HAWKMAN #3; Aug-Sept. 1964; DC Comics; Julius Schwartz, editor; featuring
Hawkman and Hawkgirl in "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman!" and the cover-featured
"Birds in the Gilded Cage!" Both stories written by Gardner Fox and
pencilled and inked by Murphy Anderson. On the cover by Anderson, Hawkman and
Hawkgirl are caught in the aforementioned glowing, golden cage floating in
mid-air, as a gang of thugs (nattily dressed in coats and ties, like all 60's DC
thugs, except that one has taken his coat off) are shooting at them at
point-blank range.
Review by Bill Henley
On the splash page of "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman!", Hawkgirl is left on
her own to combat an armed crook an an aerodynamically improbable flying
platform, as Hawkman flies away like a scared pigeon; "I'm too scared to capture
that Pogo-Jet crook! You'll have to carry on by yourself, Hawkgirl!" One
day, "under the blazing noonday sun," Shiera Hall (aka Hawkgirl) is working in
her garden on the Midway City museum grounds when a loving couple happens by.
The man (who looks a bit like Gardner Grayle of the Atomic Knights, but
bears the notable and distinguished name of Bill) has just offered his girl an
engagement ring, making her "the happiest girl in the world". But suddenly
she has a change of attitude, as the girl cowers back from her lover; "Stay
away from me! I--I'm AFRAID of you!" She hurls back the engagement ring and
flees in terror, much to the puzzlement both of the spurned swain and the
onlooking Shiera. Later that moonlit night, Shiera takes her dog Penny for a walk
in the garden while musing over the day's events; "Love is a funny thing,
isn't it, Penny?" Suddenly Penny the poodle starts growling and yelping with
fear, and yanks her leash loose of Shiera to flee into the night. "And I
thought Penny was so fond of me!"
Later, Shiera tries to explain to her husband Carter Hall about the odd
events, but he is more concerned with an emergency call from Police Commissioner
Emmett. It seems Midway City is being plagued by crooks calling themselves
"Sky-Raiders" who use high-tech "Pogo-jet" devices to hop through the air and
evade police on the ground and helicopters in the air. (Yet another example
of comic-book crooks using gadgetry to steal when they could make a lot more
money with less risk by selling the inventions to the Pentagon or some other
eager buyer.) Hawkman and Hawkgirl are even more maneuverable in the air,
however, and their wings don't alert the bandits with loud noise like police
choppers. Setting themselves up with portable radar detectors at opposite ends
of Midway City, our heroes keep watch for the sky-bandits, and it is
Hawkgirl who first catches a trace of them, as they descend to rob the guests at a
party atop a swank penthouse apartment. The raiders' hopes of a clean
getaway are dashed as the Winged Wonders fly at them from different directions. At
first, our heroes make quick work of the airborne gang, as Hawkman catches
one in a gladiatorial net, Hawkgirl dodges another's gunfire and upends his
pogo-jet, causing him to descend to earth with his emergency chute, and Hawkman
lifts another raider off his jet and drops him.
But then the tables turn, as Hawkman pursues the now grounded gang leader
into the Midway City museum garden. Under the eyes of an Egyptian statue,
Hawkman catches up to and punches out the crook, who is on the verge of surrender
when suddenly Hawkman has a change of mind. Cringing back from the
gangster, Hawkman shouts, "No-- no! Got to get away from him!" Chickenman, er,
Hawkman flees into the sky as a puzzled but elated Sky-Raider makes his getaway.
Rejoining Hawkgirl, Hawkman makes a lame excuse about "missing" the gang
leader while struggling to control his shakes and terror. In the coming days,
Carter Hall broods; "I was actually AFRAID of that sky-raider! I still am!
Does this mean I'm finished as a crime-fighter?" while Shiera observes his
odd behavior and worries; "Carter just isn't himself. I wish I knew what upset
him so. But sooner or later he'll tell me!" Hawkman's newfound cowardice
does not extend to other foes, however; he haunts police headquarters looking
for assignments, and flies off to handle a riot singlehandedly while the cops
puzzle, "I've never seen anybody as eager for a fight as Hawkman! What's he
trying to prove anyway?"
