Make Hawkman Simple?

Art by Cully Hamner

  

   DC Comics' Absolute Universe has kicked off. While none of it has caught my interest, it's impossible to avoid seeing articles and posts about what is going on with the event. I make it a point to read the articles that mention Hawkman and I came across an article that left me scratching my head. 
   In the CBR article by Timothy Blake Donohoo, the following is mentioned and suggested:

*Hawkman needs to be radically altered.
What would that do? Hawkman has a reputation that was maybe irrevocably damaged by the Justice League cartoon series in the 2000s. He was basically made into a psycho stalker that annoyed the fans of the Hawkgirl-John Stewart romance. The kids that grew up with that are now the writers and adult fans of comics. Yet another radical change is just going to muck it up more.
*The disparate nature of the Egypt and Thanagar origins has given the character horrendously confusing continuity.
Gardner Fox's very first story in 1939 and Robert Venditti's series made it easy to understand how it is all possible. If people paid attention to those stories and concepts, all of the complaints about Hawkman being confusing would be eased. Yes, the Hawkworld series in the 90s really threw everyone, but Venditti solved it in a way that actully made sense without requiring a PhD. Don't waste it. 
*The new universe takes things away, so Hawkman could be Hawkman without the continuity baggage. 
Is that what the new event is doing? Batman is no longer rich, Superman is no longer with Lois, and Wonder Woman is no longer an Amazon?  The writer suggests streamlining Hawkman by taking away the Egyptian or Thanagarian stories. Why do that. Having both of those backgrounds is what makes Hawkman a character with incredible potential as a character. 

*Let Hawkman keep his wings, mace and Nth metal. 
Add Hawkwoman to that. Hawkman and Hawkwoman work best when they are together. 
*Hawkman has largely been overlooked in the grand scheme of things, especially after the end of a lauded comic book run by Robert Venditti. 
No argument there. It's been four years since Venditti's series ended and since then it's been a slow dribble of 8-page stories hidden in anthologies, back panel props, appearnaces with no lines, and stories that were never finished. There are currently no plans for Hawkman, but it does appear that he will be in Jeff Lemire's JSA series that's starting in November. Why he is with Kendra Saunders again is anybody's guess. I thought that pairing was done for good after that horrible series by...the name escapes me now. 

Venditti left us with a Hawkman who was back with Hawkwoman, had a super spaceship, discovered new abilities with his mace, was done with reincarnation, and had his network of friends starting to come together again. Hawkman's potential was bursting with possibilities, but does DC want to just throw that all away and make Hawkman simple? Sounds like a gimmick that will be discarded once again once the sales start to go down. 

I can see where Donohoo is coming from, and discarding years of stories from Hawkman to make him simple may be what the current readership wants. But I think it would lose the reader's interest and be cast aside pretty quickly. Hawkman fans are split right down the middle when it comes to which version they prefer. Losing one half of that doesn't seem like the best way to go. Find a way to bring them together. Oh yeah, Venditti already did that! 
What do the Hawkfans think? Should Hawkman by streamlined and whittled down to something "simple?" But that's if Jim Lee decides to put bring back Hawkman and Hawkwoman in their own series. And that's a very big if.