Hawkman Omnibus Vol. 1

Hawkman/Hawkgirl (2002) (Collected Editions) #1-3.5

by Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Rags Morales (Illustrator)

Written by GEOFF JOHNS and JAMES ROBINSON Art by PATRICK GLEASON, RAGS MORALES, SCOT EATON, DON KRAMER, ETHAN VAN SCIVER, JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ and others Cover by ANDREW ROBINSON Geoff Johns's complete, acclaimed run on HAWKMAN, from issues #1-25, are collected in hardcover for the first time, along with JSA #56-58 and HAWKMAN SECRET FILES! These stories, also featuring the talents of James Robinson, Rags Morales, Patrick Gleason and many others, reintroduced Hawkman into the DCU as he tries to reunite with Hawkgirl. But with no memory of their past lives together, Kendra wants nothing to do with Hawkman - that is, until she learns that the deaths of her parents years ago were actually murders, and she is forced to enlist Hawkman's help in unlocking the mystery and finding their killer!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

704 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hawkman is one of the more ridiculous DC superheroes, a dated muscleman with wings and a mace originating way back in the comic book Golden Age. But there have been some commendable attempts to write good stories featuring him, including Robert Venditti’s entertaining run several years ago. But this run, one of Geoff Johns’s earliest notable series, is considered the definitive take on the character.



Picking up right after his triumphant return at the end of JSA: Omnibus, Vol 1, this series sees Hawkman reestablishing himself in the community. It’s also a bold attempt to solidify his famously convoluted backstory. And John’s did a good job there, with much of what he develops here staying as canon, even further explored in Venditti’s run.

But I found one of the most interesting things in the book was the relationship with Hawkgirl, showing how resurrection, love, and destiny can get messy in the way that Hawkgirl does not remember her past life as Hawkman’s lover and wants nothing romantic with him, while he remembers all of their lives and knows that they are destined to be together. The creators make no attempt to hide this creepiness and they constantly show how Hawkman struggles with his old-fashioned, savage ideology in this modern world. Even though the villains are cheesy and not at all memorable, the book is decent entertainment and it’s a shame that it ends with the “Black Reign” crossover with the JSA that can also be found in JSA: Omnibus, Vol 2, during which this book takes place. Even though it's a decent crossover and a good showcase for the power of Black Adam, the focus is on the JSA team and those events do take away from giving a proper ending to Johns’s Hawkman story in this book.

One thing that annoyed me at times was the lackluster art. Morales seemed to struggle with creating different looks for faces and many times it was hard telling people apart. Just look at these panels where Hawkman has dinner with the Atom. Believe it or not, these are two different people talking to each other!

[Karen Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I've been a comic book aficionado all my life, I'd never really gotten into or appreciated the classic DC character Hawkman (or Hawkgirl)until recently; ironically it was because I actually very much DIS-liked the way that DC had "updated" both characters in the recent reboot of the entire DC comics line-up-- I thought the new Hawkman was WAY too over-steroidal (especially with the way they bulked up his armor-- sometimes less is more, fellas!), and the new Hawkgirl is almost completely unrecognizable, her classic look completely erased (I know that DC also "updated" & modernized the costumes of many of their other main heroes, but at least they still let them keep their basic, recognizable iconic costumes-- Hawkgirl looks like a COMPLETELY different character all-together! If they really wanted to do that "chrome warbird" look, why not just create an altogether new & different winged female superhero character and keep the old classic Hawkgirl that we all know & love?)-- so when I saw spotted this Hawkman Omnibus in my local comic book store, which was a collection of Hawkman stories from the early 2000's that was written by Geoff Johns, one of the best comic-book writers around these days (he helped revitalize Green Lantern with the "Darkest Night/Brightest Day" series, and also wrote on the J.S.A. title, to name a couple), I decided to give the old classic, pre-reboot Hawkman a try, and I'm glad I did. This definitely has more of the feel of the more classic adventure stories & comic-book serials that made reading comic books fun; the writing is good, and the characters more likeable & interesting (and it features cameos from some of Hawkman's old J.L.A. buddies like the Green Arrow, another old favorite)than their newly rebooted versions. I'd recommend checking this one out for anyone who's interesting in getting into the Hawkman (and Hawkgirl) characters, rather than starting with the newly rebooted titles, which might have the opposite effect of putting you off them, like it did with me! And it's also worth checking out Geoff Johns other works, like his run on the old J.S.A. (Justice Society of America), if you like his writing and are new to comics-- his characters feel real, interesting, flawed & human, as opposed to some other comic heroes who are written as more one-dimensional & cliched.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this series could've really been something special. Johns' Hawkman is a classic man out of time: an undying entity reincarnated over and over again for thousands of years, trying to shrug off the absurd amount of tradition and historical knowledge he clings to in order to live in a modern world, and have a modern, equal relationship with his similarly-reincarnated former lover, Hawkgirl. There's elements to this that could've been very character-driven and meaningful and thematic, playing into how gender dynamics have changed in recent years, or how the much of the world doesn't view violence as such an easy solution to problems anymore. There's a lot Johns could've played with, and even hinted at.

