Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Hawkman #45

By Hervé St-Louis
February 19, 2006 - 21:13

It’s Hawkman versus Hawkman as Carter Hall, back from the dead confronts Charley Parker, the new Hawkman. Charley fills us in on what his motivation is and his real origin, tied with the Thanagarian Hawkman legacy. There’s not much story here, except for one huge fight to the finish that are always pleasant to read in comics. Don’t expect any sophisticated stuff here.

Gray and Palmiotti have done the worse thing they could to help sink this series and make it difficult to read since they became the writing team. If Hawkman fails as a series, the blame will be on their shoulders. Instead of moving Hawkman forward and introduce new challenges, they went out of their way to find the most obscure and complicated continuity elements of Hawkman to highlight here.

The writers could have been forgiven, if they had a better sense of history and scope and tighter comprehension of continuity. Instead, they compress everything and serve up a story where, just like in soap operas, kids grow up to adulthood in about five years. Worse, the fill-in Hawkman created to fill a brief spot in the Hawkman’s history is back in full force here to fit in with Charley Parker, another element of the character’s history that should have remained buried. They don’t even know how Thanagarians earn their surnames right. All they do is muddled up some more. Was this entire storyline necessary? Will it go down in history as a major moment for Hawkman? Fat chance.

Bennet is the real star of this story has his work is great and exciting, notwithstanding the poor plot he was given. As for the continuity buffs, why is Andar Pul, the old Hawkman villain with blond hair instead of the dark hair he sported in Hawkworld? Is it because no one, not even the editors bothered checking the old books they were referencing?

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12