Hawkman tended to tangle with other man-beasts.
In his first 1960s outing, the revamped Hawkman fought a shapeshifter who could become any animal on Earth or his home planet, Thanagar.
And in his second appearance (The Brave and the Bold 35, April-May 1961), the Winged Wonder ran into “abominable snowmen” while investigating the Valley of Vanishing Men in the Himalayas.
The first story in the issue pitted the Winged Wonders against scientist-turned-alchemist Mark Mandrill, whose accidental discovery of a compound he calls “Mentachem” provides him with a wand he can use to reshape, transmute or levitate any matter. The Matter Master would return many times.
“Gardner Fox’s Silver Age revival of the Hawkman shows similarities and differences from the original Golden Age Hawkman character, whom he also created,” observed comics historian Michael Grost. “Both go after criminals with a ‘variety of ancient weapons’ … Both characters have a secret identity of Carter Hall. By contrast, the Golden Age Hawkman is not an alien being: he is an ordinary Earth human. Nor does he have all the alien technological devices from Thanagar that the Silver Age Hawkman employs for crime detection.”
Reader Roy Thomas expressed his appreciation for the revival and revamping of the characters on the second Hawkman’s Roost letter page.
“I’m glad you have changed the characters physically as little as you did, for little improvement could have been made,” Thomas wrote. “One complaint, however, which I feel duty-bound to make as my chief (and practically only) disappointment in the issue — I think Hawkman’s mask greatly needs some wings.”
By his fourth tryout appearance in The Brave and the Bold 42 (June-July 1962), Hawkman had won his helmet wings.
Kevin McDougall:
ReplyDeleteIt'd be interesting to see the current Carter Hall wearing the wingless, Kubert-y helmet. But not the cowl; that's a bridge too far.
Dave Taggart:
ReplyDeleteFox's HAWKMAN talked to the birds like Aquaman talked to the fishes.
John Michael Seven:
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with Roy on this one. I greatly about the wings on the mask; can't articulate just why. Just asthetics, I guess. But I wouldn't toss out the wingless mask, either. Kubert could draw a dog raising its leg to a signpost and it would be a masterpiece!
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I found interesting was how the ‘new’ Hawkman, who was an alien named Katar Hol adopted the phonetically similar Earth name Carter Hall ‘which had been the secret identity name of the original, Golden Age Hawk.
It was also interesting that he was married. That was rare for superheroes in either Ages. Hawkgirl was no mere sidekick. She was his wife and his law enforcement partner. They were space cops and that was cool to me as a kid.