He may never have hit the big leagues as far as popularity went, but Kyle Richmond'd Nighthawk had one of my favorite costumes in the comics when I was growing up. The eye wings, scalloped cape, buccaneer boots and color scheme all worked together to make a true Bronze Age classic.
My favourite 'Nighthawk' moment occurred when the Squadron Supreme's version was visiting the Avengers' Earth in search of allies against his former comrades' take-over.
ReplyDeleteAs he stalked between a pair of bouncers into a night-club, one bouncer asked the other "Didn't he used to have his own TV series?"
^_^
(Tune in tomorrow: same Night time, same Night channel!)
Nighthawk was always my favorite Defender...great cover!
ReplyDeleteGreat cover!
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should see teamups with the other four...
Nighthawk was always one of my favorites, too, especially when Steve Gerber was writing him- I think Gerber's take on Nighthawk was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWe should get more GL teamups.
ReplyDeleteAgreeing that this is a great cover, Ross, and that more GL teamups would be very welcome. It's kind of too bad that you used Hal Jordan here, though, considering Nighthawk's shared first name with another GL on Earth.
ReplyDeleteAnd, once again, I'd love to see this Nighthawk teamed up with the one from the Champions RPG.
I prefer to think of the True Bronze Age as anything published post-COIE. Everything before that? Late Silver Age. But, as to Nighthawk's Defender-era costume? Oh, yeah! Definitely an improvement on his original costume.
ReplyDeleteThe one for which the Hulk so aptly nicknamed him "Bird-Nose."
P.S. @ BG: Maybe Ross can save that particular GL for a cover depicting him being argued over by Tigra and Catwoman. I even have the perfect (tentative) title for it...
ReplyDelete"Kilkenny Cat Fight!"
Special guest-appearance by the Silver Age Jack O'Lantern (of Global Guardians' fame).
Damn, now you got me interested in why Kyle would fund a guy like Hector Hammond. Another flawless cover man.
ReplyDeleteThis is ironic for my childhood. My best friend and I as kids would create our own super heroes and villains. One of the characters he created was a combination of both Green Lantern and Nighthawk. The one thing I wish that had been followed up on was the new Nighthawk that had been created and was being mentored by Kyle. He was also a king of Oracle character for the new Nighthawk and had the new one using his classic (original) uniform.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #1: You and I have minority opinions, but very different ones. Most people consider the Bronze Age to begin around 1970. But AFAIAC, every "age" begins with a comic so popular that it triggers a surge in new superhero titles, and superhero titles were at a low point in the early '70s. IMO, The Golden Age began with Action Comics #1, the Silver Age with Showcase #4, and the Bronze Age with Giant-Size X-Men #1.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that you think of the Golden Age and being Earth-2, the Silver Age as Earth-1, and the Bronze Age as beginning with the merged universe. But the "Ages" apply to the comic book industry as a whole, and it's unfair to link them solely to events in DC continuity.
I meant "as being Earth-2," not "and being Earth-2."
ReplyDelete@BB: With me, the Silver Age didn't end till Barry Allen and Linda Danvers were (ill-advisedly) killed off in COIE. Maybe that makes mine a minority opinion of one! But, it's an unalterable opinion, none the less. If that gets me labeled a troll, then I say: "Trolls rule!"
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: you play WOW as an orc lord. Don't you?
ReplyDelete@Carycomic: how did you know? :-|
ReplyDelete@Aon: Lucky guess.
ReplyDeleteThe true thing that makes the difference between Silver and Bronze was the abandonment of the Comics Code. So it's "Gwen Stacy dies" on one side and "Speedy lives up to his name and becomes a junkie" on the other.
ReplyDeleteAs for the subject at hand, if I was to pick one Marvel character to bump into a Green Lantern, it would be Ronan the Accuser. They are after all both space cops with conflicting jurisdictions and agendas. Or for a big event comic the Green Lantern Corps versus the Accuser Corps.
Well, those bits of real-world relevance might've tarnished the Late Silver Age. But, they didn't exactly bring it to a screeching halt! That dishonor still belongs to COIE.
ReplyDeleteHa! You get bonus points for using the image of Nighthawk from the issue that introduced "the Ringer!"
ReplyDelete