DCU Comic Book Reviews

HAWKMAN #25

Black Reign, Part 6

April 2004

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Rags Morales

Inks by Michael Bair

Cover by John Watson

Synopsis

[Continued from JSA #58]

As the JSA and Black Adam’s group continue to fight in Khandaq, Atom Smasher decides to help Stargirl free Billy Batson.  As soon as the remove the gag around his mouth, he calls out “Shazam” and a bolt of lightning comes down to turn him into Captain Marvel.  Black Adam sees the lightning and orders Brainwave to reverse the change.  However, the Atom is inside Brainwave and face-to-face with Mr. Mind, an alien worm augmenting Brainwave’s power.  The Atom is able to disable Mr. Mind, causing Brainwave to fall unconscious.  Free of his power, the JSA is able to fight back against Black Adam once more.  Black Adam is able to defeat several members of the JSA, but falls to Hawkman, who uses a mace constructed by Green Lantern.  Eventually Captain Marvel arrives and proposes a deal:  the JSA will leave Khandaq to Black Adam’s rule providing Black Adam never leaves the country.  Black Adam agrees.  Everyone heads home while Black Adam, along with Northwind and Atom Smasher, settle in to take care of Khandaq.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue was a solid ending to a very solid storyline.  The only drawback to the issue is that all of the fights, especially the Mr. Mind and Atom battle, were extremely short.  I would have liked to seen more.  I can understand why some of the battles with Black Adam were short; these are not really important to the ending of the storyline.  However, the Atom and Mr. Mind conflict should have been longer.  It is even more perplexing when you realize that Atom’s discovery of Mr. Mind was the cliffhanger from the previous issue.  It almost plays like an afterthought rather than a key moment in the story.  The same is true of Atom Smasher’s decision to help Stargirl.  We don’t really see Al’s change of heart; it kinda appears off page.  Last issue had Atom’s lecture to Al, so I guess that was the moment, but I don’t remember Al suggesting he was willing to help.  Or maybe I just missed something, I dunno.

Out of this storyline, there were a lot changes.  There was Black Adam’s new role as leader of Khandaq, the return of Rex Tyler as Hourman, the changes to Dr. Fate, and Hawkman leaving the JSA.  Of course, most of these will play out in the pages of the JSA, so I am not sure how much this affects the Hawkman series. 

It was a good move to focus the first ending on Hawkman, since he is the star of his own book, although these past couple of issues had focused more on the JSA than him.  But, I think it was a better move to focus on Atom Smasher since it was his decision to help Stargirl that led to the resolution of the story.  Essentially, he was the moral compass upon which the story hinged as he felt he was doing the right thing, but felt conflicted by the methods that Black Adam espoused.  The ending suggests the story is not over, or at least Al’s story is not over, so it will be interesting to see where this all leads.

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