now imagine knowing that you have never had this, will not have this in your current life and will never have this. You are destined to die a painful grisly death.

How tragic. How could you cope with that century after century after century? Wouldn’t you just want to shut yourself off from the world? A-ha, but you are not alone. You have your one true love reincarnated with you every time. You can cope, you both have your memories, you can comfort each other. You've always got someone you can unerringly count on, who will always be there for you. You're a unit. Until the current life. When this reincarnated Chay-ara has no memories of her past lives and thinks that this Khufu is a pervy freak. Then what would you do?

The reincarnated Hawkman and Hawkgirl/woman is a brilliant idea. And so far, give or take a few lazy continuity mistakes, it’s been executed very very well. However, a few questions for those more in the know than I:

Are the Hawkfolks meant to always know of their past lives? For example, at age 5 can they remember their past lives or do they have to have them triggered?

There was a reference to Kendra Saunders dying and Chay-ara’s soul inhabiting her body. Wha’? Can someone elaborate? I’d like to know more of this.

Kendra had a baby?? Who by? When??

Carter had a son but he’s not Hawkgirls? What? Isn’t that cheating? I think this goes back to when do they become aware of their past lives.

I wonder if they’ve ever been reincarnated into two male or two female bodies. That’d be interesting. And how do they find each other each time??

To sign off, I leave you with my minimate Hawkman on guard in the flowerbed:




grr gnash BOSH!

WFA's back!

Hurrah!! And it looks liek I'll be picking up Action Comics from now on. It's got Supergirl in it. And a really lovely drawn Kara at that. And what looks like irreverent wittiness as the dialogue.
Hurrah!

I'd also like to point out these panels from a recent Hawkman comic. An example of truly truly bad writing. Who agreed to that?