Hawkman (Vol. 2) #10

TITLE: Hawkman #10

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

COVER DATE: May 1987

COVER PRICE: $0.75

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

Hawkman is one of those characters that I had no real affinity for until Geoff Johns got his hands on him, along with the likes of Green Lantern, Flash, and the JSA. During my formative comic book years, I just remember Hawkman being somewhat of a rebooted mess, so I never did seek out any books of his own.

It also didn't help that I didn't really buy into his hook...alien police officer who uses bird wings and big weapons and who gains the power of flight from the Nth metal belt that he wears. It seems that if your belt is giving you your power of flight, then the wings would just get in the way. And how do you control the wings? Does the metal do that as well?

It all just seemed a little goofy, with too many questions, and in all honesty I just didn't have the gumption to invest the time to figure it out. But that's what I love about Geoff Johns. He takes the goofy and runs with it, playing it dead serious all the way, and it somehow works. In the intervening years, I've come to enjoy this character quite a bit, although the wings not giving you your power of flight still kinda bugs me...baby steps...baby steps...

But that's a topic for another day, for today we're here to talk about Hawkman #10. It's post-Crisis, and I literally have no idea which version of Hawkman we're going to get. I suppose there's only one way to find out.

All Wars Must End!

• Plot/Co-Editor: Barbara Randall
• Dialogue: Dan Mishkin
• Penciller: Richard Howell
• Inker: Carlos Garzon
• Letterer: Agustin Mas
• Colorist: Michele Wolfman
• Co-Editor: Denny O'Neil

The story opens up with Hawkman assessing the recent chain of events, kicking himself for letting Deron Ved escape. Who's Deron Ved? As near as I can tell, he's a would be world conqueror commanding a Thanagarian invasion fleet poised just outside of Earth's atmosphere. Not one to navel-gaze too much, Hawkman continues to club his way through the Thanagarians, looking for Ved.

Hawkwoman, meanwhile, has problems of her own while trying to protect the police commissioner of Midway City. With the help of the Gentlemen Ghost she gets him to safety, which allows her the chance to catch up back up with Hawkman.

Following the trail of unconscious Thanagarians, she finds him in Deron Ved's abandoned flagship where he has overheard Ved giving the command for the next phase of the invasion...an all-out thermonuclear attack! Realizing that they may be somewhat outclassed, they rig Ved's spaceship to emit a frequency that only one particular person will be able to hear, in the hope's of calling him here.

In the meantime, they still need to find Ved. Using the Absorbacon, a machine with mind tracking capabilities, they are able to see through other's eyes and soon pick up the trail of Deron Ved. Hawkman rushes out to catch him, while Hawkwoman continues to use the Absorbacon to help guide him.

It doesn't take long before Hawkman and Ved are engaged in a rousing bit of fisticuffs. During the tussle, we get a bit of the history between the two men and their time on Thanagar together.

Deron Ved was the instructor at the police academy when Katar Hol was looking to prove himself as a young wingman. There's always been a bit of an antagonistic relationship between the two, fueled by the fact that they have been the only two to ever have been awarded the honor wings.

While it's only hinted at here, Ved seems to have had a falling out with the Thanagarian Police Force. Now leading an invasion force, he will prove the true mettle of what it means to be Thangarian while besting the traitor, Katar Hol, in the process.

Breaking free, Ved manages to grab a police officer to use as a hostage. Now on the defensive, Katar and Shayera are forced to take off their wings to save the life of the hostage. Donning Hawkman's tufts and feathers, Ved leaves the Hawks defenseless so that he can continue his invasion plans.

Luckily for the Earth, however, Hawkman had previously booby trapped his wings and now uses a gyroscopic remote control to sabotage the wings that Ved wears. Damaged as they may be, he still manages to make his way to his command ship. Before he can make it onboard, Hawkman and Hawkwoman arrive in their borrowed police car to stop him once and for all.

With no weapons to bring him down, they're forced to improvise. Now I'm not sure how effective this would actually be, but it sure is inspired.

