#shadow thief

I like the Hawks quite a bit. I like their big wings, I like their collection of medieval weaponry, I like how they look like something out of Flash Gordon or Conan instead of traditional superheroes. Whenever the Hawks appear in a DC movie or show, like Justice League, they've always been standouts. I even like how every incarnation of the Hawks adds something new to the mythos. However, the fact that there have been so many different incarnations of the Hawks makes trying to follow their characters an act of baffling incomprehensibility.

Hawkman, as a character, is such a mess that even the notoriously terrible DC Wiki has a comprehensive article showing all the ways Hawkman is confusing. It's got citations. Trying to follow the overall continuity of Hawkman is like trying to navigate an IKEA showroom while high on expired meatballs and being chased by a creature that is half man and half blahaj. Every new version of Hawkman has changed both too much and not enough that they're fundamentally incompatible but also completely inextricable.

Hawkman was introduced as a backup feature in Flash Comics #1. The character was introduced as Carter Hall, a wealthy archaeologist who collected a private armory of ancient and medieval weaponry. He receives an ancient glass dagger from Egypt, and when he touches it, he flashes back into his past life as Khufu, the whitest man in the Nile River Valley. Khufu tries and fails to rescue his lover, Shiera, from the clutches of the vicious Hath-Set, and both of them are sacrificed by the same dagger he now has in his room.

I'm not going to question the historical accuracy of, literally anything in this flashback. Even for 1940, it's clear that they did absolutely no research on anything related to Egypt. I think they might have actually done negative research and somehow writing this comic is what caused humanity to lose all knowledge of the Sea Peoples. The way everyone is dressed looks more like Barsoom than Earth, and in case I need to say it again, that half-naked torturer is the only character who looks African, with everyone else looking milky white or like they should be riding with Genghis Khan.

The one thing I will harp on is that this comic insists on referring to Anubis as a "Hawk-God." That's not just what Anubis is. You don't need to know anything about Egypt to know that. If you know the name "Anubis" then there is a 100% chance that you also know that Anubis has the head of a jackal. Ra has the head of a hawk, Horus has the head of a hawk, Anubis has the head of a jackal, this is like the most basic thing about ancient Egypt. This is a mistake on the level of Thor fighting frost giants with an enchanted screwdriver, or Christ strung up on a McDonalds sign.

Once his flashback is over, Carter Hall is caught in a supervillain attack, and soon after meets Shiera Saunders, a reincarnation of the woman from his past. She had also been having mysterious dreams of a past life in ancient Egypt, and they soon learn that Hath-Set, the priest who killed them, had been reincarnated as a man named Hastor. Shiera faints, as woman in the 40s are wont to do, and Carter Hall gets to hawkmanning. This doesn't seem to be a traditional superhero origin, as it's clear that Carter Hall has been operating as a superhero for some time. He's already got a full set of wings and a "dynamo-detector," and he's made a functional antigravity harness out of "ninth metal," later known as "Nth metal".

Carter Hall would eventually become the chairman of the Justice Society of America. In All-Star Comics #5, Shiera joined him in battle as Hawkgirl, and though she never officially joined the JSA, she was Hawkman's partner for the rest of the Golden Age. Eventually they married and had children, but that's a retcon for another day. I wouldn't normally go on this long about something from the Golden Age, but I think we can all agree, that was vital backstory.

In the Silver Age, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are basically the same, except they're ALIENS. In this comic and no others, they're from Polaris, but would later be established to be from the planet Thanagar. Their whole deal is barely changed from the Golden Age. Instead of Carter and Shiera Hall, they're now Katar and Shayera Hol. Instead of dressing like barbarian warriors because of a connection to Ancient Egypt, they explain their hawk costumes as just being what space cops wear on bird planet. Before the end of the first act, the police commissioner will have already set them up working in a museum with their Golden Age counterparts' names.

This is what I mean when I say that the reboot characters are way too different from their previous incarnations, but also having too much in common. They're basically carbon copies of their Golden Age selves, but with aliens instead of Egypt. Compare to how Flash, Green Lantern, and the Atom all created new characters complete with new appearances, backstories, and superpowers. You couldn't mistake Alan Scott for Hal Jordan, but this comic is inviting everyone to mistake Carter Hall for Katar Hol. I honestly could not tell you which incarnation of Hawkman is currently canon to the DC universe and I have all their wiki entries open right now.