As Part 2 of "Fear" opens, Hawkman continues his quest to prove his bravery,
taking on a pair of armed thugs, rescuing a family from a blazing building,
and punching another crook. But "He alone knows the bitter truth, against
which he put up a grim, silent battle"... for though he is not afraid of anyone
or anything else, his terror of the Sky-Raider chief is as strong as ever.
And in the meantime, that chief is recruiting a new gang of raiders and
making improvements on his pogo-jet fleet specifically designed to deal with
Hawkman. "Well, this is it!" Carter thinks when Shiera gets a call from the
Commissioners that the Sky-Raiders are striking again. "I'm about to find out if
that haunting fear overwhelms me when I face that gang-leader again!" On the
way to face the raiders, Hawkman tells Hawkgirl that he will take "first
crack" at the raiders, but warns her that he might run away and leave her to
face them alone. She asks for an explanation, and Hawkman confesses at last his
crippling fear of the gang leader. Hawkgirl sees a possible connection with
the two incidents of unexplained fear she witnessed, but before she can
explain, the Hawks and the sky-raiders confront each other, with the raiders now
armed with new weapons-- glowing saucers they shoot at Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
"If one of those charged saucers gets within a foot of them, it'll stiffen
'em-- for good!" Hawkman shows no fear as he uses his long wooden
quarterstaff to fend off the saucers, smashing each one before it can approach him or
Hawkgirl. (Good thing he just happened to pick out the right ancient weapon to
deal with this particular threat.... A quarterstaff probably wouldn't have
helped much if the raiders had used plain-ordinary guns.) Nor does our hero
succumb to terror as he takes on the three subordinate raiders and knocks them
off their sky-craft. But when it comes down to him vs. the leader, the
inexplicable fear kicks in again, and he shivers and flees, calling on Hawkgirl
to take over. He can only watch helplessly from a distance, "paralyzed with
fear," as Hawkgirl takes on the leader alone, dodging his gunfire and finally
knocking him off his craft. Once victorious, instead of scorning her
cowardly consort, Hawkgirl embraces and comforts him, "Poor sweetheart! If you'd
only told me what was wrong, I could have helped you!" for she has deduced a
possible cause for his unnatural fear. She has realized that each of the
fear-incidents took place in the vicinity of the Egyptian statue in the museum
garden. Thus reminded, Hawkman recalls that "This statue was used by a certain
Pharaoh to keep his subjects in utter fear of him!" Analyzing the statue
with X-rays, Hawkman and Hawkgirl discover that it has a tilted slab of "special
mineral" inside the head, which causes any light entering the top of the
statue's head to be reflected out its eyes. "The light must be transmuted into
a ray that affects the amygdala in the brain! Experimental scientists have
induced fear by electrical shocks to this part of the brain!" Experimenting
with a bird, the Hawks confirm that the light-rays from the statue also induce
fear. But they have an antidote. "By reversing the polarity of the
mineral, we'll create an opposite effect!" "Instead of being AFRAID-- anyone whom
that light hits will LIKE whoever he or she is with!" (Does that mean that
if Hawkman were with the sky-raider chief or some other crook when affected by
the light, he'd like the crook enough to help him get away with his crimes?
Sounds like a possible springboard for another story, but as far as I recall
it was never picked up on.) Hawkman thinks the case is resolved, but Shiera
knows otherwise, as she contrives to get Bill and his estranged fiancee back
together under the glowing eyes of the statue, and their love is rekindled.
But Shiera's job is still not done, as she hurries off "to find Penny-- and
make my pet like me again, too!" (But maybe she never did find the lost dog,
since I don't believe the prodigal poodle ever showed up in a story again.)
In between the issue's two stories, the "Hawkman's Roost" lettercol appears,
with uniformly enthusiastic comments on HAWKMAN #1. One of the laudatory
letters, from Kevin C. Ryan of Houston, Texas, refers to "Murphy Anderson's
incredibly realistic and detailed artwork". I was a little surprised, a while
back, to learn that this reaction to Anderson's HAWKMAN artwork wasn't
unanimous. I liked Anderson's art fine myself at the time these stories first came
out, and still do. But an issue of ALTER EGO focusing on the Silver Age
Hawkman indicated there was a faction of fandom who really hated the changeover
from Joe Kubert art in the BRAVE & BOLD Hawkman issues to Anderson art in the
short MYSTERY IN SPACE run and Hawkman's own title. I don't really
understand this. Sure, Kubert's art was great, but I thought Anderson worked just as
well on the strip, though in a somewhat different way.
