DCU Comic Book Reviews

HAWKGIRL #64

Queen Of Darkness

July 2007

Written by Walter Simonson

Pencils by Dennis Calero

Inks by Dennis Calero

Cover by Walter Simonson

Synopsis

Kendra Saunders (aka Hawkgirl) is on the trail of a canopic jar that once belonged to Hath-Set and it has brought her to Metropolis, but before she can reach the Metropolis Archeological Centre, the building explodes.  Superman then arrives at the site to help with rescue efforts and finds a computer disk with Kendra’s name on it.  Kendra takes the disk to Oracle who is able to decrypt the contents to reveal an inventory of all of the pharaohs of Egypt.  But the list is incomplete, ending just before the time of Hath-Set.  Just then Kendra receives a phone call from someone offering her the complete list.  Kendra goes to meet the mysterious phone caller, but it turns out to be a trap.  Kendra is locked inside a sarcophagus and put onto a ship headed for Egypt.  Later, Carter Hall (aka Hawkman) learns of Kendra’s disappearance and decides to investigate, with thoughts of vengeance if Hath-Set hurts Kendra. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue was actually a lot better than previous issues and a lot of that, I think, is due to the fact that Kendra is getting closer and closer to the mystery of Hath-Set (and the overall hawk mythology).  Plus, like Kendra, we are in the dark to this mystery, so we are not quite sure where this story could be heading.  After 5 years it looks as if the curse that keeps the hawks apart might come to an end or possibly one of the hawks might come to the end.  So far this book has been kept apart from the bigger story taking place in the DCU, but this story might change that.

The weak link to the story is the easy ways in which Kendra follows the trail to Hath-Set.  First there is the disk marked with Kendra’s name, which means she doesn’t have to do any research.  Then Superman finds it for her, meaning she doesn’t have to search for it.  While Oracle is the one to decrypt the disk, at the very least this makes sense since I would not consider Kendra to be a computer geek.  But just as she gets that information, she is then led to the trap at the end.  Considering how easy everything is for her, I am surprised that she didn’t realize it was a trap. 

The short scene with Oracle bothered me, mostly because of the phone call.  I realize that Simonson needed to get Kendra to the docks for the first cliffhanger and the call was probably the easiest way to do it, but Oracle is supposed to have a not only an impenetrable headquarters, but a location that is not really supposed to exist.  So, how does Hath-Set get a hold of that number?

You would think that the writer of the book could draw a cover that was actually representative of the contents of the book.  Right?

 

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