I am really curious as to how Hawkman will look when he makes his big screen debut in Black Adam. The helmet, bare chest & arms and wings are a tough look to pull off, as we have seen in some underwhelming TV attempts. They will need to find an actor with a big enough physique to no only pull off Hawkman's look, but also be able to not look scrawny next to Dwayne Johnson! The wings have to be huge as well - The Maleficent movies succeeded there. If done right, Hawkman could be one of the most visually interesting heroes on the big screen yet.
Hawkman and The Phantom first met way back in STF #122...
I love the team up of two heroes who both just keep passing their hero identities down through time via different people. These two could have teamed up on and off for generations! Very cool.
ReplyDeleteGreat cover with two of my favorites. I feel the movie industry will take the easy route and change Hawkman completely. Instead of the winged barbarian type hero we're going to get some dorky archaeologist who communicates with birds though some acient talisman he dug up.
ReplyDeleteIf The Phantom was one of DC's heroes we would discover that Hawkman was a Phantom in previous life/
ReplyDeleteAnother good one. Got a real Silver Age feel to it.
ReplyDeleteI never much liked Hawk's costume - or rather lack of one. For some reason, when they reintroduced him and Shiera, they chose not to update his costume, as they'd done so amazingly well with Flash, Green Lantern and Atom. My childhood self felt very let down at the time and older me agrees. A missed opportunity.
The bare-chested look was retro even then. Only Sub-Mariner really pulls off not having pulled much on.
Still, Hawk works well with the Phantom here. I like their opposition too.
Carter's Museum Curator- Archaeologist job,the commissioner knowing who he and his wife really were, and that he had a wife who was his full partner were things that made him special among the superhero set. I just wished he had a chance to team up with Barry to compare science notes of two worlds.
ReplyDeleteThe futuristic Thanagarian elements were fantastic but the topping was Joe Kubert's depictions. He gave the Halls a strength that was just never duplicated. And that police headgear was spectacular when done as an alien piece of tech. and not as some type of cowl. Advanced super sciences applied here.
I hated the recent savage Hawkman time period. This newer concept of Hawkman being reborn throughout reality- time & worlds, has been very interesting. If he ever gets to sit in the Mobius chair, that might change some things.
Kit Walker is another I have special appreciation for. Between his family journals, trophy room, self funding room, sick bay and cave entrance, he has not been an easy act to carry correctly to the big screen. Having a full "support staff" or two (the jungle patrol being the second), gives this Ghost Who Walks one hell of an area to patrol and protect. Diana has always been on the same level as Shayera Hol, even if she wasn't fighting criminals directly. Smart, brave and full partners are only the beginning of describing both Diana and Shayera.
There are many ways that Hawkman can be done in live action. I thought that the costume Michael Shanks wore on Smallville worked, even though it was an armored breastplate. At the opposite end of the spectrum, you can see a bare-chested Hawkman in the Legends of the Superheroes specials of 1979 (played by actor Bill Nuckols), and that costume looked horrible even by the standards of the day (by far the worst on the show, and several of the others were pretty bad). Hopefully the costume designer for Black Adam will experiment with both possibilities and just go with whichever works best.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I echo all of the praise heaped on this cover. It'd be fun to see these two in an ongoing relationship through the ages -- maybe even future incarnations having a sci-fi adventure!
@Unknown: I don't think that Dwayne (who is one of the producers) would stand for that sort of thing. He's enough of a fan to want to do proper justice to every character in the film. And I'm pretty sure that the studio learned a lesson about making too many changes to a character after Catwoman.
@Davejonz: I do seem to recall that there was at least one change in Hawkman's look from Golden to Silver Age: the Golden Age Hawkman wore a hood, versus the Silver Age's (and later) hawk's-head helmet. Even so, I agree that a more profound change, given the new guy's alien origins, would have helped a lot for differentiation, and maybe even allowed them to co-exist as separate characters (like Green Lantern and the Flash) rather than be merged into one.
Actually, this would tie in, quite nicely, with yesterday's cover!
ReplyDeleteI remember that those croc-men were originally mercenaries working for the Egyptian branch of the Criminal Alliance of the World. Unfortunately, C.A.W. never became a recurring antagonist for Hawkman the same way V.U.L.T.U.R.E. did for the Martian Manhunter. On Earth-STF, maybe that could be explained away as their being taken over by Eclipso for use as a power base. Hence, the confrontation with Ralph and Marc in Egypt. And, now, the clash with Carter and Kit Walker in Bangalla.
"Wrong again, Pa."
ReplyDeleteThey actually made three appearances in HAWKMAN volume 1! Specifically, issues number 7, number 10, and number 10. DC has simply never reprinted more than the debut appearance.
Sorry, that should have read "...and number 14."
ReplyDelete@Bob Greenwade: Actually, the Golden Age Hawkman did start out in a winged hawk mask, one that included the lower beak, so you never saw his mouth. He switched to the plain hood between All-Star #41 and #42 (sometime in the mid #90s of Flash Comics, I couldn't find a definite before/after cover pair). When the JSA was first revived he still wore the hood, spent a couple of issues in an all-gold winged mask, and then wore whatever the particular artist felt like drawing.
ReplyDelete@Bob Greenwade. Doh! Until you pointed it out I'd never even realized that the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Hawkmen being so similar precluded them from establishing much of a real separate existence.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Silver Age crossovers, with two Flashes (that first iconic cover!) two Green Lanterns (even two Atoms). And the Justice League meeting the Justice Society!
Hmm. Crossovers. Maybe that's why I like this blog so much.
And @Carycomic. I liked your Earth-STF idea. Great location to think of all these stories happening.
Even more than the similar costumes, the two Hawkmen couldn't coexist on post-Crisis Earth because they had the same secret identity... as did the two Green Arrows, Supermen, Batmen, and Wonder Women, not to mention the Hawkgirls, Speedys, and Robins.
ReplyDeleteI feel that CW set Hawkman up for failure without even trying to do him justice.
ReplyDeleteAhhhmh yes, Bob B, but that's what made such interesting stories in Superman when he and Lois came to "this" Earth and found there already was a Justice League complete with its own Superman. Coexisting while staying undercover for both Clark and Lois.
ReplyDeleteWhat a Convergence that was.
Ever watch Supernatural?The Sam & Dean of another Earth just fled to ours and didn't get killed off by story's end. They did go off to coexist in Brazil.
Since both the 1970s (Challenge of and Roast of) Legends of the Superheroes were played for laughs with Adam West's Batman being the star, neither Hawkman nor Flash nor G.L. were all that refined. They were accurate but not refined. BUT Hawkman was wearing horrible FLAT cardboard wings and what looked to be a painted paper mache headgear.
Youtube can still show this model of refined elegance on request. In fact, Smallville probably used it as a guiding model for their interpretation. Or you can use it to gaze upon live Hawkman in a Baby Ruth commercial. Or his time on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Any other times he made it to a live version?