Anyway, Anderson returns to draw the cover-featured "Birds in the Gilded
Cage" in this issue, and the splash page scene is just another angle on the
cover scene of the caged Hawkman and Hawkgirl being shot at by crooks.
"Somewhere north of Midway City, Hawkman and Hawkgirl swoop towards the lawn of a
mountain hideaway"....it seems that, on their way to Hawk Valley, they have
happened to spot a group of known mobsters. A lucky break for our heroes; not so
lucky, Hawkgirl notes, is the fact that they haven't brought along any of
their usual ancient weapons. So they are obliged to swoop and dodge wildly in
order to evade the mobsters' gunfire and take them on bare-handed. "It makes
no difference. They'll be in prison cells soon enough!" a confident Hawkgirl
boasts. "As if Hawkgirl has spoken magic words, prison cells appear"-- one
prison cell, anyway, floating in mid-air-- but it holds our heroes, not the
crooks! Hawkman and Hawkgirl are caged and helpless, and seemingly soon will
be dead ducks, er, hawks, as the crooks shoot through the cage bars. But
fortunately, the glow around the cage forms a force-field which deflects the
bullets. This is limited consolation, however, as the mobsters make a
leisurely getaway as the Hawks watch helplessly. Shortly afterwards, a winged,
purple, birdlike alien flies up and dissolves the cage with a wand,while beaming a
telepathic explanation; "I beamed that protective cage around you-- so those
hunters wouldn't harm you!" The alien fails to comprehend our heroes'
indignant response that they were the ones doing the hunting, and Hawkman deduces
that though they can understand the bird-alien's thoughts, human thoughts are
on the wrong "frequency" for telepathic communication. The Winged Wonder
observes, though, that as the bird-alien approaches another of its kind. it
flies erratically as if it were communicating complex messages by the pattern of
its flight.
Back in Midway City, the Hawks report the debacle to Commissioner Emmett,
who gripes about the unwanted interference of the aliens with a police case.
But perhaps all is not lost, as a small bird knocks on the window. As Hawkman
communicates with the bird, the irritable Emmett complains, "Well, what's it
saying? I can't understand a WHEET from a TWEET!" It seems that Hawkman
sent the bird to follow the escaping mobsters and keep tabs on them, and now it
has come to report while sending yet another bird on the crooks' trail.
Following a succession of avian "stool pigeons", the Hawks catch up with the
fleeing mobsters and prepare to capture them at last. But wouldn't you know it,
the purple bird-aliens show up again to benevolently "protect" our heroes,
who they think have been lured into the sights of the "hunters" by some sort
of "duck call" equivalent. Quickly, Hawkman orders Hawkgirl to fly a
figure-eight along with him. "No time to explain! It (the bird-creature) won't
interfere with us now!" And indeed, as the avian alien waits and watches,
Hawkman and Hawkgirl take on the crooks, grabbing the rear bumper of their car and
using their anti-gravity belts at full power to upend it. subduing the
mobsters as they fall to the ground. With the crooks safely in hand, Hawkman
directs Hawkgirl to hover motionless in the air, her wings spread upward, as he
flies a circle around her. Hawkgirl complies but demands to know the meaning
of these "mad antics". Hawkman explains that he has observed and deduced
the meaning of a couple of the bird-aliens' flight signals. the figure-eight
means "Don't interfere", while the circle around a line means "Farewell".
(Hmmm.... perhaps those signals should have been reversed, since in real life it
is a circle with a slash through it that has come to symbolize "don't do
this".) Back in Midway City, the Hawks report their exploit to a pleased
Emmett, who dismisses them to go home by making the "farewell" symbol with his
hands.
Reviewing or rereading a Silver Age Hawkman story always brings to mind a
question....why was HAWKMAN the least successful of the Julie Schwartz Golden
Age hero revivals, except for the later SPECTRE? Why did the Winged Wonder
take so long to win a book of his own, and then lose it relatively quickly
(after 29 issues)? The series had planty going for it, including solid scripts
by Gardner Fox and brilliant art by both (IMO) Kubert and Anderson?
