Monday, September 17, 2012

Next Savage Hawkman Writer Revealed!

The next wave of DC solicitations have started, which means that the first issues solicited post Liefeld's walk out are going to be revealed!  So it's time now for the big news we have all been waiting for...

Fabian Nicieza will be scripting Savage Hawkman, at least for the time being!

Here is the solicitation:

THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN #15
Plotted by ROB LIEFELD
Scripted by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art and cover by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT
On sale JANUARY 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• "HAWKMAN: WANTED" continues!
• Hawkman is a fugitive — and everybody wants to kill him for his Nth Metal Armor. Good thing Carter's always ready for a fight!
• Guest-starring Deathstroke!

Alright, some takeaways from this brief description:

--As I mentioned, Fabian Nicieza is credited as scripting over Rob Liefeld's plot.  First off -- WOW does that sound like a 90s X-Men comic.  Beyond that, this is a good draw, I think.  I have not read much of Mr. "Knee-Cheesy" since his run on Red Robin a few years back, but I really enjoyed that book so that is something.  He was part of the New 52 with the launch of Legion Lost, but he exited the book citing time conflicts with two non-comics gigs he has.  I don't know how much of that is true, and honestly, it's speculatory anyway.

--"Hawkman: Wanted" is still going down.  It would seem that the crossover with Deathstroke is still going down, and Slade will still be appearing in Carter's book as well.  And man, does the clash between the two on the cover look brutal!

-- The art team of Joe Bennett and Art Thibert (at the least) will stick around, which is fantastic as far as I am concerned because the book has looked beautiful the last few months.

So what does this all mean?  I suspect that Nicieza will be pinch-hitting until "Hawkman: Wanted" is finished.  After that (whenever that is... Liefeld never gave us much indication of how long that story was going to be running), we will find out who the next writer and possibly art team will be on the title.  Given Nicieza's stated reason for leaving Legion Lost, I don't think this will be a long term gig for him.  

Secondly, I am just happy as a clam that the "Hawkman: Wanted" story will be continuing.  Say what you want about Rob Liefeld as an artist or as a person, but I was enjoying the story he was telling in this title.  It was exciting and action-packed, and the broad strokes we have seen so far have really captured my attention.  And hey, maybe the character Pike will be a little differentiated from Deadpool under another writer's pen!

Thirdly, the art team stays the same!  Nothing much to say here other than "Yay!"

I'll be back later with the Earth 2 solicitation, but for now let the conversation begin: What do you think about Fabian Nicieza handling the scripting on Savage Hawkman?

Image: The Savage Hawkman #15, 2012, Joe Bennett. 

6 comments:

raulcotto said...

Liefield was crushing it and I am glad too that Most Wanted is continuing. I just hope the future of Hawkman is placed in capable hands.

Count Drunkula said...

I liked Nicieza's work on the X-titles back in the '90s, but haven't read much of his work since then; I did read the first issue of the New 52 LEGION LOST and thought it was horrible. That said, I will give his inaugural issue of SAVAGE HAWKMAN a try as I keep coming back to this book with each creator change hoping for something better.

Ryan Daly

Brody said...

From Frank Tieri's twitter feed:

Just to clarify something... I'm doing Grifter AND Hawkman. DC solicits have it wrong.

Diabolu Frank said...

You totally just outed yourself as a reader of the Nomad letter column. Cue walk of shame. By the way, that editor admitted that pronunciation of Nicieza was a joke, but it got some real traction, eh?

Luke said...

Damn right I read the Nomad letters page. I loved that book. Do you remember the one which came afterwards?

Mr. "Nice-Easy!" :)

Diabolu Frank said...

I loved the early Adamsesque art, but lost interest once Rick Mays manga'd things up.