DCU Comic Book Reviews

HAWKMAN SPECIAL

Actuality Contamination

October 2008

Written by Jim Starlin

Pencils by Ron Lim

Inks by Rob Hunter

Cover by Jim Starlin

Synopsis

On Rann, Hawkman investigates an unusual level of energy emanations in the Desert of Tears.  There, Hawkman encounters a being called the Demiurge who calls Hawkman one of the Aberrant Six.  The Demiurge reaches into Hawkman’s brain and pulls out a small cube, telling Hawkman that the cube contains false memories.  Demiurge tells Hawkman that he was never the reincarnated soul of Prince Khufu.  The memories were false.  They were created during a crisis when multiple realities merged into one.  The demiurge then crushes the cube, destroying those memories.  The Demiurge then leaves, saying goodbye to “Katar Hol,” which Hawkman thinks it is strange since it belongs to a dead man. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There are two ways to look at this special.  Either the events that occur in this issue actually did happen and Hawkman’s continuity has once again been revamped or the events did not occur and the Demiurge is connected to Lady Styx or whatever and it is just attempting to mess with Hawkman’s head.  Either way, I feel like this special just screwed me over.  For the former, I am annoyed that DC would make the attempt to once again re-jigger Hawkman.  Was there really a need to do this?  For the latter, the issue becomes all set up and I can’t believe I bought a comic to set-up another comic, in which a recap of the events I just read will need to be explained anyway.  If that makes sense.  Either way, this issue is really just a big set-up, either to Starlin’s Rann/Thanagar mini-series or to an upcoming Hawkman in outer space series. 

I did have the thought that perhaps DC might attempt to have two different Hawkman, Carter Hall who lives on Earth and is the reincarnated soul of Prince Khufu and Katar Hol, the Thanagarian police officer in outer space.  It would solve the problem of having Hawkman in two places (the Justice Society and Rann) and trying to figure out how he could be here and there and get back and forth so quickly. 

Who would be the Aberrant Six?  Is this connected to the Rann-Thanagarian Holy War (also written by Jim Starlin) in which case we are looking at Hakwman, Adam Strange, Comet, Starfire, Animal Man, and the Weird.  Or is connected to the look into the future that we saw, in which case we are looking at Hawkman, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl.  Or could it be characters that were screwed up by the Crisis such as Hawkman, Power Girl, and whomever else?  I would also like to point out that before Final Crisis, DC released a teaser poster.  Hawkman was on it, along with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern.  At the time it seemed like the poster (which read:  “Heroes Die”) suggested that Batman would die, since that was the only character who had not died.  Maybe it meant something else. 

The word Demiurge the word was first introduced by Plato in Timaeus, around 360 BC.  In philosophical and religious language, Demiurge is a term to describe the one responsible for the creation of the physical universe.

 

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