Where did the muddled history and continuity first begin?
March 27, 2017
By Avi Green
It’s time now to get to the bottom of something I’m not sure anybody
realizes could have an answer to.
For many years, there have been people claiming that Hawkman’s
history is confusing and all screwed up. But is that really so?
Let’s take a look at a point in publication history where I believe
much of the troubles since first truly began.
Back in 1989, DC’s editors decided, 3 years after Crisis on
Infinite Earths had been published and 2 after the brief
series originally written by Tony Isabella had concluded, to reboot
the origins of the Silver Age Hawks. As depicted in the Hawkworld
miniseries written by Tim Truman, Katar Hol’s origins on Thanagar
were made darker, notwithstanding that a darkening had already been
developed in the Bronze Age of the late 1970s, and he suddenly
arrived at planet Earth during 1989 proper, his prior DC history
otherwise erased. I’m not sure at this point, but I can’t help
wonder if they used the Invasion crossover to justify this too.
The ongoing Hawkworld series followed in mid-1990. And soon
after, it was accompanied by apparent confusion and desperate
attempts by the editors to explain away all that came before, like
trying to claim the Golden Age Hawks were members of the Justice
League of America when it originally ran during 1960-87. Or that one
of the Hawks who appeared in Justice League International was a
Thanagarian spy. Or something like that. And when it became clear
that their dreadful efforts to sort out any kind of continuity
weren’t working, they went an even cheaper route, killing the Golden
Age Hawks in one of the worst crossovers of the mid-90s, Zero
Hour, the story where Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan was
portrayed as bizarrely evil for the sake of tearing down heroism.
This was also the case with Hank Hall of the Hawk & Dove
duo, already turned evil in the Armageddon crossover of
1991, which saw Dawn Granger killed, and then Hank was turned into
Extant, who killed the Hawks. To be specific about the fate of
Carter Hall and Sheira Sanders (assuming that’s possible with what
the editors did), the former was seemingly merged with Katar Hol,
while the latter was killed (and then resurrected in the body of
Kendra Saunders, as established in JSA circa 2000). Finally, when it
became clear that was failing spectacularly too, along with the
laughable conceit of making Katar a drug addict, all they could do
was put him in death limbo in 1996, until the time when Geoff Johns,
David Goyer and James Robinson took up writing JSA-connected heroes
and series. And when they got around to it, even their writing
wasn’t particularly appealing in hindsight. Because they stuck with
several of the same ideas and established elements post-1989, and
worse, they stuck with the whole Extant atrocity. A short time after
their Hawkman/Hawkgirl series ended, one of the later writers for DC
suddenly turned Carter into Katar again, and I’m sure I don’t need
to tell you how aggravating it is when those kind of abrupt retcons
come about.
Now let’s be honest. Truly, whose fault is it for bringing things
down to where they were at the start of the 1990s? The editors,
writers and publishers who mandated all the changes, who else? If
they wanted to, I’m sure they could’ve just modified everything to
what Truman actually wanted – to simply retell the Silver Age
Thanagarian origins retroactively, and if costumes were important,
I’m sure they could’ve found some ways to work in why our heroes
would take up those black uniforms, if only to differentiate Katar
Hol and Shayera Thal from the Golden Age Hawks. And let’s also be
clear: they did not have to write up a whole company wide crossover
to justify any of the changes they were making (though if I’m
correct, Invasion was used for just that). Yet that’s long become
entrenched in the minds of the “creatives” as the only way to do
anything of this sort at a mainstream publisher or elsewhere, and
it’s no wonder they’ve since lost the audience’s trust.
It is possible, if anybody in charge of the ownership and editorial
oversight wants, to change continuity back to some more plausible
paths. The answer is by abandoning much of the “continuity” that
took place since 1990, and no longer regarding it as canon. As
abortive as the 2006 Superman Lives movie was, one idea it
had that was interesting was how it ignored the 3rd and 4th Superman
movies from 1983 and 1987 (and likely also the similarly abortive Supergirl
movie from 1984). I once read that even the producers of the Terminator
movies were pondering the idea of disregarding the 3rd movie, and
even Terminator: Salvation, which was a definite box office
failure. Though it didn’t guarantee the resulting movie, Genesys,
would be any more sucessful (and indeed, it wasn’t), the idea itself
still has potential, and if any decent minded editors and writers
wanted, I’m sure they could work something out with DCU continuity
post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, by clearing away much of what
came post-1989. The same could also be done with Green Lantern’s 3rd
volume that ran during 1990-2004, given how dreadful it ultimately
was, and even the overrated Starman series (1994-2000), to
name some telling examples. Then, you could start storytelling anew,
but to really make things work, the editors would have to avoid all
temptations of publicity stunts and sensationalized writing. In
fact, as I’ve stressed at times, the monthly pamphlet format will
have to be discontinued, and a paperback format taken up in its
stead. This could also help provide for an easier time doing
self-contained stories, something that’s been sorely missing ever
since Crisis on Infinite Earths and even Marvel’s Secret
Wars devastated mainstream superhero comics.
If one wants, it’s always possible to trace the root causes of a
problem. The pre-1990 continuity for Hawkman, to be sure, wasn’t
perfect, but was still a lot more plausible than what came
afterwards. Showing the courage to disregard the points in
publication history where it derailed can help make things more
comprensive again. All that’s lacking is the courage and
determination, along with sincere contributors and company owners.
Find those and you can work something out.
Copyright 2017 Avi Green. All rights reserved.
