Rob Liefeld Talks Savage Hawkman #0

Rob Liefeld himself supplied the link to this interview on Newsarama, where he discusses matters upcoming in Savage Hawkman, including the #0 issue.  Rob is very high on the book:


Issue #0 is by far my favorite anything I've ever done. We went BIG and received approvals all down the line. #0 reveals Carter's past to both him and the reader simultaneously. At the end of #0 Carter will know where he came from and why he is here. He might not know how exactly he got here but we have to leave some pieces to play with in future issues. But yes, many big revelations are made in #0. I'm not sure Hawkman comes out of issue #0 better than he went into it, it puts him in a really difficult spot, but it's key in setting up what comes next, which is the next biggest thing he will experience.


Sounds like a good time to me!  You can check out the interview right here at Newsarama.  

Hawkman Secret Files & Origins #1- Hawkman Profile Page (October, 2002)

Secret Files & Origins is something of an odd duck for me.  I first became aware of them some time after I got back into the DCU "whole hog" following Identity Crisis, and I think the first one I purchased was for Infinite Crisis.  I discovered that there was a Hawkman one when I borrowed the first collection of Volume 4 from my local library, and found the short story piece from it reprinted therein.  I don't remember whether I own the actual issue or not; I think I do but I cannot be certain because my punchlist is still in my backpack from last weekend at HeroesCon.

All that having been said I like character profiles like the ones contained in SF&O, and this Hawkman one is pretty good.  For one thing the art is by Rags Morales, who readers of this blog will know was kicking it hardcore on the Hawkman title when this was published.  Rags was always good at making Hawkman look powerful and well built without being a brick or Hulk-like.  The 5 weapons (6 if you count the shield) are a nice touch as well, demonstrating this iteration of Hawkman's predilection for waded well-armed into combat.  The pose and the sweeping nature of the wings and Honor Wings all combine to give Hawkman a look which is both powerful and, if not graceful, then certainly agile.

Geoff Johns and Jim Beard join forces to handle the profile, and generally I think it is well handled.  Hawkman is a difficult character to boil down to a few paragraphs... if you want those paragraphs to make any sense.  That is deftly handled here by avoiding some of the more... esoteric details and sticking to the basics.  The complete avoidance of Katar Hol and Shayera Thal is probably for the best as well.  As befits that this is SF&O and not Who's Who, the talk is mostly of Carter's origins and how he got to where he is today.  It's concise enough that I could give this to someone who was not reading the comic and they could be somewhat caught up.

I'm not thrilled with the last paragraph, though.  The vague hints of future threats make sense in the context of when the book was published, but now simply stand out.  I would have greatly preferred if the last (compound) sentence had been left out.

That having been said, considering the fact that there was a Hawkman book on the shelves being written by Geoff Johns and James Robinson with art by Rags Morales was a reason to be excited, and DC clearly wanted to help give the book a push by publishing Secret Files & Origins.  I don't think we'll ever get such a "superstar" team on the character's solo book ever again, so it's appropriate that DC pulled out some extras to help hype things along back in the Volume 4 days.

Thanks to Anj for coming up with the idea and Frank for getting me involved in this crossover!  

• Aquaman @ The Aquaman Shrine
• The Atom @ Power of the Atom
• Doctor Fate @ Tower of Fate
• Firestorm @ Firestorm Fan
• Green Lantern @ The Indigo Tribe
• Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
• Renee Montoya @ Who is the Question?
• Phantom Stranger @ I Am The Phantom Stranger
• Steel @ DC Bloodlines
• Suicide Squad @ Subject: Task Force X
• Supergirl @ Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
• Wonder Woman @ Diana Prince
• Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit

Waiting In The Wings -- 6/27/2012

It's Wednesday, the traditional day for new comic books (now anyway... was not always the case... but who's counting?), and this week is no different.  Any Hawk-books we should know about?  Well, if I am posting this, there might be, huh?

Savage Hawkman #10 -- Hawkman has been taken prisoner by Xerxes and forced to fight in the gladiatorial pit to demonstrate the power of the Nth Metal armor to potential buyers!  Yikes!  Beyond the sheer brutality, though, what about the revelations of the last issue?  Who is the red haired woman who appeared in Carter's Nth Metal projected vision?  Why do all of these aliens want their hands on the Nth Metal?  Will we get some answers this time out?

As Rob Liefeld said on his Twitter: "Hawkman #10 is out tomorrow!! Will the truth about his past be revealed? Check it out!!"

Sounds like we might get some answers to me!

Savage Hawkman #10 Preview

Hard to believe that Savage Hawkman #10 is already coming out, but it is!  And thanks to the sharp, raptor-like vision of one Raul Cotto, we have a preview of #10 to share!

