WEDNESDAY COMICS #12

Nearly the victim of a vicious tyrannosaurus rex, the Hawkman is rescued just in the nick of time by his friend and Justice League of America teammate, Aquaman. With the Ocean King's fierce seahorse, Storm, cutting the ferocious t-rex's air supply off, the Winged Wonder is able to gather himself, and pulling a knife from its sheath, crawls into the massive jaws of his terrifying assailant.

Meanwhile, high above the Earth in space, the battle between the Makkorthian armada and the resistance put forth by the Justice League continues to rage. Just as things look their darkest, however, the reinforcements finally arrive. To Batman's relief, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter return from their own mission, and with their combined might, make short work of the invading star fleet.

Back on the beaches of Dinosaur Island, a second, and perhaps far more brutal battle has already drawn to a close. Using his knife to pierce the brain of the once unstoppable prehistoric beast, Hawkman has claimed the victory, thanks in no small part to Aquaman's aid. Not a moment later does the Pinioned Paladin's wife and partner arrive, chiding him on his duel and informing him of her own day's trying events. As Hawkgirl proceeds to shuttle away the thankful survivors of the downed airliner, Hawkman dawns her wings to follow in tow, and gives one last deserved thank you to his two saviors, Aquaman and his trusty sea-steed, Storm.

The battle against evil was won today, but in a world of plotting terrorists, invading aliens, and rampaging monsters, the Hawkman surely knows that tomorrow may yet bring an even more dire challenge in the unending war, and as always, he'll be ready to face it.

The End.

A great conclusion to a great strip. While Kyle Baker wrapped up the monumental fight scene between Hawkman, Aquaman, and the t-rex more quickly than I had hoped, he won back points for littering this final page with guest stars, as well as giving Hawkgirl the line of the week ("Wow, Honey! All I did today was save the planet! You rock!") Not only that, but he effectively managed to conclude both a space battle and a prehistoric one in a succinct and satisfying fashion.

And really, that's why I've been so entertained by this strip each and every week. Baker took all the aspects that make me appreciate Hawkman and put them together in an enjoyable and sensible way with relatively very little space to work with. Over the course of these past twelve weeks, we've seen Hawkman battle (seemingly) human terrorists aboard an airliner, then aliens from outer space, and finally a dinosaur on an island that time forgot. We've also witnessed him rescue a commercial passenger jet from crashing, using his wits and problem solving skills, eagerly contacting his friends and teammates when in need of assistance, and keeping a cool head throughout, even if demonstrating his more aggressive personality when necessary to help drive home a point or two.

In essence, what Kyle Baker did with twelve over-sized pages is effectively put on display why I like the Hawkman character so much, and he did so while at the same time showing that Hawkman remains a viable, multifaceted character when written properly. I'm not going to get into a Katar versus Carter debate here, because frankly, I'm sick of the entire thing. Considering Katar's Silver Age history, though, and Carter's as it presently stands, I'm of the belief that both characters could easily be featured in a story in the mainstream DCU in line with the one Baker just executed in his Wednesday Comics Earth, if I may call it that. Hopefully, given the success of Wednesay Comics as a whole, and the popularity and strong reception of Baker's Hawkman strip in particular, DC will finally realize all the potential that the Hawkman character still has, and coming out of Blackest Night, they'll elect to capitalize on it.

That's quite a ways away, however, and with this fantastic series now over, I'm sure the weeks between Blackest Night will go by that much more slowly for me. Wednesday Comics was a daringly different venture for DC, and one I commend them on for taking. It was an enjoyable read throughout, with not one truly bad feature to be read each week. It was a nostalgic blast just to open up and look at, let alone read, and it gave me the guarantee each week when I walked out of my local comic book shop that I was going to have something to look forward to when I got back home. I'm very much going to miss it, and I'll be the first one to sign up should a follow-up to Wednesday Comics be announced in the future.

Great job, DC, and thanks for the past twelve weeks. It was one heck of a ride.