But hey, this is comic books, and the rubber fire hose proves to be too much for Deron Ved to deal with. Defeated and brought low, Hawkman reclaims his mask and wings.

Now, all they need to do is deal with disarming that pesky invasion force waiting somewhere in Earth orbit. They won't, however, have to do that alone.

What are you looking so surprised about Hawks? It's not like you didn't send a distress signal for Superman just 15 pages ago.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

This was a bit of a light read, to tell you the truth.

I guess this is a later addition to the character of Hawkman, but I prefer my winged warriors a bit more gruff, hairy, and aggressive. Someone who's going to use his over-sized mace first and ask questions later. This issue was kinda like watching The Soprano's episodes rerun on A&E. Even the fight scenes seemed sanitized. I mean, seriously...they stopped the mastermind of a would-be alien invasion by tying him up with a rubber hose?!

Dan Mishkin does a serviceable job with the story, but he was handed the unenviable task of finishing up the story that the previous writer had been building up for some time, working with a plot from the editor. And he didn't really get a chance to properly end the story, as John Byrne gets to do that over in Action Comics. Mishkin definitely gets an "A" for effort, but in the larger scheme of things this issue was a little weak.

Steve Howell does an admirable job with the art for the most part, but if I didn't know any better I'd swear there were two different inkers on this issue. There were pages that were dark, detailed, and full of shadows. Likewise, there were also pages that looked thin, weak, and stiff. Not as many, mind you, but still enough to be noticed.

On a positive note, the action heads from this issue over to Action Comics #588, which was at the beginning of John Byrne's relaunch of the Superman franchise. It's the Hawks and Superman fighting Thanagarians in space, and it's a bit more of a complete package than this issue seemed to be. So if you have a hankering to read a Hawkman/Superman team-up, I'd skip right to that one.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

The Vision And The Scarlet Witch #5

TITLE: The Vision and the Scarlet Witch #5

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: February 1986

COVER PRICE: $0.75

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

Regular readers of this blog are well aware that The Avengers was the first comic book that I started collecting, and in pretty quick order The Vision would become my favorite Avenger. It was only natural, that this series would then be a no brainer for me.

This series actually has a couple of firsts for me, as it was the first mini-series that I remember buying off the rack. It's also the first mini-series that I remember abandoning before it was finished. Whether it was the twelve-issue commitment that scared me off, or the lackluster story, or a combination of the two is something I can't quite remember. The Vision (and the Scarlet Witch by extension) would remain one of my favorite characters for a long while, so I would imagine it was the story.

If I remember correctly, this series chronicled the Vision and Wanda as they left the Avengers with the news that Wanda was pregnant. How an android and a mutant witch could conceive a baby is something that this series would explore. And honestly, what better way to capture the imagination of a teenage boy than with the trials and tribulations of a couple pregnant with their first child!

Am I being too hard on this series? Or are we in for a real treat now that I'm a more world weary and mature reader? Let's find out...

The others call it...All Hallow's Eve!

• Story: Steve Englehart
• Pencils:Richard Howell
• Inks: Jack Abel & Mike Esposito
• Colors: Adam Philips
• Letters: Rick Parker
• Editor: Jim Salicrup
• Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter

It's Halloween in the Marvel Universe, and the Vision is all dressed up in a tux and hitting the town. After relocating to the suburbs, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch have made friends with their new neighbors, who just happen to be heroes in hiding with the power of molecular control. Instead of using their powers to fight the good fight, they became magicians using their powers to create realistic illusions. It is the premier of their Halloween show, and that has brought Vision back to the city.

This being Halloween night though, means that Wanda is back at the house getting ready to flex her magick ability to take advantage of the nature of the night to communicate with her recently deceased mentor, Agatha Harkness. Before that however, she had just enough time call her brother Quicksilver to let him know that he is going to be an Uncle.

Really Quicksilver? You're going to give your sister a hard time about her robot husband, when you live on the moon with your wife who is a member of a race of humans that were genetically evolved by an alien race!

