DC Comics goes back to the planet Rann while the Ghostbusters work to find a missing member. Today’s edition looks at Death of Hawkman 1 and Ghostbusters International 9.
Death of Hawkman 1
Written by Marc Andreyko
Pencils by Aaron Lopresti
Inks by Livesay
I didn’t read any of the previous Hawkman series at DC Comics because I don’t have a feel for the character. I don’t think DC Comics has much of a feel for the character either, as all they seem to do lately is find new ways to kill him and bring him back. Apparently, the only aspect of the Hawkman character that has stuck with the good folks at DC is that he’s able to reincarnate. Of course, in order for that to happen, he has to die. All the time.
The original title of this 6-issue miniseries was Adam Strange/Hawkman: Out of Time, but clearly someone thought sales would be better with “Death” in the title. The first issue, though, doesn’t really deal with Hawkman at all. Instead, we see Adam Strange, the Earth archeologist who travels to the planet Rann to be its hero via Zeta Beam, as he tries to figure out why the latest Zeta Beam isn’t showing up where it’s supposed to. Pages and pages of story where Strange talks to people because his calculations aren’t working out. It’s … not very exciting.
When he finally does get to Rann, we see the planet has been ravaged by an invading force. All of that, though, is prologue, as the opening pages of the issue show Strange and Hawkman trying to hide from someone. Which version of Hawkman is it? Carter Hall? Katar Hol? I have no idea. I’m not convinced DC Comics knows either.
The biggest problem with the first issue of the Death of Hawkman miniseries is that… DC Comics gives us no reason to care about the rest of the story. The final page “cliffhanger” isn’t really enough to warrant me caring about why it happened, and as the book isn’t branded with a “Rebirth” trade dress, I’m not sure anyone should care.
I believe I’ll be skipping the next 5 issues of this.
Ghostbusters International 9
Written by Erik Burnham
Art by Dan Schoening
Nothing more than an issue of rising action for the Ghostbusters crew, who are still trying to figure out what happened to Egon. Thankfully, they have an Egon from an alternate reality to help them out. The main crew head out to Chile to find a key while the secondary group head out to Japan to find a map. They reconnect in New York before going off to Iceland.
Burnham does a great job bringing the story along without making an issue feel superfluous. It’s not the most exciting issue, but the character building makes is all worth it.