It Was Only A Kiss

It's been a slow night, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get this off my chest. Confession time: I've never been much of a Brad Meltzer fan. Identity Crisis was my first ever real exposure to his writing in any form, and let's just say that I was less than impressed. Perhaps it was Deathstroke somehow managing to take down the Flash and Green Lantern--in addition to others, including Hawkman--in the same fight, or maybe it was that whole "just in case" attitude of Jean Loring's when it came to carrying around a flamethrower. Then again, I suppose it could be his propensity to use so many multi-colored caption boxes for each and every characters' internal monologues in the issues he scribes that one can easily lose track of who the heck is supposed to be talking. Whatever the cause, Meltzer's comic book work just doesn't grab me.

Yet despite the numerous problems I had with the man's Justice League of America run--Kendra and Roy "hooking up" out of virtually nowhere; killing the former's daughter unceremoniously off-panel to service said "hooking up"; renaming Roy "Red Arrow"; his plodding, low-on-action-heavy-on-dialogue plots--it's one, lone panel in particular that Meltzer was responsible for that continues to this day to fuel a misconception among DC readers that I as a Hawkman fan feel obligated to rebuff in any forum every time it arises. I like to call it, "The Kiss."

It all happened in Justice League of America #9, during "The Lightning Saga" story arc. In said issue, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Power Girl, and Arsenal (I am not calling him "Red Arrow") all go to Thanagar in search of a lost-in-time Legionnaire. Upon arrival, Peegee right away notices Roy's nonsensical attraction to Kendra, and more or less tells him he's barking up the wrong tree. When Roy offers a short quip in return, Karen says she's speaking from experience. It's at this point the now infamous panel made its debut. Voilà:

Ahem. Of course, given the nature of we fervent fanboys, conclusions were quickly jumped to. I suppose for many, the dialogue was only an afterthought, with the above picture--being worth the requisite thousand words and all--doing all the talking. Hawkman and Power Girl had not only shared a kiss, but they had slept together, were going steady, probably going to get married, and soon thereafter have many Kryptonian/Thanagarian/Egyptian-reincarnated-prince hybrid children. Except they weren't, because those pesky words on the very same page painted an entirely different picture.

Let's examine the dialogue, then, shall we? Immediately after the above panel, Roy's response to Karen is a stunned, disjointed, "Wait--you--he--no--!" This is where Karen obviously replies, "Yep," right? No. Instead, her response is a very flat, "No is right." So if nothing else, the most basic assumption we can draw from this series of events is that Karen made a play for Carter (which was "The Kiss"), and Carter said it wasn't going to happen. I honestly don't understand from where the confusion stems. In fact, I don't believe there is any legitimate confusion. Rather, I imagine the entire scandal is nothing more than a product of speculation from fanboys who just flat-out prefer the idea that Hawkman slept with Power Girl. It's simply a juicier line of thought, and any facts to the contrary are to be ignored. The facts are the facts, though, and if only people would actually take the time to notice them, "The Kiss" would be perceived by any clearheaded individual as nothing more than just that: a kiss.

But I'll even go a step further. In my mind, even the kiss being shared between the two can be a debatable issue. Now you're probably thinking, "Now you're the one in denial." Hey, I'm not saying it definitely didn't happen, but if there's anything to be argued with regards to "The Kiss," I think there's more evidence to support it not taking place at all than there is to prove a relationship or even a one-night stand ensued after its occurrence. My dilemma chiefly comes from the fact that the entire panel in question is tinted red. As I pointed out earlier, Meltzer loves color coding his caption boxes to identify who's saying what. When I first read JLA #9 all those many moons ago, the red coloring of "The Kiss" implied to me that we were seeing what Roy was thinking, rather than what had actually taken place, and Karen's dialogue which followed only further proved my rationale, I thought. Again, I'm not saying they didn't share that kiss, but I do think it's open to debate.

Ultimately, like all comic book arguments really, it's a petty thing to get worked up over. Power Girl's not a bad character, and I wasn't even averse to the idea of Carter and Karen getting together for a time, at least while Kendra was off gallivanting around with Roy, absurd as that whole scenario was. Throughout his existence, Carter's loved and lost all but one person in his life, and Karen is the sole survivor of a forgotten universe. That they're both more or less alone in the world, it would have oddly made sense for them to get together, I think. But the fact remains, they only ever, at most, kissed, and anything more drawn from "The Kiss" is pure fanboy fantasizing, as far as I'm concerned. That's what annoys me: Not the panel itself, but rather the perpetual supposition that said panel represents something which it very clearly does not.

