Hawkman #6 (Spoilers)

[Hawkman]

The conclusion to "The Titan and the Fury" this week.

Quick recap before giving my thoughts:

• The battle with Moz-Ga, the sentient planet of the Microverse, ensues.
• Ray grows (or deshrinks, rather) to go toe-to-toe with the behemoth.
• Amidst the chaos, Carter searches for the Nth Metal buried in Moz-Goz's core.
• He finds it in the form of an Nth Metal-powered ship he hid there in a past life.
• Blasting off-planet, the two heroes barely manage to escape via Zeta Beam.
• Rocketed back to the Nucleus, Carter learns of his Microverse past life as "Avion" before parting ways from Ray.
• Aboard his ship, Hawkman--seemingly acting on impulse--activates the navigation system, knocking him off his feet.
• Meanwhile, on Graxos IV, a winged figure proclaims the Deathbringers' march to Earth, all the while cursing his "old friend" and "Great Betrayer," Ktar.
• To be continued...

All in all a pretty disappointing issue, I thought. With the exception of Carter unearthing his ship, nothing much of note happens. It's more or less just one decompressed fight sequence, albeit concluded with a nice sentiment on the bonds of friendship and how they pertain to Carter and Ray. Nice as that was, though, I wanted a bit more substance. The ship is nifty, too, and I like the tumbler-like way it's piloted, but not enough for me to rave about the issue.

The final two pages are intriguing, though, and so my anticipation for the next issue remains high. I've always wanted an anti-Hawkman for Carter's rogues gallery; a Bane to his Batman or a Zod to his Superman, so to speak. That seems to be the niche this villain is looking to fill, but only time will tell at this point.

Otherwise, pretty bland issue, I'm sorry to say. Then again, the series has been so good that even a bland issue of Hawkman is still above average, so I can't complain too much. Looking forward to seeing where this goes next month.

[vartox]

This is the first issue in the series that felt really slow/decompressed to me, although it was still enjoyable to see Carter and Ray teaming up and the reveal with the zeta ship and Avion was pretty awesome. The fighting felt like it went on too long.

[K. Jones]

This has been a weird one for me. I like all the stuff conceptually that's going on but just can't seem to hook into it. I mean I guess I'm hooked enough because I made it to Issue # 6, but I feel like I'm only reading for the promise of some eventual greater DCU payoff springboarding off Hawkman's Metal Source Forge Element X connection.

I'm not sure what the disconnect is. It is decompressed but simultaneously I do feel like unpacking a lot of Hawkman stuff deserves an issue-by-issue unpacking and reformatting.

It might be the Hitch art. He's not my cup of tea, and I feel like the case of Hawkman might be one where a more cohesive, and more graphic/illustrative pop style with brighter pulpy Silver Age colors would lend itself more to my being arrested reading it. Actually in that case it might not be Hitch's ... perhaps too realistic pencils ... themselves, but the mid tone coloring that isn't really bold enough. Colorists might be afraid to go too heavy because Hitch puts a lot of shading, hatching and detail into things ... but you're not doing any favors by not using bold flat color tones and high contrast blacks.

[Hawkman]

It might be the Hitch art. He's not my cup of tea...

Same, and I do think it's bringing the series down a peg for me. He's had his moments, and I don't think he's a bad artist by any means, but this book just feels ill-suited for someone like Hitch. I felt the same way about his recent Justice League work, too.

I think a more grounded, suburban setting suits him better than intergalactic, multiversal trailblazing. Oddly enough, though, his Ultimates somehow did work, so I'm not quite sure what the disconnect is exactly.

Back to Hawkman: When it does come time to change artists, I think someone like Howard Porter or Freddie E. Williams II could do wonders for the title, especially if the high-concept storytelling remains more or less the same moving forward.

[MajorHoy]

If by issue #6 there's really nothing about his past with the JSA coming into the overall story (and not just an image of him from his Golden Age days), I guess I'm not going to worry about looking for this in a tpb collection.

[DragonsChi]

I really enjoyed the issue. I'm somewhat surprised to see that some aren't liking the art but I maybe used to it as a former early Ultimate Marvel reader.

I'm also really digging Hawkman. He's coming across as an A List hero. I can't believe that all this time I have been reading comics I never given him a shot.

[Jekyll]

I will be dropping after this issue. Not that it’s a bad series, it’s just kind of ok for me and there are other series I want to spend my money on.

[WTNew]

I've really been enjoying this series. I like the "across time and space" thing. It helps make sense of a character whose backstory has been in chaos for so long. I can't wait to see what the next chapter brings.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'll give it one more issue to see if Venditti can stick the landing on this first arc and actually make me care about the character, but, thus far, Carter Hall is still a blank page to me. It's nicely drawn and has nice art, but it's fallen into the same trap that Hal Jordan & The GLCorps had of being all spectacle and no heart.

[JLH]

This is the first issue in the series that felt really slow/decompressed to me, although it was still enjoyable to see Carter and Ray teaming up and the reveal with the zeta ship and Avion was pretty awesome. The fighting felt like it went on too long.

My thoughts exactly.

[Ying Ko]

Very quick read but still one of the best DC books out there month in month out.

I seriously don't know why some people have problems with this book... It really is a fun little comic with solid art... To each their own I guess.

[DragonsChi]

I sorta feel the same way...is lacking action for some? Is it the story itself?

Just curious as to why people aren't digging this book?

[Holy Nightwing Fan]

I'm new to Hawkman, but so far I've been liking this series. The art is great, and the story is interesting. After all, you can see that DC is trying to expand Hawkman legacy and story, besides delivering them a title that will give more oportunities to work on their universe lore. Considering that this is usually more explored and showed in Green Lantern runs, it's nice to see that they will have more chances to show its universe richness through Hawkman. Since the Source breaking, there has been constant changes that are influencing all we know about how DC universe and its laws works.

[MajorHoy]

I have not tried the book yet because I don't care about Katar Hol / Thanagar or other cosmic stuff.
I enjoyed that when I was (much!) younger, but these days I'm really only interested in Golden Age Carter Hall and his connection to the JSA. So far, nobody has indicated that has been mentioned beyond maybe a drawing where he was wearing his old Golden Age outfit.

That's why I'm not "digging this book". It sounds like they're expanding / adding to the more cosmic stuff and ignoring the past that I want to read about instead.

[Jekyll]

I have not tried the book yet because I don't care about Katar Hol / Thanagar or other cosmic stuff.
I enjoyed that when I was (much!) younger, but these days I'm really only interested in Golden Age Carter Hall and his connection to the JSA. So far, nobody has indicated that has been mentioned beyond maybe a drawing where he was wearing his old Golden Age outfit.

That's why I'm not "digging this book". It sounds like they're expanding / adding to the more cosmic stuff and ignoring the past that I want to read about instead.

Well this Hawkman is Carter Hall but there’s not been a mention of his JSA ties. It has pretty much been all cosmic stuff.