But, unfortunately, he didn't really use any of that. I'd say he didn't have time, since this was canceled prematurely, but honestly 25 issues is plenty of time to start digging into those themes. Instead, it's basically a monster-of-the-week generator that pits Hawkman against some new rando every issue or two. There's no real commitment to character development or to exploring Hawkman and Hawkgirl's relationship. It's all just a lot of fighting generic supercreeps until, towards the end, Hawkman kind of goes nuts for no reason. I mean, I guess a villain kind of makes him nuts? But that isn't dealt, at least not in this giant tome.

In any case, I applaud Johns for giving this a shot, but ultimately this feels incomplete and a little ill-conceived. I'm finding a lot of his comics to just be "our heroes have a big crazy fight," and this one's not really any different. Not bad, but not great either. Just kind of... a comic book.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good story. Not the Best Hawkman i have read. But with the convoluted plots around this character you really need an intimate knowledge of the DC universe and all its inhabitants.

But what i really did enjoy about this was the tying together of the Egyptian Mythos of the DC universe. It was a logical way that things should have happened and had not been addressed till the original publication of these comics.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest comic Geoff Johns ever wrote. This was the ultimate culmination of where he grew to as a writer, at the height of his prowess in the form. If he had stuck this book out for the long haul, developed al the stories and ideas to their natural conclusion, this could've easily been HIS Starman. It should've been. So fantastic.

[Joakim Ax · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that doesn´t get the attention it deserves and frankly is being bashed because of the format it´s been released in doesn´t meet up with the quality of most other Omnibus editions. But when you look beyond that you uave a great character and stories within.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is almost 700 pages long! Obviously, this is not a “comic” from my day. It is, in fact, a work of literature. I’m not sure how many pages a comic book needs to move into the “literature” category, but this one definitely drops into the category with the “whomp” of a decent dictionary. My background knowledge of the main character is very limited as he (Hawkman) was very much a third (or fourth) tier character back in my day. He was in the Justice League of America and I remember checking out some individual issues, but he was never someone I followed.

Anyway, the character seems to have been recreated in the “Highlander” mode of living forever – slightly different in that he is reincarnated, not simply immortal, but basically, he and his wife are immortal. The book covers a couple of their lifetimes and there are promises of lives to come. All in all, I found it a surprisingly good “book”. It is definitely something I’d continue to follow when the second omnibus is issued, but it is extremely pricey (by my standards), so unless my son is passing it on to me, I’ll not be spending $50-plus dollars to read further adventures.

For anyone not familiar with the character, Hawkman has wings to help him fly and he is reasonably “super” strong. The flight and strength come from a harness made of a non-Earthly metal which affects gravity. Please, no comments about weight vs mass in the area of being super strong – it’s just a comic book… Bottom line: a surprisingly interesting character and I highly recommend it if you can borrow it or find it second hand.

[Bodea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection quite a bit. I got into Hawkman and Hawkgirl last year after becoming fascinated with the whole idea of these superheroes and reincarnated soulmates taking on bad guys and their fate together. I loved the art and the stories were pretty interesting. I think this collection falls a bit short establishing a strong relationship between the two though. They just didn't feel like soulmates most of the time or good friends. Hopefully the next volume will have them on more stable terms in their relationship whether they are still friends or more.

[Craig W · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first four-issue arc was terrible. I was wondering if this would be the first bad Geoff Johns omnibus. But it did pick up from there, with a couple good storylines sprinkled in before the JSA crossover already contained in the 2nd JSA Omnibus (which is amazing). Overall, this was good, but I would say the least of Johns’ collected work.

[Jason Ragle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written all the way through. Rags Morales did some of the best work of his career. It’s a shame the last arc was not as artistically solid as the rest of the book.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good. The best Hawkman I've read so far. Works well with the JSA run which is outstanding!

[Leander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never really cared for the character Hawkman (and Hawkgirl) but after reading this book.... I still dont. Their background story is cool and this book did help me understand more of the character but thats about it. Even the last story arc 'Black Reign' was OK in my opinion. 3 stars

[Brannigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Hawkman and Geoff Johns so what's not to love in this omnibus? If you like either of them you'll need to check it out.