DCU Comic Book Reviews

JSA CLASSIFIED #21

Best Served Cold...

early March 2007

Written by Walter Simonson

Pencils by Walter Simonson

Inks by Walter Simonson

Cover by Walter Simonson

Synopsis

On Rann, Hawkman continues to fight for peace in the middle of the Rann/Thanagar War.  Currently, Komand’r (aka Blackfire) has joined forces with the Grand Mor of Thanagar against Rann.  Sardath, the leader of Rann, has amassed evidence against the Grand Mor, which he puts into a Testament Pod and tells Hawkman to protect it.  Using a handheld Zeta Beam, Hawkman returns to Earth and places it on Hawkgirl’s desk at the Stonechat Museum.  He also takes the asorbascon, hoping to learn more by listening to Blackfire’s thoughts.  Meanwhile, Blackfire learns of the Testament Pod.  She arranges for the escape of several Thanagarian criminals.  She sends one to Earth to find the pod and the rest to battle Hawkman.  He is able to defeat them, but then must face Blackfire....

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

In the opening pages, Hawkman leaves a bunch of criminals to face a de facto firing squad.  This is the way a hero acts?  At such an early stage of the issue, I was completely put off by the characterization of Hawkman.  That is partly why I had so much trouble with this issue.  The other part is the art, which reminded me of art that came from the late 80s, especially with the use of the bright yellows and greens and the weird purple and floating heads.  Of course, I am not an artist and know very little, but the late 80s is what came to mind as I was reading. 

The story was disjointed and did not flow well at all.  It was laced with a couple of pages of exposition, including an explanation of what happened during the missing year as well as a page (or two) explanation of Blackfire’s recent actions, which is a repeat of some of the material seen in recent issues of Hawkgirl.  I will assume most, if not all, people who read Hawkgirl will be reading this issue, so the repeating material just dragged down the story.  In fact, the back half of the story seemed to be more of Blackfire’s story as the thoughts Hawkman pulled from her were origin-related, which suggests it might be tied to her recent behavior (or tied to how Hawkman will stop her).  Either way, it seemed odd. 

As for the rest of the story, well, it less about Hawkman did during the missing year than a story designed to return him to the DC universe proper.  Except for the thing with the Testament Pod, the story seems like it could’ve taken place immediately after the end of Infinite Crisis.

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