Did fans really not warm to the Anderson art, as the ALTER EGO comments by
Mike Vosburg and others suggest? Or, conversely, was it the Kubert art in B &
B, decidedly different from the slick look of the Flash or Green Lantern
series, that initially turned off some readers?
Did the team-up of married partners turn off younger readers, who still
thought "girls are icky" and didn't want to read about "mushy stuff" or heroes
who reminded them of their parents?
Did heroes whose only real super-power was flight seem ineffectual compared
to the likes of Flash, GL, or Superman? Maybe so (though the Atom was no
super-powerhouse either, and he did better than Hawkman despite getting a later
start-- and obviously a lack of super-power didn't cripple Batman).
My personal theory is that, while all the above factors may have entered in,
Julie Schwartz went one hero too far with the science-fictional emphasis
that proved successful with Flash, GL, and Atom. Most popular superheroes have
a fairly simple origin that can be summarized in a sentence or so. Not so
Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Alien policemen who land on Earth chasing one of their
own crooks but then just happen to decide to hang around.... who have wings
and costumes that coincidentally resemble Earth birds.... who are associated
with space despite having wings (which wouldn't work in a vacuum) and bare
chests (well, Hawkman, anyway-- if Hawkgirl had also had that costume, the
series might have been a lot more popular, except it wouldn't have got past the
Comics Code) ... who have access to advanced alien weapons but for no
particularly comprehensible reason use ancient Earth weaopns instead. Too many
discordant elements. Schwartz would have done better in this cae, IMO, if he and
Fox had gone back to the Golden Age Hawkman's origin, or something closer to
it. Say, Carter and Shiera Hall are real Earthly museum archeologists who
find the wings and "Nth metal" anti-gravity belts in a ruin of an ancient
civilization and decide to use them to fight evil. Simplet, and probably more
comprehensible to the average Silver Age reader. And I suspect the series might
have worked better by emphasizing more mysticism and Earth-based
supernatural/spooky elements, rather than Schwartz's beloved science fiction elements.
(For example, making the fear-inducing statue in this issue's lead story a
supernatural element rather than a contrived sci-fi gimmick.)
Not that the SA Hawkman wasn't a good series as it stood....but I can kind
of see why it didn't become a big hit.
"Birds in the Gilded Cage!" Both stories written by Gardner Fox and
pencilled and inked by Murphy Anderson. On the cover by Anderson, Hawkman and
Hawkgirl are caught in the aforementioned glowing, golden cage floating in
mid-air, as a gang of thugs (nattily dressed in coats and ties, like all 60's DC
thugs, except that one has taken his coat off) are shooting at them at
point-blank range.
Review by Bill Henley
On the splash page of "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman!", Hawkgirl is left on
her own to combat an armed crook an an aerodynamically improbable flying
platform, as Hawkman flies away like a scared pigeon; "I'm too scared to capture
that Pogo-Jet crook! You'll have to carry on by yourself, Hawkgirl!" One
day, "under the blazing noonday sun," Shiera Hall (aka Hawkgirl) is working in
her garden on the Midway City museum grounds when a loving couple happens by.
The man (who looks a bit like Gardner Grayle of the Atomic Knights, but
bears the notable and distinguished name of Bill) has just offered his girl an
engagement ring, making her "the happiest girl in the world". But suddenly
she has a change of attitude, as the girl cowers back from her lover; "Stay
away from me! I--I'm AFRAID of you!" She hurls back the engagement ring and
flees in terror, much to the puzzlement both of the spurned swain and the
onlooking Shiera. Later that moonlit night, Shiera takes her dog Penny for a walk
in the garden while musing over the day's events; "Love is a funny thing,
isn't it, Penny?" Suddenly Penny the poodle starts growling and yelping with
fear, and yanks her leash loose of Shiera to flee into the night. "And I
thought Penny was so fond of me!"
