The Complete History of Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Hawkgirl by Tim Board

   To celebrate Hawkman Day, I started writing a history of Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Hawkgirl in the comics. The only problem is, I started writing it in 2021! Life can get busy and this project got shoved aside many times over the last 2 and a half years. I'm not a professional writer. The only things that I have to offer are my knowledge of the characters as I have seen them in the comics, and my love for the characters. It's a pretty tough task to include everything in the Hawks' 84-year history, but I did my best.  It is rather long and I will try to break it up later, but if you are a Hawkfan, I hope you enjoy going through their history and that the references will help you find what you are looking for. I don't know how much longer I will be able to do Hawkworld, but I'm glad I was able to finish this and get it out for Hawkman's 84th anniversary of his first appearance in Flash Comics No. 1, way back on November 20, 1939. Feel free to leave some comments after you finish reading. Thanks for always supporting Hawkworld! 

The Complete History of Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Hawkgirl by Tim Board

Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders I) 25th Anniversary

Art by Amancay Nahuelpan

   Kendra Saunders is celebrating her 25th anniversary this year! James Gunn posted about it on Sunday and it got a lot of attention. Even Isabela Merced, who will be playing Hawkgirl in Gunn's Superman movie, posted a comment on Gunn's post. 

Back Issue Review: Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 2

Review
The issue opens with Carter and Shiera at Midway City storage. Everything from the Hawks’ past is stored there, including a Thanagarian warship called a Brontadon. Carter is an expert pilot, but Shiera/Shayera was the one who handled the ship’s maintenance. When the ship doesn’t start, the past memories inside of Kendra kick in and she easily fixes the Nth metal engine. That was pretty cool. It was a brilliant idea to separate the Hawks’ abilities with their ships in this way.
The Hawks arrive in India, and they run into Jayita, who insults Hawkman by saying his accent sounds like metal scraping concrete. He can speak hundreds of languages fluently, so her critique of his Hindi was a bit odd. Maybe she just likes to insult anyone who is not Indian.
Someone who appears to be Green Arrow appears in St. Roch. Only the second issue and there’s a Carter-Ollie confrontation coming up? Yay!
They find Danny and rescue him from being eaten alive by Copperhead. Shadow Thief is also there and we get to see a nostalgic battle between him and Carter. The Tigress and Kendra definitely don’t like each other and go at it pretty hard. Kendra needs her own rogues gallery and these two have a lot of potential. The Shadow Thief is much creepier than before, even masochistic apparently. It suits him.
Rags Morales was born to draw Carter and Kendra. Ever since we were treated to his work in this series, I’ve always compared his work to other heroes, I have to say that Morales’ work with the Hawks was something special and right up there with Joe Kubert’s. The Hawks vs. the villains, Oliver Evans vs. Kristopher Roderic, Green Arrow, and some hard-charging elephant warriors were enough to keep us anxiously waiting for the next issue.

10 Best Hawkman Moments of All Time (ScreenRant) Plus a Few from Tim Board!

 

Hawkman Vol. V by Robert Venditti, 2018-2021, 29 Issues, 4 Trades

   Hawkman Vol. V by Robert Venditti kicked off on June 13, 2018, six years ago! For two and a half years, Venditti gave us one of the best Hawkan series, some fans say best ever, and it has only grown in popularity since it wrapped up in November 2020. About a month ago, ScreenRant's Ashley Land put out a list of the ten best moments from the series so I'll share it here. There were so many great moments, it's pretty hard to limit the list to only ten, so I'll add a few more that didn't make the list. This is full of spoilers so if you haven't read the series, do yourself a favor and stop reading. Come back and share your thoughts. 
Here is the list on ScreenRant first. You can check out the article here for more details. 