Unfortunately, with words being as they are, and provocative images having the effect that they do, I suspect this won't be the last time I'll find myself addressing "The Kiss." Perhaps in the future, though, I'll now at least be able to limit my response to a brief redirect to this blog entry, and that will surely make the time I spent on this writeup tonight a worthwhile investment indeed.

Hawkman Revealed for PUBLIC ENEMIES

His voice actor, anyway. Courtesy of The World's Finest (with thanks to Otaku-Sempai for first bringing it to my attention), I learned earlier tonight that one Michael Gough will be playing the Winged Warrior in WB's newest direct-to-DVD animated feature.

A quick search on IMDb reveals that Gough is clearly no stranger to voice acting, though I have to be honest in that, with the exceptions of Lost Odyssey and Gears of War 2, I'm not too familiar with the bulk of his work, and even in those two exceptions I can't clearly recall his voice offhand.

That said, it's not as if he has a very high precedent to live up to. To this point, I don't really feel anyone has truly nailed Hawkman's voice. Both James Remar and Robert Patrick--who voiced the character in JLU and The Batman respectively--did a fine acting job, but their voices were a bit to clean for taste, if that makes any sense. I've always imagined Hawkman to have a commanding, even rough voice at times, without coming across as being too gruff or weathered. Victor Rivers, who voiced the Thanagarian villain Hro Talak in the Justice League episode "Starcrossed," has come the closest to living up to my expectations, but as he wasn't even technically playing Hawkman, hopefully Michael Gough will surpass that portrayal in this outing.

On a related note, The World's Finest has also posted the first review of the film's Blu-Ray presentation, which you can read here. There are a couple of spoilers scattered throughout, but most are in relation to the alterations and cuts made from the source material, so I doubt any of them will ruin your overall enjoyment of the film. And from the glowing nature of that review, this sounds to be one heck of an entertaining flick.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is slated for release on September 29 on DVD and Blu-Ray. I'll be counting down the days, myself.

WoNK #9 Preview Art

I'm sure anyone who bothers to visit my modest little blog here probably already checks DC's own, The Source, quite frequently itself, but just in case you don't, earlier today they posted a preview page from World of New Krypton #9. Really not much to see aside from some random Thanagarian wingmen flying into battle, but the final panel features what appears to be a red-headed Thanagarian in a position of power, and like most Hawkman fans I'm sure, I happen to hold a certain penchant for that type of comic book lady. But don't take my word for it; see for yourself:
Looks to be an action-filled issue, at least if this single page is of any indication. Can't wait to actually read it next month.

WEDNESDAY COMICS #10 & #11

As the passengers from the crashed airliner flee in terror, Hawkman does his best to draw the pursuing tyrannosaurus' attention solely to himself. Waiting until the enormous creature draws close enough, the Winged Warrior slams his ancient flail squarely into the monster's nose, drawing first blood. While further taunting the t-rex to completely capture his ire, Hawkman underestimates the beast's cunning, and is caught off-guard by a swift swing of his foe's massive tail.

Able to only crawl due to the shattering blow, the Pinioned Paladin nevertheless manages to evade his foe all the way to the island's shoreline, and effectively dives into the water just in time to avoid the ancient reptile's massive jaws. The water is not the Hawkman's natural environment, however, and as his lungs begin to burn for air, his salvation comes from two most unexpected allies. The prodding t-rex is caught off-guard by the bite of a shark, and his legs tangled by the tendrils of an octopus. As the tide goes out, the sparkling cover Hawkman once hid beneath is lowered, transformed into a massive wave, and it is only then that he learns the identity of his true savior: Aquaman has finally arrived.

To Be Concluded...

I'm actually glad I wasn't able to read these two issues until yesterday, back-to-back, as I felt #10 was extremely light on content; probably the barest since #1. Once again, Baker's nicely drawn, dynamic splash panels and witty dialogue kept it an enjoyable, albeit short experience ("Look! Look what I can do!"), but I think by itself, last week's issue would have been a bit of a letdown.

That's not the case at all, though, when having #11 immediately available to read after finishing #10. Baker held off much longer in formally introducing Aquaman than I suspected he would, waiting until the story's climax apparently, and all the way up to that appearance he continues to heighten the desperation of our hero. Much like Johns in Blackest Night, Baker does a fine job of reminding readers that having command over all of sea life isn't the lame ability at all that it's often portrayed to be, and I assume Aquaman fans are just as pleased with their favorite character's appearance here as I've been with mine's since the strip first started.

