DCU Comic Book Reviews

HAWKMAN #36

The Army Of Forgotten Souls

March 2005

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray

Pencils by Joe Bennett

Inks by Ruy Jose

Cover by Ryan Sook

Synopsis

Trygg the Sorcerer has created the tower of silence, a supernatural device that has brought the dead to life, including Domina Paris, one time lover of Hawkman.  She attacks Hawkman, but Hawkgirl intervenes, telling Hawkman to deal with the other zombies while she takes care of Domina.  Before Hawkgirl can destroy the zombie, however, Boston Brand (aka Deadman) jumps into Domina’s body.  Along with Hakwgirl, they find Hawkman and Detective Grubs battling the zombies.  Then they go the tower and destroy it.  The hawks then attack Trygg, but he is saved by the Fadeaway Man.  After they watch the tower fade, Deadman gives Hawkman a few moments to talk to Domina.  She tells him to St. Roch and to stay away from Kendra, but she doesn’t explain why before she disappears.  The following day, Satana and Lion-Mane discuss their plans to kill the hawks.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was definitely better than some of the previous issues, but there is a sense of been-there, done-that feeling with the book.  Whether or not it is their intention, Palmiotti and Gray are developing and expanding the gallery of Hawkman villains.  Unfortunately, after several years of Johns doing the same over on the Flash, it seems a little repetitive.  You know, various villains attempt to either team-up to kill the hawks and when one fails, then the next villain makes an attempt.  Granted, this is long overdue for the hawks who don’t have a good set of villains at all, but so far the stories are fairly standard.  Even Domina’s appearance also was routine; I was not surprised at all that she would provide an ominous, yet ambiguous prediction of the future. 

My first thought was that the resolution of the zombie problem in the story was too quick, but I get the feeling that this is just the beginning of a larger picture of villains.  Someone is pulling the strings and even if Hawkman wins a few of the battles, the unseen villain is preparing to win the war.  I hop that makes sense. 

It was a good idea for Palmiotti and Gray to recap the origin of the Deadman.  It works to help keep the story accessible, but more importantly it did not come off as bad exposition since he was telling it to a character that had never met him in a situation that required a quick description of who he is and what he can do.

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