Later, Shiera tries to explain to her husband Carter Hall about the odd
events, but he is more concerned with an emergency call from Police Commissioner
Emmett. It seems Midway City is being plagued by crooks calling themselves
"Sky-Raiders" who use high-tech "Pogo-jet" devices to hop through the air and
evade police on the ground and helicopters in the air. (Yet another example
of comic-book crooks using gadgetry to steal when they could make a lot more
money with less risk by selling the inventions to the Pentagon or some other
eager buyer.) Hawkman and Hawkgirl are even more maneuverable in the air,
however, and their wings don't alert the bandits with loud noise like police
choppers. Setting themselves up with portable radar detectors at opposite ends
of Midway City, our heroes keep watch for the sky-bandits, and it is
Hawkgirl who first catches a trace of them, as they descend to rob the guests at a
party atop a swank penthouse apartment. The raiders' hopes of a clean
getaway are dashed as the Winged Wonders fly at them from different directions. At
first, our heroes make quick work of the airborne gang, as Hawkman catches
one in a gladiatorial net, Hawkgirl dodges another's gunfire and upends his
pogo-jet, causing him to descend to earth with his emergency chute, and Hawkman
lifts another raider off his jet and drops him.
But then the tables turn, as Hawkman pursues the now grounded gang leader
into the Midway City museum garden. Under the eyes of an Egyptian statue,
Hawkman catches up to and punches out the crook, who is on the verge of surrender
when suddenly Hawkman has a change of mind. Cringing back from the
gangster, Hawkman shouts, "No-- no! Got to get away from him!" Chickenman, er,
Hawkman flees into the sky as a puzzled but elated Sky-Raider makes his getaway.
Rejoining Hawkgirl, Hawkman makes a lame excuse about "missing" the gang
leader while struggling to control his shakes and terror. In the coming days,
Carter Hall broods; "I was actually AFRAID of that sky-raider! I still am!
Does this mean I'm finished as a crime-fighter?" while Shiera observes his
odd behavior and worries; "Carter just isn't himself. I wish I knew what upset
him so. But sooner or later he'll tell me!" Hawkman's newfound cowardice
does not extend to other foes, however; he haunts police headquarters looking
for assignments, and flies off to handle a riot singlehandedly while the cops
puzzle, "I've never seen anybody as eager for a fight as Hawkman! What's he
trying to prove anyway?"
As Part 2 of "Fear" opens, Hawkman continues his quest to prove his bravery,
taking on a pair of armed thugs, rescuing a family from a blazing building,
and punching another crook. But "He alone knows the bitter truth, against
which he put up a grim, silent battle"... for though he is not afraid of anyone
or anything else, his terror of the Sky-Raider chief is as strong as ever.
And in the meantime, that chief is recruiting a new gang of raiders and
making improvements on his pogo-jet fleet specifically designed to deal with
Hawkman. "Well, this is it!" Carter thinks when Shiera gets a call from the
Commissioners that the Sky-Raiders are striking again. "I'm about to find out if
that haunting fear overwhelms me when I face that gang-leader again!" On the
way to face the raiders, Hawkman tells Hawkgirl that he will take "first
crack" at the raiders, but warns her that he might run away and leave her to
face them alone. She asks for an explanation, and Hawkman confesses at last his
crippling fear of the gang leader. Hawkgirl sees a possible connection with
the two incidents of unexplained fear she witnessed, but before she can
explain, the Hawks and the sky-raiders confront each other, with the raiders now
armed with new weapons-- glowing saucers they shoot at Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
"If one of those charged saucers gets within a foot of them, it'll stiffen
'em-- for good!" Hawkman shows no fear as he uses his long wooden
quarterstaff to fend off the saucers, smashing each one before it can approach him or
Hawkgirl. (Good thing he just happened to pick out the right ancient weapon to
deal with this particular threat.... A quarterstaff probably wouldn't have
helped much if the raiders had used plain-ordinary guns.) Nor does our hero
succumb to terror as he takes on the three subordinate raiders and knocks them
off their sky-craft. But when it comes down to him vs. the leader, the
inexplicable fear kicks in again, and he shivers and flees, calling on Hawkgirl
to take over. He can only watch helplessly from a distance, "paralyzed with
fear," as Hawkgirl takes on the leader alone, dodging his gunfire and finally
knocking him off his craft. Once victorious, instead of scorning her
cowardly consort, Hawkgirl embraces and comforts him, "Poor sweetheart! If you'd
only told me what was wrong, I could have helped you!" for she has deduced a
possible cause for his unnatural fear. She has realized that each of the
fear-incidents took place in the vicinity of the Egyptian statue in the museum
garden. Thus reminded, Hawkman recalls that "This statue was used by a certain
Pharaoh to keep his subjects in utter fear of him!" Analyzing the statue
with X-rays, Hawkman and Hawkgirl discover that it has a tilted slab of "special
mineral" inside the head, which causes any light entering the top of the
statue's head to be reflected out its eyes. "The light must be transmuted into
a ray that affects the amygdala in the brain! Experimental scientists have
induced fear by electrical shocks to this part of the brain!" Experimenting
with a bird, the Hawks confirm that the light-rays from the statue also induce
fear. But they have an antidote. "By reversing the polarity of the
mineral, we'll create an opposite effect!" "Instead of being AFRAID-- anyone whom
that light hits will LIKE whoever he or she is with!" (Does that mean that
if Hawkman were with the sky-raider chief or some other crook when affected by
the light, he'd like the crook enough to help him get away with his crimes?
