Writer Gardner Fox paid a double tribute to Edgar Allan Poe in Hawkman 17 (Dec. 1966-Jan. 1967).
In addition to costuming Hawkman’s foe to suggest Poe’s most famous poem, Fox crafted an elaborate, long-term revenge plot that resembles a Poe short story. And a Poe manuscript serves as the tale’s MacGuffin.
On one hot summer night in 195o, in a Midway City tenement, young Eddie Powe sees a raven swoop in through the open window to snatch a bag full of rent money.
Recognizing the trained bird as the pet of neighborhood bully Joey Makk, Eddie confronts Joey and humiliates him in a fistfight in front of his gang.
The boys shake hands and make up, but Joey is only pretending. Seething with rage, the little sociopath poses as Eddie’s friend for 16 years until he gets the opportunity for an elaborate scheme of revenge.
Eddie, a rare book collector, has discovered a priceless, unknown Poe story that he intends to turn over to Midway City Museum director Carter Hall. That puts Hawkman on the scene when the Raven’s gang tries to steal it.
In the ensuing confusion, Joey — the Raven — substitutes a fake manuscript for the real one so that Eddie will be denounced as a fraud.
Hawkman sorts matters out by interviewing Joey’s pet raven, whom Joey had used to spy on Eddie and then freed.
“It’s ironic — that the one good deed Joey Makk did all this life, by freeing his raven, should have backfired to bring about his downfall,” Hawkman muses.
This story offers a classic example of the mirror-image enemy that superheroes so often run into — a bird-costumed crimefighter who can communicate with birds confronting a bird-costumed criminal who also has a rapport with birds.
The Raven resembles an earlier Hawkman foe, the Shrike. He is one of several supervillains who use birds to commit crimes, including Marvel’s Scarecrow and DC’s Penguin.
Richard Meyer wrote:
ReplyDeleteI was as much into Poe as any other horror loving kid but his prose was a lot more difficult to slog through than I would have admitted back then.
And I loved those Price movies but the last time I tried to watch one it was pretty bad. Some memories are best kept on Facebook!
I replied:
I think Dr. Strange was inspired in part by Corman's "The Raven." But it is, as you say, hard to watch now.
Geary Gravel wrote:
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Eddie Powe's name is obviously a nod to the famous author. Do you have any idea if "Joey Makk" is also allusive to something Poe-related?
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin wrote:
Hawkman was always underrated for me. I need to catch up on his Silver Age stories.
I replied:
Bruce Kanin Yes, there's something about the Silver Age Hawkman I really like. Part of it is the Absorbascon providing access to all knowledge on Earth (something we're approaching digitally).
Eric Hinkle wrote:
ReplyDeleteI always liked Hawkman, being a big fan of history and archaeology and of his Conan-esque personality. But wow did they need to work on his rogues' gallery. Or at least bring some of them back, hopefully without feeling the need to turn them into homicidal maniacs.
I replied:
Like Spidey, he tended to fight a lot of man-beasts.
Jack Brooks wrote:
ReplyDeleteNice shadowed face of Joey in panel 2. It bespeaks his nasty personality.
David Schaff wrote:
ReplyDeleteThis is one title that rarely came to my area. First time I saw one was #15, then #18, then #22 on up. Of course I bought them. But if DC bemoans low sales, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy this would be the case if they fail to give it a distribution that would show its actual appeal.
Philip Rushton wrote:
ReplyDeleteOne assumes Fox was something of an Edgar Allan Poe fan as he also included Poe himself in a 'Time Pool' adventure for Atom #12.