Back Issue Review: Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 1

Hawkman's Series Included in List of Instant Classics

    People often ask me what I consider as the best Hawkman and Hawkgirl series in their 80+ years of history. Over the years, Hawkman has had six solo series, a few mini-series and several series in other books. Hawkgirl has also had two of her own series in the past. Some stand out more than the others. I always name Gardner Fox's two 3-issue series in the Brave and the Bold, Tony Isabella's Shadow War of Hawkman, Benjamin Raab's Legend of the Hawkman, and Robert Venditti's Hawkman Vol. V.     
   Hawkman Vol. 1 by Fox and Hawkworld by Timothy Truman could easily be on that list as well. John Ostrander's Hawkworld Vol. 2 started out well and peaked with the Escape from Thanagar storyline, while Hawkman Vol. 3 also had a good start with the battle with Count Viper, but both series struggled in the end. Geoff Johns' series has gradually paled over the years and while the art by Rags Morales is second to none, Johns' Hawkman did a lot of damage to the character. It suffers when compared to Venditti's series that came later. 
   A CBR article by Timothy Blake Donohoo put out a list of series that should be regarded as instand classics, and Truman's Hawkworld (#4) and Venditti's Hawkman (#1) both made the list. DC really screwed up when they decided to place the Hawkworld in the current time instead of making it a reboot, and they have been trying to fix that mistake for over 30 years now. Venditti's series had the misfortune of having to deal with the meaningless Year of the Villain/Secret Six story and then the Coronavirus, and DC did next to nothing to promote the series, so it ended before we could make it out of 2020. 
   We are quickly approaching 4 years without a Hawkman title, and nothing is on the horizon at this time. Hawkgirl had a series last year, but I personally would never recommend that to anyone. However, some fans appeared to have liked it so check it out at your own risk. Hawkman does have some gems in his history and I hope fans will check out the series I mentioned above. 

Here is a list of the series and comics that Hawkman has appeared in over the years. LINK 

Here is a complete list of Hawkman and Hawkgirl trades and collections that are out as of this date. The contents are listed as well. LINK 

Happy hunting! And here's to hoping DC will give Hawkman and Hawkgirl another series soon! 

Hawkworld News (March - April 2024)

The year 2024 has been rather quiet so far for Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Hawkgirl. The last two months had very little news or rumors of upcoming projects for the Hawks, but here is a look back at what we managed to find. 

Comics
The solicitations for June (announced on March 16) and July (announced on April 20) did not have any news for Hawkman or Hawkgirl. They have popped up in some cameos or as background filler for some covers or variants, but that's been it for a few months. Here are the trades of back issues that they will or might appear in.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1000: THE DELUXE EDITION (2024 EDITION) / August 13

     Hawkman and Hawkgirl appear in "Batman's Longest Case."

ELSEWORLDS: JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 1 (2024 EDITION) / Released August 20 

     Hawkman appears as Katar Johnson, a Native American warrior in "Justice Riders."

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES BY ALEX ROSS & PAUL DINI (2024 EDITION) / Released August 20

     Hawkman appears on the cover. 

Articles

Note: Some of this is clickbait and not up-to-date. So don't hate me if you don't like the article. I'm only passing along what I found. 
10 DC Heroes the DCAU Could've Done Better (CBR)
Batman Secretly Dislikes 1 of DC's Most Influential Heroes (Screen Rant) 
The Nth Knight Rises in Jazia Axelrod and Amancay Nahuelpan's "Hawkgirl" (DC Comics)

10 Oldest Justice League Heroes in DC Continuity (Ranked by Age) / Screen Rant) 

10 Best World War II Movies Since 2015, Ranked (CBR)

Isabela Merced Can't Wait for People To Shout "Hawkgirl!" at Her (Collider) 

Hawkworld

Hawkworld Facebook hit 10,000 members in April. When I started the group back in 2016, I never imagined the group would grow so big, but there are many Hawkfans out there! The group continues to grow and many Hawkman/Hawkgirl creators such as Tony Isabella and Rags Morales also have joined. There are over 150 writers. artists, and editors who have honored the group by joining and sharing their work and backstories. Hawkworld Instagram and Hawkworld Threads also continue to grow. This blog also continues to get over 300 views a day and we're quickly approaching 500,000 views! Thank you to everyone for your support and come join us if you haven't already! 

That's it for this report. Stay tuned for more Hawkman/Hawkgirl news here on Hawkworld! 

Hawkman's Powers from Black Adam

 There is a YouTube channel called All Powers Explained. The video listing all of Hawkman's powers, abilities, and weapons from Black Adam was posted about a year ago. Pretty good collection! Too bad we won't be seeing it again. 