Sounds like a possible springboard for another story, but as far as I recall
it was never picked up on.) Hawkman thinks the case is resolved, but Shiera
knows otherwise, as she contrives to get Bill and his estranged fiancee back
together under the glowing eyes of the statue, and their love is rekindled.
But Shiera's job is still not done, as she hurries off "to find Penny-- and
make my pet like me again, too!" (But maybe she never did find the lost dog,
since I don't believe the prodigal poodle ever showed up in a story again.)
In between the issue's two stories, the "Hawkman's Roost" lettercol appears,
with uniformly enthusiastic comments on HAWKMAN #1. One of the laudatory
letters, from Kevin C. Ryan of Houston, Texas, refers to "Murphy Anderson's
incredibly realistic and detailed artwork". I was a little surprised, a while
back, to learn that this reaction to Anderson's HAWKMAN artwork wasn't
unanimous. I liked Anderson's art fine myself at the time these stories first came
out, and still do. But an issue of ALTER EGO focusing on the Silver Age
Hawkman indicated there was a faction of fandom who really hated the changeover
from Joe Kubert art in the BRAVE & BOLD Hawkman issues to Anderson art in the
short MYSTERY IN SPACE run and Hawkman's own title. I don't really
understand this. Sure, Kubert's art was great, but I thought Anderson worked just as
well on the strip, though in a somewhat different way.
Anyway, Anderson returns to draw the cover-featured "Birds in the Gilded
Cage" in this issue, and the splash page scene is just another angle on the
cover scene of the caged Hawkman and Hawkgirl being shot at by crooks.
"Somewhere north of Midway City, Hawkman and Hawkgirl swoop towards the lawn of a
mountain hideaway"....it seems that, on their way to Hawk Valley, they have
happened to spot a group of known mobsters. A lucky break for our heroes; not so
lucky, Hawkgirl notes, is the fact that they haven't brought along any of
their usual ancient weapons. So they are obliged to swoop and dodge wildly in
order to evade the mobsters' gunfire and take them on bare-handed. "It makes
no difference. They'll be in prison cells soon enough!" a confident Hawkgirl
boasts. "As if Hawkgirl has spoken magic words, prison cells appear"-- one
prison cell, anyway, floating in mid-air-- but it holds our heroes, not the
crooks! Hawkman and Hawkgirl are caged and helpless, and seemingly soon will
be dead ducks, er, hawks, as the crooks shoot through the cage bars. But
fortunately, the glow around the cage forms a force-field which deflects the
bullets. This is limited consolation, however, as the mobsters make a
leisurely getaway as the Hawks watch helplessly. Shortly afterwards, a winged,
purple, birdlike alien flies up and dissolves the cage with a wand,while beaming a
telepathic explanation; "I beamed that protective cage around you-- so those
hunters wouldn't harm you!" The alien fails to comprehend our heroes'
indignant response that they were the ones doing the hunting, and Hawkman deduces
that though they can understand the bird-alien's thoughts, human thoughts are
on the wrong "frequency" for telepathic communication. The Winged Wonder
observes, though, that as the bird-alien approaches another of its kind. it
flies erratically as if it were communicating complex messages by the pattern of
its flight.
Back in Midway City, the Hawks report the debacle to Commissioner Emmett,
who gripes about the unwanted interference of the aliens with a police case.