Quicksilver actually turns out to be really happy for his sister, and promises to be back on earth for Thanksgiving. It's really amazing how much these two characters have been changed (not necessarily for the better in my opinion) over the last five years. Heck, you can even throw in the Vision here as well. If you've never read a comic before the 21st century rolled around, you'd be asking yourself who the hell are these people? And why are they so damn happy?

Back to Wanda's seance, and things aren't going quite like she planned. She manages to contact Agatha only briefly before she dissipates to be replaced by her undead grandson Thornn! Ooopsie...

Back at the magic show, Agatha Harkness is able to materialize briefly to warn the Vision that Wanda is in trouble and it all leads back to the Druid Tome. Vision informs us that they had tussled with Samhain and his Druid Tome years ago, and if Samhain is back then they are in real trouble. His tie to the physical world was the Tome, which they had destroyed last time. If he's back then they won't be able to use the Tome to send him back to the dead realms.

Meanwhile, Wanda finds out that she's in more trouble than she thought as Thornn has brought a whole cadre of undead supervillains with him. It turns out that the baby that Wanda is carrying is holding a spark of magickal life within it that the demons want to use to help them rematerialize into the living world.

That seems to make some logical sense. Vision, on the other hand, has the more fantastical unbelievable part of the adventure to come. To defeat Samhain, he must rebuild the Druid Tome. But wasn't it burned? It was, but luckily (and conveniently) the powers of the Vision's new magician friends will allow them to rebuild the book with just a single speck of ash.

But how to find a piece of ash from years ago? Easy...track down the child who was turned into a ghost from the previous adventure with the Tome and hope that the sheet that she wore for her Halloween costume that night is still intact, and that it has never been washed so that they can collect a piece of ash that must have been deposited on it when the Vision transported them through the smoke of the burning book.

You got all that? I hope so, as I'd be hard pressed to find a better way to recap that.

Seeing as how this is a special Halloween issue, the Scarlet Witch is visited by all sorts of dead relatives clawing their way back from the dead to torment her and try to reclaim her baby's life for their own.

She eventually comes face to face with Samhain, who...surprise, surprise...wants the slice of magickal life contained in Wanda's child for himself. These demons and creatures of the undead are a rather single-minded lot, are they not?

Naturally, Vision finding a two year old speck of ash proves far easier than finding a storyline that doesn't rely on wild coincidences and happenstance. That's not important now, as we have a book that needs burning!

Summoning all the power contained in his solar jewel, Vision reduces the Tome to atoms, forcing Samhain into a form of pure energy. Normally you'd think that would be bad, but Agatha Harkness is back to let us know that everything is going according to plan.

Now that Samhain is pure energy, she can control him and redirect him as never before. Taking advantage of the nearby hordes of undead super-villains and demons, she redirects his energy that he had hoped to put into the baby's essence and deposits them bit by bit into the assembled undead horde.

Her job now done and the baby safe, Agatha disappears to once again rest in peace. Wanda and the Vision are reunited in the living worlds, and all is right with the world.


SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I think we learned why I never did stick with this mini-series originally. It wasn't bad per se, it was just decidedly average. How this story warranted a 12-part mini-series seems a bit of a mystery. I suppose the standards for mini-series was a bit more lax back in the day. In fact, on the back cover of this issue in an in-house ad for Secret Wars II. At least Marvel had the good sense to limit that series to nine issues, but I think I would still take all twelve of Vision and Scarlet Witch's series to one featuring the Beyonder.

Anyways, Steve Englehart and Richard Howell do a serviceable job with this particular issue. It's Halloween, so of course all of the usual tropes and trappings of the holiday are in full display...ghosts, zombies, witches, magick spells, underworld dimensions...heck, even Dracula makes a cameo!

At the end of the day, however, it's a throwaway story about some characters who are nigh unrecognizable in today's continuity. It's a shame, as these characters deserve better.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) Marvel Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure...

• Jason over at Marvel Comics of the 1980's clues us in to the crossover with West Coast Avengers that kicked this series off. We apparently just missed this title being good.
• We've come across books dealing with Wanda and the Vision here and here earlier.