Hawkman (1964) #1-9

Hawkman #1-9

Originally released in 1964

Written by Gardner Fox

Art by Murphy Anderson

On the TV show The Office, there's a point where Ed Helms's character Andy Bernard wants to weasel his way into the good graces of his new boss, Steve Carell's character Michael Scott.  He tries to do this by putting down Michael's self-appointed second-in-command, Rainn Wilson's Dwight, by saying "I think you have assembled an amazing team at Scranton [...] just like the Superfriends. Except for Dwight, who is more like a SuperDud. I mean, he would be a Superfriend if there was a Superfriend whose super power was always being late. You know?" Michael immediately responds with "Hawkman" with no further explanation. This is literally my entire reason for making this post today.

I haven't gotten the best impression of Hawkman. The Justice League Unlimited cartoon portrayed him as obsessed with Shayera and possibly crazy, while Justice League International had him as a grumpy old man constantly complaining about how things were better back in his day and putting down the current League. He insists that Hawkgirl needs to love him in Blackest Night, he's a crooked cop in the New 52, and he's portrayed as being kind of racist in the 2023 Hawkgirl series (though Kendra's bitterness over their breakup might have shaped her opinion).  Also, he's always late. The closest I've had to a positive opinion of him was that Aldis Hodge's portrayal of him in Black Adam was one of the highlights of that movie, along with Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate.

I decided to go back to the Silver Age, where Katar and Shayera Hol were Thanagarian police officers who came to Earth to study humanity's law enforcement. (I find it a little amusing that the Thanagarian that they report to is dismissive of most of humanity, but still implies that some of Earth's art is better than theirs)

Hawkman and Hawkgirl describe a time where they attempted to prove whether human or Thanagarian police methods were better by each of them trying to catch a criminal using one of those two methods.  Given how vague Hawkman's description of the event was (the thief wore gloves, cut through the glass, and broke into the museum at night), I was half expecting that he wouldn't narrow down the suspect list at all, but as this will inevitably show that Earth's methods are superior, it narrows it down to six people, with all but one of them being dead, in prison, or on a different continent.

Funnily enough, Hawkman ultimately tracks down the criminals using the Thanagarian ability to talk to birds that no human could use, which makes his goal of proving the superiority of human methods feel hollow.  Hawkgirl tries to use Thanagarian technology, but she keeps getting foiled by unexpected Earth conditions like a sudden cold front or Aurora Borealis. (At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, though not localized entirely in their kitchen)

The sort of earnest charm that you'd expect from the Silver Age is definitely present here. It's interesting to see how much Hawkman is holding back by sticking to ancient Earth weapons - it's likely a relic of his Golden Age debut, where he was a human archaeologist rather than an alien, but he does have Thanagarian super-weapons that he chooses not to use. (Choosing to hit people with clubs instead)

Whereas I could praise Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko with their work on early Marvel stories and creating memorable rogues galleries for their characters, Hawkman doesn't have that - his foes are mostly gangsters with no real gimmicks to speak of.  I get that Marvel had something to prove, but with multiple stories per issue, you would think that they would try to come up with some kind of supernatural threat, whether it's an alien conqueror (one alien race appears, but there are no significant/named members of the race that are shown) or a creature with ties to mythology. (Since the Hols still have the archaeologist cover story) It leads to some amusing moments, though.

Issue 4 does help to expand the DC universe by introducing Zatanna, who's a fairly inexperienced sorcerer at this point. Her father, Zatara, disappeared, and she's trying to find him.  However, a spell that she cast to split herself in two backfired, leading to her requiring the help of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Even in her first appearance, she's a fun character; I'm really hoping that she gets to appear in future DC movies or shows.

Maybe Zatanna used her magic to figure out the identities of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, or maybe Hawkman is just awful at keeping his identity a secret.  The Shadow Thief (who seems like Hawkman's most noteworthy threat in these days) returns in issue 5, and within minutes, he figured out exactly who Hawkman and Hawkgirl are.

His plans have escalated quite a bit - previously, he was a thief, but now he's planning to hold two worlds hostage with the threat of destroying them.  He still wants to steal things, but he's also happy to end all life on Earth just because he can.

He's captured, of course, but to my surprise, the story doesn't end with him suddenly developing amnesia due to jumping between dimensions so often - the Shadow Thief is paralyzed, but fully aware of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's identities.

Issue 6 has a cover that I just had to include in here, even if I have no idea if the story itself will live up to that image.

The plot involves Hawkman and Hawkgirl being sent to an alien planet where an experiment with evolution went wrong, evolving animals while turning the sentient species that lives there into winged gorillas, so it wasn't quite as ridiculous as I was hoping. Still, it was fun.

Issues 7 and 8 address some of my earlier concerns, including elements of Greek and Egyptian mythology in the threats that the Hawks face.  This includes a group of villains known as the Criminal Alliance of the World (or CAW for short) who use an ancient Egyptian theme, along with an invincible robot allegedly made by the Roman god Vulcan. (though a professor has a theory about that which someone like Wonder Woman would no doubt find laughable)

Meanwhile, issue 9 is a story called "Master Trap of the Matter Master" (try saying that ten times fast), which guest-stars the Atom.  Some comics like Identity Crisis treat the Atom and Hawkman as though they're the best of friends, so I figured I'd reach the point where they meet to hopefully get some insight into why that is. (it doesn't seem like they have much in common aside from being Justice League members)

In classic misleading cover fashion, the Atom is barely in this story.  The Matter Master traps Hawkman and Hawkgirl in a diamond, intending to shrink it down and crush them to death, but they're shrunk along with the diamond, winding up in a subatomic world.  The Atom doesn't even appear until the last two pages, where he attempts to get them back to their original size.

Once Hawkman and Hawkgirl return to their normal size, and Hawkman figures out the Atom's identity, the duo reveal their secret identities to the shrinking hero, so they know each other well enough after this that they get together for social gatherings outside of their costumed identities.  This set of stories was all right; Hawkman and Hawkgirl run into a problem that I seem to have with a lot of DC's comics from this era, where they're just "generically heroic" and their dialogue could be said by most other heroes, though that seems like a product of the time. (it seems like they were working under the assumption that every comic is potentially someone's first - it feels like the first time that Thanagar is mentioned in any given issue, there's always a text box telling readers that Thanagar is the planet that the Hawks come from)  Zatanna shows that they can give heroes different personalities if they wish (Zatanna is mischievous in her first appearance), but I guess they figured it would be more accessible this way.