Through the magic of nostalgia, I find that I tend to remember only the good in most series.For example, I would have sworn that I loved all the comics in the Silver Age Hawkman series. Then I re-read this issue from 1967.
Yeah, not so good.
This despite the fact that it features art by the wonderfully talented Murphy Anderson, and a story by one of my all-time favorite DC writers, Gardner Fox. This was not one of Fox's better efforts. (Anderson's work is always terrific.)
This is the second part of a story that has Hawkman's home planet Thanagar mysteriously missing. Hawkman had teamed up with Adam Strange (who has a cameo here) to defeat the menace of the Man-Hawks, an alien race of hawks who wear masks that give them power. (Honest!)
Somehow the Man-Hawks have moved Thanagar, and Hawkman comes up with a plan to track it down - but first he has to deal with a couple of silly, deep space menaces that were apparently created to fill out the pages in the issue.
The story just makes one odd leap after the other, ends up with the menace of a reptilian race that teams with the Man-Hawks... ugh... I think I'm losing the will to live, so I don't think I can talk about the story anymore.
Look, I love this version of Hawkman. A policeman from another planet who comes to Earth with his beautiful, incredibly capable wife Shayera / Hawkgirl and fights crime using his anti-gravity belt and mechanical wings to fly. They usually arm themselves with classic weaponry from Earth's history.
Most of his adventures are wonderful little mysteries, alien challenges, or clever science fiction adventures.
This one, not so much - but every writer has "off" stories, and considering his incredible output, Fox can be forgiven for a minor stumble here and there.
But the art is great!
Grade: C-
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