Click through to check out the preview over at Sciencefiction.com!

Savage Hawkman #10 hits stores this Wednesday!

(BIG h/t to Raul Cotto!  Thanks dude!)

On The Road

In a few hours I will be headed up I-85 towards Charlotte, NC, where tonight I will be attending the much-anticipated Alice Cooper (!) and Iron Maiden (!) concert, followed by HeroesCon tomorrow!  So I don't expect any updates to Being Carter Hall during that time.  However, I am going to try to Tweet about HeroesCon while on the floor, thanks to my wife's nifty Kindle device!  So if you are interested please follow @ljacone and hear (that is, read) my thoughts about HeroesCon!

Blackest Night Hawkman Mask

I have always lamented that being a Hawkfan limits your ability to cosplay.  It's a tough costume to pull off in general, and you have to have the physique as well.  Well, thanks to Midtown comics, we're one step closer to pulling off a Hawkman costume -- specifically the Black Lantern Hawkman!

Huh?!

Honestly, I never would have suspected that there would be a market for this sort of mask.  I mean, the hard part of pulling off a Hawkman costume is not the face, even for a Black Lantern version.  Buying this mask might take care of like 5% of the costume, but you still have a lot of work to do to be ready for Halloween, or a Con, for that matter.  (Of course, the mask is discounted, so maybe it's not a huge market...)

Amazingly, there are also Blackest Night Batman and Flash masks to go along with this one!

Big thanks to Shag (Fan the Flame!) for passing this oddity along to me!

Image: Blackest Night Hawkman mask, image obtained from Midtown Comics.

Read: Earth 2 #2

Issue: Earth 2 #2
Title: "Age Of Wonders"
Published Date: Jun 2012
Generation: New 52 Hawkgirl (To Be Revised, see Note)
Retcon Status: In Continuity

Summary: Still trying to measure exactly how fast he can run thanks to the gift of the dying god Mercury, Jay Garrick starts sprinting.  He finds that the world starts to blur around him as he goes faster and faster, but he is faced with a problem: how to stop.  He skids to a halt, plowing a huge trench in a grassy knoll.  He is immediately addressed by a winged female figure, armed with a crossbow, who tells him that he sure took a long time in arriving.

Review: Obviously more happens in the issue than just this.  I know comics are decompressed but that would be ridiculous!  This little sequence, however, does give us our first glimpse of the new Hawkgirl.  Nicola Scott renders her quite nicely -- out heroine is athletic without being angular, and shapely without being voluptuous.  Her general pose and appearance gives me the impression of an archangel, ready to do battle.  The helmet is sleek and impressive, definitely evoking the classic Hawkgirl helmet but clearly it's own design.  Her crossbow is novel, as it seems to have a barrel... does it fire shells instead of shafts?  I really like the combat knife tucked into her boot as well.  Note the treads on the bottom of said boot -- we saw a similar type of tread earlier in the issue on the new Flash, so clearly Scott likes this style of footwear, heh.  

Trevor Scott's inks also do wonders for this image.  I like the "blackout" effect on the wings, especially since previous images have them shown them to be an angelic white color.  

We should know more about Hawkgirl next issue, but for now, this will have to whet our appetites!

As for the issue overall, I liked it.  There is an intriguing little glimpse into the world of Earth 2 at the beginning, as we meet Terry Morse, only he is quite different than I remember the original Mr. Terrific ever being.  There is a great sequence with Jay Garrick and Mercury, which ends with Garrick becoming a "Wonder" like the fallen heroes Suprman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were known.  And of course we get some more with Alan Scott, including the already spoiled reveal of his orientation, about which I really don't care.  Very interested in seeing what happens to him after the cliffhanger of this issue, and to learn more about Hawkgirl and Flash.

Note: The Generation Tag for the new Earth 2 Hawkgirl will be revised once we know her secret identity.  I am assuming it is going to be Kendra, but we do not know for sure at this point.

Image: Page from Earth 2 #2, 2012, Nicola Scott.

Savage Hawkman #0 Solicitation

Well, Zero Month is official, as for the one year anniversary of the New 52, we DC readers are getting a month full of #0 issues, featuring origin tales and other stories set before the current storylines.  Savage Hawkman is no exception (thanks to Newsarama):

THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN #0
Plotted by ROB LIEFELD
Scripted by ROB LIEFELD and MARK POULTON
Art and cover by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT
On sale SEPTEMBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
--Discover Hawkman's connection to Thanagar and why he came to Earth!

