Showcase: Of Strange Suicide Squad Stories Inside Earth, Part 3
Continuing the index/history of the greatest comic magazine ever! ;-)
Showcase was too busy with other
things, so Schwartz and Fox invaded B&B for three more issues to see if
lightning would strike four times. With
Flash, Green Lantern and the JLA proved rousing successes, there really was
only one Golden Age giant left.
Hawkman made his Silver Age debut
in Brave & Bold #34 on March
1961. He also appeared in issues #35,
#36, and later in #42, #43 and #44. The
original Hawkman appeared twenty-one years earlier in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) and co-starred in the magazine with
the original Flash for over 100 issues.
Hawkman never received his own magazine – although he did appear in
every adventure of the Justice Society in All-Star
Comics. Still, it had been thirteen
years since there had been a solo Hawkman tale.
The revised Hawkman kept his 1940s name of Carter
Hall, but his real name was Katar Hol from the planet Thanagar of the star
system Polaris. He and his wife Shayera
were police officers on Thanagar, and the hawk costume was their official
uniform.
Unlike Flash and Green Lantern, the new Hawkman’s
costume changed little from the original.
Hawkgirl’s mask was redesigned.
The new mask must have worked; the Hawkgirl from Cartoon Network’s
“Justice League” cartoons still wears that same style forty years later!
Although Hawkgirl also starred in
these features, it is still considered a solo Hawkman-centered series!
Three of his (their?) six Brave
& Bold try-out issues were “novel-length” and three issues contained two
stories:
1)
(#34: Creature of a Thousand Shapes) Tracking a dangerous Thanagarian
criminal named Byth, who can assume the shape of any creature; Katar and
Sheyera Hol come to Earth. After
capturing Byth, they decide to stay on Earth to study police methods. His powers: flight, can talk with birds, can
live in the vacuum of space for five minutes.
2)
(#35: Menace of the Matter Master) The Matter Master debuts! Hawkman develops super-smell and can dive and
swim for a short time.
3)
(#35: Valley of the Vanishing Men) Carter’s assistant Mavis disappears
while tracking the Abominable Snowman.
The Hawks investigate to find the Yeti are really aliens marooned on
earth for eons and devolved back into savages.
This story has the debut of the Absorbiscon – Hawkman’s shortcut in lieu
of investigation. He has all of earth’s
knowledge, so he knows the Yeti’s teleportation weapons are invulnerable to
wood. This saves a few pages of him
finding this out for himself. New
powers: can speak all languages (even
Yeti) and can communicate with all creatures, not just birds.
4)
(#36: Strange Spell of the Sorcerer) The Hawks defeat an archeologist
who steals Babylonian and other artifacts to evoke sorcerous powers. Hawkgirl defeats a medusa by removing her
compact from her belt and using the mirror against it. If the series were more enlightened, they’d
still be stone statues by now. A letter writer requests they change her name to
Hawkwoman, but Julie says that name is too awkward – they do it anyway years
later.
5)
(#36: Shadow Thief of Midway City
6)
(#42: Menace of the Dragonfly Raiders) Resuming his police duties on
Thanagar, Hawkman wins his helmet wings (making his helmet look more in line
with his golden age counter-part) by again defeating the shape-changing Byth.
7)
(#43: Masked Marauders of Earth) The deadly Manhawks debut! Their attacks on Thanagar led to the
formation of the hawk-winged police corps; now the Manhawks are on earth
stealing Terran rubies to perfect laser weaponry to get their revenge against
Thanagar.
8)
(#44: Earth’s Impossible Day) “Earth’s” July 4th
celebrations coincide with Thanagar’s “Impossible Day”. So after the traditional Impossible Day
picnic, the Hawks perform three impossible tasks: Make it rain up, throw lightning to capture
an escaping convict and dodge invisible bullets from an invisible gun. New powers: supersonic speed (enough to
create a water spout), wings that can flap at hundreds of miles per hour to
create hurricane-force winds (it was explained that the American Peregrine
Falcon can dive at 160 miles per hour).
9)
(#44: The Men Who Moved the World) Once Earth was in the same solar
rotation with Venus. The city of Lansimar Arctic . Three revived Lansanarians try to pull Earth
back to its original rotation. New
powers: Can see in the dark.
The series is a pleasant mix of superhero plots in
the early sixties – from scientific mumbo jumbo to magical mumbo jumbo. And the art … the art…
Joe Kubert’s work on Viking Prince (last seen in
#24, thirty-two months before) is the best art B&B has ever produced. Until now.
Only Kubert could top himself.
Average people looked real; the villains looked real; Hawkman’s muscles
looked as hard as steel; and Hawkgirl was beautiful. Oh that hair …
The Viking Prince is what Kubert’s
Prince Valiant or Tarzan would have looked like. Hawkman is what his Buck Rogers or Flash
Gordon would have looked like – high flying science fiction. Kubert was really at his prime here and in
the next few years. The Shadow Thief has
a thin beard, the Matter Master had a beatnik’s chin stubble, the police
commissioner had a thick droopy mustache; everyone looked different! His detail to the individuality of even the
secondary characters was phenomenal – how did he stay on a deadline?
Hawkman had a letter column in his
first issue, including reaction to the rumors of a Hawkman revival and an
interview with Gardner Fox (who requested that Hawkman join the JLA – he would
in November of 1964 – come to think of it; Gardner, you write the JLA, you
make him join! Like Julie Schwartz would tell you no!). The letter column also had a letter by Roy
Thomas, applauding Hawkman’s revival – but only if Joe Kubert draws him and
Hawkman’s helmet is a specific design.
Because of his foresight, the Rascally One got his letter published.
A letter from Roy Roy
After the first try-out Hawkman and
Hawkgirl left Earth to return to Thanagar.
To National’s credit, a blurb at the bottom of the last page requested fans
to send in their letters if they want to see more of the Winged Wonders. Apparently it worked!
The lesson of hyping themselves must
have stuck – with Hawkman’s second go-round B&B was littered with house
ads. Even in the Viking Prince days,
Batman and Superman magazines were advertised, so were Mystery in Space, My
Greatest Adventures and the Flash. But
now we see ads for the Atom, Metal Men, Aquaman, even Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis’
comics!
Hawkman didn’t launch into a solo
series of his own for some time after his two B&B try-outs. He did share the bill with Adam Strange in Mystery in Space for a while, but he was
eventually awarded his own comic for the first time ever and did join the
JLA. Another Julie Schwartz-Gardner Fox
success! Lightning struck for the fourth
time. <Wheet!>
In between Hawkman’s two three-issue
stints B&B dusted off more Suicide Squad and Cave Carson try-outs. Perhaps the publishers thought the previous
low sales of these characters must have been a fluke! It wasn’t.
So now what?
After Hawkman left Julie Schwartz remained as editor and allowed Gardner
Fox to try an experiment - and create one of the most unusual series the comic book medium has ever
produced.
Copyright (c) 2012 Michael G. Curry
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