Baker definitely gets these characters, as I don't believe he could write them so convincingly in so short a space from week to week if he didn't, and the end result is a highly entertaining, highly exciting story that I can't wait to see the finale to next week. It's been a great ride these past twelve weeks, and while I'll be saddened to see Wednesday Comics draw to a close, right now I'm just as anxious to see how Kyle Baker's Hawkman wraps up.

BLACKEST NIGHT #3: It's On!

One thing I can't criticize Blackest Night for is having misleading covers. With a host of Black Lanterns on this month's cover, including our favorite Winged Wonders, the contents of the issue itself deliver the goods, with no shortage of living Justice Leaguers versus Black Lantern Leaguers. Better yet, it only takes one page turn to get to that action.

Before that page turn, however, we're given a brief rundown of Jason Rusch (the current Firestorm) and his girlfriend Gehenna's relationship. Instantly I was reminded of the Hawkman and Hawkgirl pages leading up to their demise in Blackest Night #1, and considering the touted alternate cover for this issue, I sort of deduced their fate right from the outset. More on that later, though.

So let's flip that page and... yeah, there we go. That's what I'm talking about! Hal Jordan and Barry Allen mixing it up with some Black Lanterns. Nice. And who are those two Black Lanterns over there, going right at Hal Jordan? Why, it's Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Awesome. Finally the Black Lantern Hawks get some lines this issue, with Kendra in my opinion having the quote of the month, spurring Hawkman on to make the Green Lantern use his willpower as it, "makes her hot." Kinky.

The battle ensues for quite some time, with Barry very smartly trying to sever Ronnie Raymond's (the original Firestorm) Black Power Ring from his body, only to see it has taken firm root, as well as Hal laying the smack down on Carter with his own big friggin' mace. It's around this time that Ray Palmer emerges from Hawkman's Power Ring, bloody, beaten, and disheartened, having witnessed what's befallen his best friend and the dead woman his ex-wife killed. He's not so out of it, though, that he isn't able to describe what he saw while in the ring. Turns out the things are laced with wormholes, channeling some sort of energy to... well, someplace. Helpful information, Ray.

Meanwhile, after receiving a distress signal from JLA HQ, Jason and Gen turn up as Firestorm only to find the place empty. In one of the better pages in the book, we're treated with a wall of monitors showing Black Lanterns popping up all over the planet, with the best one featuring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in D.C. And the undead soldier's line to the police who've shown up at the scene: "I have a name." Pretty clever, Johns.

Anyway, immediately after this, Firestorm discovers that it was Aquawoman... er, Mera (don't stab me, please!) who activated the distress signal, and she promptly gives the two young heroes a quick yet horrifying rundown of what's going on. She also demonstrates her deductive skills, telling the two to try and remain calm, because any emotion seems to attract the Black Lanterns like sharks to blood.

Back at the fight between the two Leagues, Bary, Hal, and Ray are being overwhelmed, when the Indigo Lanterns appear. Channeling and combing the power of Hal Jordan's willpower with her own of compassion, she's able to destroy both Ralph and Sue Dibny. From there, the five survivors teleport to the JLA's headquarters, where they meet up with Firestorm and Mera, and "Indigo-1" proceeds to flesh out what's going on. In a nutshell, darkness occupied this world first, light came second. And when the light was fractured, life was created, with each emotion deriving from a different piece of the spectrum. Well, turns out darkness ain't pleased with this, and he's once again fighting back to reclaim his territory.

Following this, Hal and Barry have a brief exchange, more or less in the form of exposition to help catch up newer readers and give everyone a sense of just where these two characters are coming from. The two make amends just in time for Black Lantern Firestorm to make one heck of an entrance, and Indigo-1 teleports out, with only her companion and Hal in tow, leaving the rest of the heroes to fend for themselves. Nice lady.