But perhaps all is not lost, as a small bird knocks on the window. As Hawkman
communicates with the bird, the irritable Emmett complains, "Well, what's it
saying? I can't understand a WHEET from a TWEET!" It seems that Hawkman
sent the bird to follow the escaping mobsters and keep tabs on them, and now it
has come to report while sending yet another bird on the crooks' trail.
Following a succession of avian "stool pigeons", the Hawks catch up with the
fleeing mobsters and prepare to capture them at last. But wouldn't you know it,
the purple bird-aliens show up again to benevolently "protect" our heroes,
who they think have been lured into the sights of the "hunters" by some sort
of "duck call" equivalent. Quickly, Hawkman orders Hawkgirl to fly a
figure-eight along with him. "No time to explain! It (the bird-creature) won't
interfere with us now!" And indeed, as the avian alien waits and watches,
Hawkman and Hawkgirl take on the crooks, grabbing the rear bumper of their car and
using their anti-gravity belts at full power to upend it. subduing the
mobsters as they fall to the ground. With the crooks safely in hand, Hawkman
directs Hawkgirl to hover motionless in the air, her wings spread upward, as he
flies a circle around her. Hawkgirl complies but demands to know the meaning
of these "mad antics". Hawkman explains that he has observed and deduced
the meaning of a couple of the bird-aliens' flight signals. the figure-eight
means "Don't interfere", while the circle around a line means "Farewell".
(Hmmm.... perhaps those signals should have been reversed, since in real life it
is a circle with a slash through it that has come to symbolize "don't do
this".) Back in Midway City, the Hawks report their exploit to a pleased
Emmett, who dismisses them to go home by making the "farewell" symbol with his
hands.
Reviewing or rereading a Silver Age Hawkman story always brings to mind a
question....why was HAWKMAN the least successful of the Julie Schwartz Golden
Age hero revivals, except for the later SPECTRE? Why did the Winged Wonder
take so long to win a book of his own, and then lose it relatively quickly
(after 29 issues)? The series had planty going for it, including solid scripts
by Gardner Fox and brilliant art by both (IMO) Kubert and Anderson?
Did fans really not warm to the Anderson art, as the ALTER EGO comments by
Mike Vosburg and others suggest? Or, conversely, was it the Kubert art in B &
B, decidedly different from the slick look of the Flash or Green Lantern
series, that initially turned off some readers?
Did the team-up of married partners turn off younger readers, who still
thought "girls are icky" and didn't want to read about "mushy stuff" or heroes
who reminded them of their parents?
Did heroes whose only real super-power was flight seem ineffectual compared
to the likes of Flash, GL, or Superman? Maybe so (though the Atom was no
super-powerhouse either, and he did better than Hawkman despite getting a later
start-- and obviously a lack of super-power didn't cripple Batman).
My personal theory is that, while all the above factors may have entered in,
Julie Schwartz went one hero too far with the science-fictional emphasis
that proved successful with Flash, GL, and Atom. Most popular superheroes have
a fairly simple origin that can be summarized in a sentence or so. Not so
Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Alien policemen who land on Earth chasing one of their
own crooks but then just happen to decide to hang around.... who have wings
and costumes that coincidentally resemble Earth birds.... who are associated
with space despite having wings (which wouldn't work in a vacuum) and bare
chests (well, Hawkman, anyway-- if Hawkgirl had also had that costume, the
series might have been a lot more popular, except it wouldn't have got past the
Comics Code) ... who have access to advanced alien weapons but for no
particularly comprehensible reason use ancient Earth weaopns instead. Too many
discordant elements. Schwartz would have done better in this cae, IMO, if he and
Fox had gone back to the Golden Age Hawkman's origin, or something closer to
it. Say, Carter and Shiera Hall are real Earthly museum archeologists who
find the wings and "Nth metal" anti-gravity belts in a ruin of an ancient
civilization and decide to use them to fight evil. Simplet, and probably more
comprehensible to the average Silver Age reader. And I suspect the series might
have worked better by emphasizing more mysticism and Earth-based
supernatural/spooky elements, rather than Schwartz's beloved science fiction elements.
(For example, making the fear-inducing statue in this issue's lead story a
supernatural element rather than a contrived sci-fi gimmick.)
Not that the SA Hawkman wasn't a good series as it stood....but I can kind
of see why it didn't become a big hit.
