Death of Hawkman is one of the new mini series DC has released following the Rebirth launch. It is written by Marc Andreyko with art by Aaron Lopresti.
The series is set to follow a war between Rann and Thanagar (home of the Hawkmen), which has been masterminded Despero, who brainwashed the people of Rann into thinking that Thanagar attacked them. Thus it falls into the hands of Hawkman and Adam Strange to not only stop Despero, but to stop the destruction of their worlds.
(Mind you, you can find all this information on DC's website under the description of the series, so I don't really count this information as a spoiler).
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
I try my best to avoid spoilers, but this is a review so there is always that chance.
This issue begins on Earth, but it primarily takes place on Adam Strange's wife's home planet, Rann. We are brought in to the story in the futre, where Rann is in ruin. We meet a very injured Hawkman as well as a pretty beat up Adam Strange trying to figure out their next move. We then cut to a flashback which is where we spend the remainder of the issue, so I guess technically that makes it the present? Anyway. Adam is trying to live a normal life on Earth and not being too successful at it. Meanwhile, his wife, Alanna, and her father are trying to teleport him back to Rann, also with not very much success. But when he does finally arrive, he is thrown into devastation that he wasn't expecting.
Pros:
In this issue, we get a lot of information about Adam Strange. I don't know about you, but I really don't know anything about Adam Strange other than his name and that he patrols the galaxy. And I don't even know if that's accurate. So in this issue, you get a better idea of his character. He's a quirky, nerdy, archeologist. He seems like just a goofy guy, living his daily life; cleaning, going to the DMV, trying to tell people he's in the Justice League but they've never heard of him (which was a nice touch, I mean, I laughed). We also get to see some familiar faces and places, such as Cyborg and the Justice League Watchtower. The art is vibrant and colorful, and the scenes flow and transition well.
Cons:
Ok. So I was really excited when the announced this would be the title of this comic. Like. REALLY excited. Because I love Hawkman and Hawkgirl, I always feel like they don't get enough spotlight and here was this series implying a tragic death!
That being said, it really didn't live up to my expectations. I mean, maybe I set the bar kind of high because of my own excitement, but it just didn't pull me in. It's called “Death of Hawkman” and in this first issue Hawkman is only in 3 and a half pages (I say half because you only see his lower half). I'm glad we got to get a better idea of Adam Strange, but I really don't care about him. This isn't “Death of Adam Strange”, it's Hawkman. Hawkman is the character we want to read about and feel connected to. Despite getting to know Adam Strange, nothing really happened. We already know the planet is in ruin, we see that on the cover. The rest of the issue is mostly just Adam Strange doing regular human stuff on Earth, nothing really exciting is happening. Nothing that makes me feel like I need to read the second issue right away. After every page I was waiting for a moment of excitement, something new, that never really came save for the one panel we see some random Hawkmen poof in and then leave.
Overall Score: 5 / 10
Overall, I felt the issue was ok. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible. It wasn't exciting, but it wasn't so boring that I didn't even finish it. It was flat average. Hopefully now that we have our backstory out of the way, the next issue will have the story we're waiting for.