Also, I have to comment on their looks here. They're basically wearing the same costumes as in the Golden Age, but with new helmets. Hawkman's helmet has a good beak, better than the Golden Age perpetually screaming mouth, but without the wings on the side it just looks naked. He looks like the saddest, wettest, sorriest kind of man: a bald man. Not that I would know what that's like. Hawkgirl, on the other hand, has an iconic helmet right from the word go. She's basically invented the Wolverine look 10 years ahead of time. I also love how she always looks completely unhinged, which is an S-tier character trait for any superheroine.

Mr. and Mrs. Hawk have come to Earth in pursuit of Byth Rok, a Thanagarian criminal with the ability to shapeshift. There's some back and forth where they try to track him down in his various forms, but I'm going to skip to the end when he turns into a big Ray Harryhausen dragon monster and wrecks up the New Jersey Turnpike. Also, despite Thanagarians being birdlike enough that they can talk to birds like Aquaman talks to fish, they don't actually have wings. Their wings are just part of an anti-gravity harness, like in the golden age. I always thought that was a mistake. T'were t'up t'me, I would make them much more freaky and birdlike. They would canonically lay eggs.

The Hawks attack Byth with the ancient weapons from the museum... because. Because they do. They just do. They give the excuse that they couldn't stop Byth with future space laser death weapons, so they may as well use ancient stabby bonk metal weapons, but that as an excuse is worse than nothing. Later comics would turn their weapons into advanced Nth metal weapons that can smash up shit to whatever degree the plot requires. And smash they do! The Hawks show some good detective work, but they also have staggeringly brutal tactics, defeating Byth's giant monster form with a two-pronged attack on both eyes at once.

Issue #34 is fine. It's adequate. Does the job. The first story has some Sorcerer's Apprentice-looking dork called Matter Master, and I can't tell if he's using magic or super science. The second story has the Hawks fighting magic yeti from space and the story is in no way as awesome as that sentence would indicate.

Issue #35 starts with a story about some sorcerer that's not worth repeating, but the second story introduces one of my favorite B-tier DC villains, the Shadow-Thief. Shadow-Thief is just some crook who lives in a trailer in the woods, but he fell ass-backwards into getting shadow powers from the shadow dimension. Using it could destroy the world... somehow... but he does not care, he's in this to get them fat stacks.

(Shout out to the artist Dario Brizuela and colorist Heroic Age, this sequence is beautifully drawn)

Zatara comes off as a good parents in sequence; fair but not harsh or stern and willing to correct his child when she does wrong.

In the present day Zatanna wakes up and we learn that her father disappeared at some point and since Zee can use magic, it's likely she figured out how to tap into some of her abilities over the years:

Zatanna and Doctor Fate head to Central City where Shadow Thief has run amok causing everyone's shadow to come alive and attack everyone.

After some light dissing on Captain Boomerang (oh hey, look it's Alan Scott):

The JL takes on the 8 story tall shadow monster whilst Zatanna and Doctor Fate track down who could be responsible for augmenting the Shadow Thief's powers which leads them to....

......the Warlcok of Ys and Zatara himself! The Warlock is from one of the earliest Zatanna stories (link).

Despite Warlock's attempts to restrain them, Zee manages to tap in to her power and take on the Warlock:

"You're so gonna wish I had my morning coffee!" XD Ngl that panel cracked me up.

Sadly the father/daughter reunion doesn't last but we do get a touching moment nonetheless:

Zatara doesn't come off as the best of fathers in this story but I love the continued affirmation that the League members are her family. The power pulsating in Zatanna's mind is obviously referring to the Medulla Gem and the line about 'his people' is a reference to the Homo Magi, both of which are pulled from Sindella's story and Zatara being forced to stay away from Zatanna is pulled from Zatanna's debut story 'Zatanna's Search'. It looks like the writer combined both stories into one.

Sadly, this plot point is never followed up on. But it was cool to see a writer, especially one for a tie in book do a deep dive on a characters history. Usually tie in comics are treated as an after thought but there are times when the stories are as good if not better than the show.

As for Shadow Thief, well no story, especially one with a Green Lantern, is complete without a trebuchet showing up in some form: