DC Finest: Hawkman: Wings Across Time

by Gardner Francis Fox

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics

560 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2025

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the Silver Age of Comics started with the relaunch (and revamp) of The Flash, Green Lantern and The Atom followed under editor Julius Schwartz’s direction. Fourth on the list of revamps was Hawkman, and while the other three heroes had little problem jumping into their own books, Hawkman had to take flight several times before he got his wings. It started with a three-issue tryout in The Brave and The Bold issues 34-36 in 1961, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Joe Kubert, who had done the feature in some of the later issues of The Flash in the 1940s, when the artist was just a teenager. A second B&B appearance followed a year later in 1962 in issues 42 through 44 (again illustrated by Joe Kubert), but still no solo book. Hawkman made a four-issue appearance as a back-up feature in Mystery in Space in late 1963-early 1964, but this time he was drawn by Murphy Anderson, much to some fans’ annoyance (they preferred Kubert). Finally after that short run, he graduated to his own title, with number 1 cover-dated for May 1964. All those books are here, plus Hawkman’s appearance in the second team-up issue of Brave and Bold (51), and his first team-up with The Atom in that hero’s issue number 7, plus issues 1-11 of the solo Hawkman title in this volume. Anderson illustrated all 11 issues, and they’re beautifully drawn. Mostly known at DC for his inking work on Carmine Infantino (Adam Strange) and Curt Swan (Superman), Anderson was also a gifted penciller and even moreso when he was allowed to ink his own work. Hawkman is his greatest work as both penciller/inker at the company (in my humble opinion). Fox’s scripts are a little old-fashioned (it’s amazing how many nicknames he has for Hawkman: the “Winged Wonder,” the “Flying Fury,” the “Aerial Ace,” the “Pinioned Paladin,” to name a few), with Hawkgirl’s first name (“Shayera?” … “Shiera?”) changing periodically. This is a great collection with stellar reproduction and if you’ve never read any of Hawkman’s 1960s adventures, this is the best jumping-on point you could hope for.

[Del · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is generally a fun collection, but it does suffer from repetitive formulaic stories. So our heroes Hawkman and Hawkgirl have arrived on earth to study policing methods (something that is told to you in almost every issue) by joining the police force.....oh sorry, wait, no, they join a museum, for some reason. This was in fact recommended they do by the police commisioner for reasons only he knows, but anyways, our heroes running the museum, that is constantly targeted by thieves, so I guess in a way, they are at the heart of a criminal treasure trove, with thieves who steal just for the thrill of it, or other absurd reasons, keep these heroes on their toes or talons or whatever.

And to aid their police studies, they use ancient primitive weapons to tackle these villains, (yet somehow it always ends in the old fisticuffs), and are assisted from flocks of birds who they can tweet to. These colourful villains from the Dragonfly raiders to the masked marauders, to the IQ gang will challenge and stretch the abilities of Carter Hall (Aka Kazar Hol) and his wife Shayara in various escapades and hijinks.

The plots are well written, but because of formulaic format, they can feel really repetitive really quickly. I think to get the most out of it, it's probably best to dip in to the issues now and then, spreading the stories out will probably help with this, as they are generally fun on their own. The stories tho, also suffer from a lack of a support cast. You have the commisioner who appears now and then, and a museum assistant called Mavis who recurrs, but doesn't really add much. The villains, are mostly forgettable, tho there are some recurring characters like the matter master and the shadow thief.

The best issues for me are in fact the last couple, as the formula does deviate more than most, and has more sci-fi elements involved, so it's worth sticking with, and I may in fact get the next volume if the quality keeps improving.

The biggest draw of the collection tho is the art by Joe Kubert and Murphy Anderson, some really great stuff here, if I was to review based on art alone, it's a easy 5 stars.

So whilst I enjoyed it overall, I was a little disappointed with the repetitiveness of it, as I know Gardner Fox at his best is a really inventive creative writer, so I think it could have been a lot better, but I think this is in fact the worst Silver age DC finest I've read yet, better collections include The Spectre, Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, Justice league etc etc. But just because it's the worst, it's still a decent collection, and worth reading through, but perhaps taken a lot more time to going through it, like reading only 1 or 2 issues a week, so things feel more fresh.

So recommended mainly to Silverage readers and Hawkman fans, not recommended for first time silver age readers, as there is so much better stuff out there, and this may put you off checking them out.

[Michael Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection that feature the first Silver Age appearances of Hackman and his wife Hawkgirl (geesh...I know Hawkwoman has more syllables but come on 1960s!)

A third of this collection is pure joy to me because it is Joe Kubert art. As a super hero fan I rarely get to see his art with the characters I love. He stuck mainly to war stories and Tarzan (understandable - that is where he excels) so having him do a super hero book is rare-ish and prized by me. Hawkman is perfect for him because he excels in realism and these stories allow him to do ancient weapons and wings and more naturalistic settings. ASIDE: the reason the stories use to have the Hawk-couple using ancient weapons and not their advanced space weapons (they come from Thanagar) is weak but I feel it was driven because Kurbert loved to draw these weapons and also the writer didn't want to over power them with lasers and disintegrator beams.

All of this collection is well written because Gardner Fox writes all the stories and he is an amazing writer. While he doesn't give his characters much (any?) character development (unlike Stan Lee over in Marvel) he makes up for it by having clever stories with some interesting endings. They aren't just "fight, fight, fight!" endings like you see in Marvel comics of this era.

After Kubert leaves we get Murphy Anderson on art. Murphy's art is wonderful but just doesn't do it for me. I am not an artist so I am hard pressed to articulate why...but it feels more static/less dynamic than Kubert (or even Gil Kane). Don't get me wrong - it is still beautiful and it didn't detract from the stories but it just doesn't thrill me like Kubert's art.

Overall - it is the Silver age so a) don't expect character development in a DC comic b) some of the stories are a bit silly but the art and clever stories had me entertained throughout. Really loved this collection. And - as I have said before - this DC Finest line is a home run for me. Affordable, excellent printing/colour and collecting some tales I really wanted to see back in print. Love it.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Junto al dedicado a Plastic Man, para mí este volumen es la joya de la corona de los DC Finest publicados hasta ahora. Aparte de que Gardner Fox es un guionista imaginativo y siempre entretenido, los dibujos de un Joe Kubert magnífico en la primera parte del tomo, y los de Murphy Anderson (que no tiene el genio de Kubert, pero es un artesano de primer orden, dotado de un sentido del ritmo y de la narrativa superlativos), hacen de todas las historias una delicia visual. Por cierto, que esto es algo estrictamente personal y subjetivo, pero prefiero mil veces a los hombres halcón thanagarianos (o sea, los de la Edad de Plata, los que nos encontramos en este DC Finest), que los que se reencarnan una y otra vez, para acabar cagándola y palmando (los de la JSA, vamos). Por eso, he disfrutado el doble con la lectura de este tomo imprescindible.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

this felt like a book of two parts to me. I really enjoyed the earlier stuff in here, enough that I would've given it a five star rating, but by the time hawkman goes into his own solo series (in title) I found the stories didn't grab me anymore. the artwork was fantastic throughout, though the kubert artwork stood out a bit more than the rest. all in all I still enjoyed this book but the second chunk of stories were a bit of a letdown compared to the first bit.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has great Joe Kubert art and it’s Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s start in the Silver Age. Some great stories in this and while there’s not much character development their dynamic is makes this collection. Covers 1961-1966.