Ronnie quickly seeks out Jason, separating him and Gen from the group, while at the same time shutting down their powers. In an unexpected twist, Jason reaches out to stop Ronnie from grabbing Gen, and is absorbed into the Black Lantern Firestorm. His mind then becomes an open book to Ronnie, and taking advantage of his penchant for formulas, uses Jason's own thoughts to turn his best gal into table salt. All except for her heart that is; wouldn't want to waste that, after all. Jason, understandably, loses it, and his emotion appears to be channeled to draw a slew of Black Rings to the JLA crypt. The result is a whole mess of Black Lantern villains rising from the grave, including but not limited to: Alexander Luthor, Dr. Light, Copperhead, Maxwell Lord, and Dr. Psycho. With this as the issue's final story page, we're promised that next month the Black Lantern Power Level will be reaching 100%. This thing's just getting started, folks.

The actual final two pages of the issue are another entry in Black Hand's "Book of the Black," the focus this time being on the emotion Rage and the character of Spectre. Interesting stuff, but nothing vital, nor worth mentioning for this blog.

All in all, it was another enjoyable issue, with Hawkman and Hawkgirl playing a sizable role as antagonists, especially when you consider how many Black Lanterns Johns was juggling here. Hawkman gets in some good shots on Hal, showing he can throw down with the big boys if he has to, which, even though he is "undead," I nonetheless appreciated seeing. But more importantly, the Hawks' significance continues to be amped up in my mind, with Ray posing the question that's been asked by several already: Why were Carter and Kendra targeted first? There's a theory going around that the Star Sapphires "Crystal Lovers" are somehow going to tie into the Hawks, but I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon without more to go on just yet. Either way, though, I think it's clear Johns has bigger plans for Hawkman and Hawkgirl as the series goes on.

The question also remains of, "Will Carter and Kendra come back?" I still think that's open to debate, but I'm also still leaning towards "yes" at this point. While it's probably unlikely that every character transformed into a Black Lantern will be resurrected at the end, Johns has perhaps shown in this issue how the herd might be thinned, with several "connections" being severed in the same vein as Ralph and Sue's were in this issue before this thing finally winds down. I don't imagine all the Black Lanterns are going to be destroyed on a case by case basis, so whatever ultimate weapon that's used in #8--be it a White Light, a White Lantern, or some other unforeseen tool--I believe it's likely that whoever still has on a Black Ring at the time that the trigger is pulled, that person's going to get a "Get Out of Death Free" card handed to them. Just mere speculation, but that's how I see it playing out right now, anyway.

All speculation aside, though, Johns is doing a wonderful job with this series, and I'm thankful that Hawkman and Hawkgirl are finally playing a part in DC's yearly event for once, even if it is in a, shall we say, altered capacity. With the profiles of many of DC's lesser known characters being raised by their involvement in Blackest Night, hopefully the powers-that-be can manage to properly direct that interest in the creation of some new and successful ongoing series spinning out of this event, and with any luck, a new Hawkman title will be among them.

WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #7

First off, I'm obviously back, not that anyone probably even noticed I was gone. I have a lot of reading to catch up on--two weeks worth--but I'll probably get right on Blackest Night #3's recap tomorrow (just read it; it was awesome, by the way!), along with a Wednesday Comics #10 and #11 two-fer for Friday. Tonight, though, I'm going to slip back into things nice and easy with World of New Krypton #7.

I admit that I'm not a very big Superman fan, but when the solicit for World of New Krypton #8 hit a couple of months ago, I swiftly clicked on over to eBay and caught myself up on the series right quick. The series itself is quite good, and very easy to get into, even if you've not a clue of what Superman's been up to lately.

Anyway, by sheer chance the first comic I picked up today upon my return was WoNK #7, more or less entirely forgetting about the Thanagarian presence set for next month, and as such I was very pleasantly surprised by this issue's cliffhanger ending. You see, Superman and the rest of the Kryptonians are currently in the process of trying to get a moon for their new planet, so they're "borrowing" one of Jupiter's. During the move, however, the transport ships' contact with New Krypton because shoddy, clearly due to an attack of some sort. Kal and his troops quickly rush out en masse to find out what's happened, and they're faced with... well, a picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll let this one do the talking for me.

Pretty nifty, huh? The full-on double-splash-page is even better, believe you me.

Again, World of New Krypton is turning out to be a surprisingly entertaining read besides, but now that the Thanagarians have finally popped up, I'm reminded why I dropped $15 (plus shipping) to catch up on this series. Can't wait to see how this plays out next month.

And with that, I leave you with this: It's great to be back, folks!