Welcome back to the Society Pages, a column that looks back at the ‘modern’ history of the Justice Society of America. The main thrust of this column is to look at “JSA” and “Justice Society of America,” two ongoing series, written for most of their runs by Geoff Johns.
Today, after an internet blackout issue delayed the piece from Friday, we look at the last big story for Palmiotti and Gray’s “Hawkman” series, which sees a rollout of trope after trope, some working well, with others falling quite flat. This week’s issues are available as the “Hawkman: Rise of the Golden Eagle” collection, or on DC Universe Infinite.
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin GrayCover by Joe Bennett
Penciled by Joe Bennett, Dale Eaglesham, and Stephen Sadowski
Inked by Ruy José, Wade Von Grawbadger, Larry Stucker, Drew Geraci, and Jack Jadson
Colored by John Kalisz and Sno-Cone Studios
Lettered by Pat Brousseau, Ken Lopez, Nick J. Napolitano, and Rob LeighA stunning new collection featuring HAWKMAN #37-45! Madness and mayhem plague Hawkman and Hawkgirl as they battle an alliance of adversaries from the past! But it is that startling return of Golden Eagle that sends the greatest shockwaves through Hawkman’s life!
One note that doesn’t really fit in here, but I think bears mention: it is wild how many letterers DC was using on one title back in this era. Four letterers over nine issues seems incredibly excessive, and it either means that the lettering is wildly different from issue to issue, or the lettering is so milquetoast that the reader doesn’t notice the abrupt changes. Neither of those options is very good!
Anyway, the story picks up with Carter and Kendra finally kinda sorta falling in love. This was bound to happen at some point, as this is a Hawkman title, and fate and love go hand in hand with these two, and Gray and Palmiotti manage to do their best to make this union not creepy, despite Geoff Johns using the past three or so years to remind the reader just how creepy this actually is. Carter came off like a real intense stalker at times, and because there isn’t a ton of time put into Kendra’s mental state, it almost feels like she just got tired of rejecting him, or let herself be so worn down by his affections that she essentially just gave in. This isn’t explicit in the text, but absent giving the reader more from Kendra, it all feels a little abrupt, especially as Carter finally seemed to move on when he met the now deceased lounge singer whose name I can’t be bothered to look up. It’ll come to me.
Joe Bennett continues to do perfectly cromulent superhero work in these pages, even if his Kendra is always displaying her chest in awkward ways, but that was, and is, sadly a pattern in superhero comics. I like Bennett’s action sequences quite a bit here, as they tend to focus on Carter’s savagery and sheer strength. The fight sequences, despite not being significantly bloodier than other comics, feel a little more adrenalized and brutal, which works quite well for the book. This works especially well when we see Carter paired with another hero, especially those that are less likely to just mace a dude repeatedly in the face.
The main thrust of this arc is the titular Golden Eagle, an often forgotten Teen Titan who was presumed dead, who shows up in St. Roch and proclaims himself a new hero on the block, both to the police and to the the Hawks. If you’ve never read a comic before, he may seem like an ally, but there are a bunch of clues as to his true motives just below the surface. It isn’t a brag to say how early I could tell he was full of shit, because I’m pretty sure my 8 year old daughter would’ve seen it coming just as quickly.
This is the weakest part of Palmiotti and Gray’s run, and not just because of how transparent the ‘secret’ really is. The bigger issue is how this arc runs through just about every potential Hawkman trope you can imagine, and adds nothing new to any of them. We get a glimpse of past lives, a false death, a false paternity claim, Thanagar, the long-foretold love between Carter and Kendra, excessive violence; it all just seems so by the numbers. And the stuff that could’ve been interesting, like if Golden Eagle was somehow Hawkman’s son, is rendered inert through poor scripting. There are a lot of interesting ways to have handled that, but by just shoving some Thanagarian nonsense in at the last minute doesn’t accomplish anything.
Continued belowHaving Hawkman’s ‘death’ be a spell faked by his son, aka Dr. Fate, to fool both his friends and Kendra is yet another predictable piece of this story. How many times has a hero faked his death to his friends and family and then returned ‘fine.’ Not only that, but by having Golden Eagle dress up as Hawkman, we get the same ‘last page of the issue cliffhanger’ return of Hawkman twice. His ‘resurrection’ should’ve been a surprise, or at least a triumphant moment, but the mojo was wasted when it was a fake out. Sigh.
One of the issues with Hawkman as a character is the jumble of his past, which is one of the reasons that the Robert Venditti-scripted series of late was so fun, as it leaned into that jumble and had a lot of fun with it. Here, it just seems like it is used as an escape clause when needed, instead of using it to do anything we haven’t seen before. Golden Eagle being of Thanagarian descent could’ve been a fun aspect, but to make all the pieces of continuity fit, there had to be mind-altering and parental abandonment, and haven’t we all had enough of that?
Overall, this arc was more or less fine, but it had hints of being so much more. As we near the end of this volume, it seems like DC editorial wanted to have Hawkman back, and wanted to have pieces like Hector Hall as Dr. Fate on the table for folks to use when they wanted, but didn’t have any real ideas about what the character should be doing, aside from being around to be a heavy hitter in the next big crossover, or allow the JSA a classic member.
On Friday, we return to the JSA and tie into “Infinite Crisis” while we are at it!