Seems like all of the Thanagar stuff which has been set up for the past 9 months or so will at least get some sort of explanation.  Whether we get the whole story or not remains to be seen, but it's pretty clear to me that our hero is (in some way or shape) not a human.  I don't have a particular problem with that, given my affections for the Silver Age Hawkman.  Of course, this hero is no Silver Age Winged Wonder.

This cover is evidently not necessarily the final version; honestly, I wish it was.  This is one heck of a pinup cover and Bennett's work looks amazing -- substantially better, I think, than Rob Liefeld's pinup covers we have seen lately.  

Hard to believe that the New 52 will be a year old so soon!  Yeesh, how time flies! (Pun intended.)

Image: The Savage Hawkman #0, 2012, Joe Bennett.

Warhawk's Origin in Justice League Beyond

In the digital series Justice League Beyond, a new series of origin stories are starting.  The aptly named "Beyond Origins" by Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen will shine a spotlight on members of the futuristic Justice League which was introduced in Batman Beyond.  And one of those members is Warhawk, the son of human Green Lantern Jon Stewart and Thanagarian Wingwoman Shayera Thal!  We never got too much exposure to Warhawk (only one episode of Batman Beyond and then one on Justice League Unlimited, I believe), so hopefully this strip will give us some more insight into one of the most admittedly fascinating characters to come out of the DC Animated Universe.

You can read more about the "Beyond Origins" stories over on Newsarama.  Check it out!

Joe Bennett's Savage Shayera?!

Normally, not being on Facebook is a good thing.  I tend to avoid the numerous annoying attributes of the service which folks who use seem to complain about endlessly.  By contrast, Twitter (follow @ljacone!) allows me to get the word out about things and keep up with folks in a substantially less bloated, more streamlined manner, and forces me to think of what I want to say before I say it.  So, no, I don't mind not being on Facebook.

Except at times like this.  Bearer Of The Honor Wings (and Twitter buddy) Matt Orr (follow @HawkmanFans) pinged me with a message over on Twitter about how Savage Hawkman artist Joe Bennett had posted some character designs on his Facebook page, including Shayera Thal!  (or, "Princess Shayera" as the sketch is labelled.)  But, being as I don't belong to Facebook, I couldn't see them!  Argh!

So here comes Matt to the rescue by reposting the pics over on his account, which, for some arcane and sure magical reason, I can access.  So everyone head on over to the album on Matt's Facebook page and check 'em out!  (In fact, check out all the albums, as Matt is constantly posting sweet Hawk images for everyone to enjoy.)

Now then: Shayera.  (Click to Savage-Ize!)

Wowzer!  She certainly has a Savage look to her, doesn't she?  This is one lady who will fit the "Warrior Princess" motif nicely.  I love the armored gauntlets and boots, plus the detail on the tops of her wings.  Her helmet is in the same vein as Hawkman's helmet, with all of the extra lines and detail, but I can still see a suggestion of the swoop of the classic Hawkgirl helm.  The belt buckle further connects her costume to Hawkman's currently look as well.

I also heartily approve of her choice of weapons!  Fans who primarily know Shayera from Justice League know that she always carried her trusty Nth Metal mace on that show, and she is sporting the same here, plus a sword, for times when a bludgeoning weapon just won't due.

I do want to talk about her breastplate as well.  The two hawk symbol plates over her breasts at first blush seem suggestive.  But then it hit me as a nod to a Valkyrie-esque armored breastplate.  Looking at it now, if anything, it de-emphasizes her bust and makes her look more fierce.  Combined with the Hawk emblem between them and the look is one which definitely says the ornate armor of a royal blooded warrior moreso than superheroine or adventurer.

The only thing I really don't like is the bared midriff.  I didn't like it on Kendra, I didn't like it in Brightest Day, and I don't like it here.  But I imagine I am in the minority on this front!  And the design does use the same busy, almost fussy design aesthetic that Hawkman has in this New 52 Universe, whilst I usually picture Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman as more sleek.  I'm willing to go with it, however, because what we know about the Nth Metal is that it is used as armor (in Savage Hawkman #9, Xerxes refers to the metal as the "armor" on several occasions), and thus it follows that someone who uses the Nth Metal would be armored up.

It seems from the little tease that we got in Savage Hawkman #9 and these design sketches that Shayera will be playing a big role in the series new direction, and I for one am eager to see her fully inked and colored and ready to kick butt.

But enough about me, what do you folks think?  Are you ready to see this new Shayera take flight?  Or would you prefer to see her grounded?  What do you think of Joe Bennett's character studies?  And what about the other pictures linked in the album, such as a Thanagarian Soldier (*coughcoughWingmancough*) and the Thanagarian ships?  Leave me some comments and let's talk about it!

Big thanks once again to Matt Orr for passing these along to me so that I can pass them along to you!