Customer Reviews

JSA: Return of Hawkman (Book 3)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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DC went crazy in the 1990s. Thinking that all their characters have become too archaic for the cutting-edged tastes of today's readers, they systematically set out to eliminate all their "old" characters and replace them with "new" characters. Thus we have all the big "events" of the 1990s - the "death" of Superman (to be replaced by FOUR Supermen - and finally the original returned with long hair), the "maiming" of Batman (to be replaced by a psychotic, badly-drawn Jean Paul Valley), the "defeat" of Wonder Woman and the "amputation" of Aquaman.

And there were the "events". Underworld Unleashed. Zero Hour. Final Night. Day of Judgment. Our Worlds At War. Joker's Last Laugh. etc. etc. Mega-crossovers that involve a million titles.

Here in this book, we have DC doing what DC should have been doing. Silver-Age storytelling with a modern sense of the epic. Goyer and Johns here stick to the "comic-characters-as-absurd-heroic-visions" view of past-writers like John Broome and Gardner Fox. There are no attempts here to force the characters to become unneccessarily "adult" ala' the pretentious Vertigo attempts. The characters here dress and talk like comic characters. And that's what they should always have been. And finally, no crossovers. The whole saga happened within ONE title - JSA.

Of course, as the title implies, Hawkman returns. And what an awe-inspiring scene that was. I still get that familiar tingle down my spine looking at that full-page blast of Carter Hall resurrected and proclaiming, "Arise, my once and future love!" And his return was just in time too. As the JSA then rush off to face Onimarr Synn.

Finally, there is that JSA meeting at the end of the story. Hawkman is back. And they do a little re-examination of what the JSA stands for - "Young Justice and the Titans, they look up to the Justice League. But the Justice League... they look up to US!" That's what the JSA is all about - LEGACY, what with being the original super-team in human history.

GET THIS BOOK! THEN GET THE HAWKMAN : ENDLESS FLIGHT TPB ALSO!

Hawkman has always come across as a rather boring character and I initially passed on this collection. That was a mistake on my part that I realized when I finally picked it up and read it.

The writers of this excellent series have smartly chosen to keep story arcs fairly brief lasting about five issues. This allows each trade paperback to contain two arcs. The two in this volume are excellent.

The first arc finds the JSA being attacked by the Injustice Society and Johnny Sorrow. The Flash winds up accidently travelling back in time to ancient Egypt in his efforts to defeat Sorrow. (Time travel isn't something treated lightly like in Dr. Who.) This ties the two arcs together nicely and also relates the origins of three legends: Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel and Hawkman.

Other surprises wait as Black Adam joins the JSA and the exploration of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's relationship deepens. Kendra discovers she's really Hawk's wife reincarnated, but everything isn't peachy keen. All in all, it's well written and art is top notch. Enjoy!

Poor Hawkman. Trapped for years in a miasma of conflicting versions and contradictory histories. People talk about comic books being confusing sometimes -- Hawkman was the poster child.

Enter David Goyer and Geoff Johns.

They'd already turned the world's first superhero team -- the Justice Society of America -- into one of the best of the 21st century. In this book they bring back Hawkman in a way that is respectful to all previous incarnations without being slavishly devoted to them. Most importantly they did it in a way that is accessible to new readers, makes sense to old readers and is enjoyable for everyone.

You want to know how good a comic can be? Read JSA.

Perhaps the title is misleading. There IS some pre-Crisis confusion, but now it's all locked away in Carter's head. Hawkman is a great character and the conflict between Hawkman and Hawkgirl has been played out really well in the pages of HAWKMAN. I recommend this book to everyone. JSA is the original superteam--and they have characters from Alan Scott to the Sand to the new Hawkgirl. It is appealling to all.

I have never been much of a JSA fan, or of any of the older character's like Alan Scott (formely known as Green Lantern, now known as Sentinel), Jay Garrick (the first Flash), or Sandy Hawkins (originally Sandy the Golden Boy, now Sand). Then I picked up this book just cause it had been written by David Goyer (who wrote the three "Blade" movies) and my whole perspective of the JSA changed forever. The story was excellent, the character's are incredible (especially the reformed Black Adam), and the artwork is amazing. This has to be one of my top 10 favorite comic stories (Marvel and DC put together) of all time, and I highly recommend this book to any comic lover.

Is nothing more compelling than the JSA?? I mean come on! This book is so sweet, I got diabetes from reading it!

I got to say I'm absoluetly loving Goyer on JSA. He really gets you to like the characters and he has seemed to master what is so great about the JSA they aren't about conflict like the JLA but, they are a family. And with that being said Goyer has managed to balance all the characters on the team and make you want to know more about each one. I reccomand this to anyone but, do yourself a favor and pick up the first two trades first.

A little unexpected, but he wasn't going to stay gone forever. It was handled quite well, and made Hawkman a more interesting character, who I started following. Thus, it certainly did what it set out to do, in that it made me want to read Hawkman again afer such a long time.