Hawkworld News (January-February 2024)

   Two months of 2024 have already passed, but things have been pretty quiet in Hawkworld. Unfortunately, there has been zero news about Hawkman, Hawkwoman, or Hawkgirl coming up in the comics. There may be tiny cameos here and there, but nothing has been really worth checking out. There appears to be some sort of bounty hunter called "The Thanagarian" (or so I've been told) in a (where else?) Batman book, but it is probably completely unrelated to any of the Hawks. I guess DC didn't have enough material for the two dozen Batman books so they have started strip-mining other heroes' properties for stories. 
   News has been slow about the Superman Legacy movie has well. I guess they have started filming or will be soon. There are a few articles about Isabel Merced working out or trying on her Hawkgirl helmet for the first time but that's about it. There are the usual comics sites' top ten whatever lists, and Hawkman shows up on those sometimes but it's pretty easy reading. About a month ago, Aldis Hodge was doing the interview rounds for his new movie and he got the inevitable questions about Hawkman. The only news we got was that there is nothing happening at the moment, and that he would love to move on and play Green Lantern John Stewart if he could. It looks like the Aldis Hodge-Hawkman ship has sailed. A quick Hawkman news search will bring those up if you want some extremely light articles. I'll list a couple of links to the articles that have come out in the last month or so. 

   We may hear something later on in the year, but so far, the solicitations for comics up through May have revealed nothing. The wait continues. 

   In the meantime, there are some great Hawkman and Hawkgirl stories out there. I've compiled a list of all the Hawkman and Hawkgirl trades with the contents listed as well, so if you want to know what to look for, check out the list. If you haven't read Robert Venditti's Hawkman series yet, it's alvailable in four volumes. I can't recommend this one enough. As for the recent Hawkgirl series, the trade is supposed to come out in April, but I do not, repeat, do not recommend it unless you're a completist and must have it for your comics collection. 
   If you see Hawkman or Hawkgirl pop up somewhere in the comics, let me know in the comments and I'll try to let all the Hawkfans know. Hawkworld on Facebook has passed over 9200 members, and Hawkworld on Threads is slowly climbing to 1,000 followers (745 at the time of this writing). Come join or give Hawkworld a follow if you haven't already. 
   As Better Midler would probably say, the fans are the wind beneath Hawkman's wings, so it's up to us Hawkfans to keep Hawkman and Hawkgirl soaring. Jim Lee won't be at the top forever, and it's always the darkest right before the dawn. Or in DC's case, after the Dawn. Keep soaring! 

Aldis Hodge Has Bad News for Hawkman Return in James Gunn's DC (Exclusive)

Superman: Legacy’s Isabela Merced Has Tried on Her Hawkgirl Helmet 

Art by Prentis Rollins (Commissined by Tim Board)

Aldis Hodge Wants To Join The DCU... as John Stewart

Photo from the toofab website

   I've been getting some Aldis Hodge stuff in my news feed lately, and none of it is all that good. Yes, most of it is clickbait, but when there is little to no news coming from anywhere about Hawkman, you pick up some stuff when it pops up.  
   Aldis Hodge played Hawkman in Black Adam over a year ago. He did a great job with it and his performance was one of the highlights of the film.  But the movie came out right when DCEU was imploding on itself and James Gunn appeared to erase everything and start from scratch. Sort of. But with his favorite pieces. 
   It's becoming clear that there were some plans for a Hawkman spinoff in some form, but that has all been scrapped. Hodge says that there were some plans, but he hasn't heard anything from Gunn. 

While Hodge has thrown his name in the hat for the DCU’s John Stewart, he hasn’t fully closed the door on returning as Carter Hall/Hawkman. He recently admitted that he “would like to finish out the plans that we had for Hawkman, and sort of revisit them, because there’s such a body of depth when it comes to his whole storyline and all that kind of stuff.”

   So Hawkman isn't happening, and he's ready to move on. That doesn't mean he's moving on from DC. It just means the he would rather play John Stewart if he's offered the chance. He seems to be letting Gunn know about his desire in some of his interviews. Hodge has already been the voice actor for John Stewart in the 2022 DC Animated Film, "Green Lantern: Beware My Power."
Looking back on the movie, Black Adam had a lot of bad luck. The movie was initially scheduled for December 2021, then July 2022, and finally released in October 2022. If it had been released as scheduled, it could have avoided the DCEU implosion. But...COVID. Then China got all upset about Pierce Brosnan being pals with the Dalai Lama and refused to release it in the theaters. If China had released it, The movie would have passed $400 easily. Bad decisions were also made with the plot, especially the overemphasis on the family in Kahndaq, especially the boy. It could have been a better and shorter movie without it. 
   Hawkgirl is in the plans for the Superman movie that's coming out next year, but we have heard nothing about Hawkman for quite some time. I believe we've seen the last of Aldis Hodge as Hawkman. At this point, I'll be shocked if they suddenly announce him as Hawkman for the DCU. 

LINK: Green Lantern: Black Adam Star Wants to Play the DCU’s John Stewart