This time, it is the four issues that make up the Return of Hawkman storyline, including Issue 22’s prelude. This is one of the better arcs on the series.

JSA 22: Lost Friends

Goyer, Johns, Morales, Bair and Buzz

This issue, which really should have been its own entry with the previous one, has an excellent gimmick. The top half of each page, with art from Morales and Bair, continues the story in the present, with Sand and Hawkgirl trying to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on with her. The bottom half of each page, drawn by Buzz, stays in ancient Egypt with Flash. While the two stories do deal with at least tangentially the same subject, the Hawks and their history, they aren’t overtly connected. Still, it is a pretty neat little trick that makes for a memorable issue.

The top half starts with Sand tracking down Speed Saunders, Hawkgirl’s grandfather and the former Hawkgirl’s cousin. A quick note about Speed Saunders: he was one of the original detectives from Detective Comics, before Batman and other superheroes crowded them out. After that his disappeared pretty much entirely until he was dusted off and rectonned into being related to the former Hawkgirl. He tells Sand the story of Kendra Saunders. At the age of 17 she attempted suicide. After rushing her to the hospital, she was pronounced dead, only to start breathing again ten minutes later. At first, Speed is over joyed, but he notices that Kendra’s eyes have turned from green to brown, the same as his cousin Shiera’s. He didn’t tell anyone, but he arranged for her to join the JSA because he knew that if Shiera was back, then Carter couldn’t be far behind. John’s “fixing” of the Hawk characters is a great triumph, but the storyline is supposed to be a great romance and instead feels more than a little creepy. It is acknowledged in the story and pointed out more firmly in Hawkman’s series, not to mention in the Geoff John’s penned “” episode of JLU, but it is still played as some tome spanning love story that just doesn’t ring true. The big cog in the works is the Kendra/Shiera split. Is Hawkgirl his niece (by marriage) or his wife reborn? It is a strange question.

On the bottom half of these pages, Flash is told the story of how the first Thanagarian ship crashed in Egypt. The pilot was dying, but she told them of someone called Synn and of the existence of Nth metal, which is what gives the Hawks their powers and powers the Thanagarian ships. So they took the ship back to their palace and retrieved the Nth metal from it. With it he crafts Hawk shaped medallions, which Khufu discovers gives him the power of flight. Nabu also prophesied a problem on Thanagar that they would need to face in the future and has them use the rest of the Nth metal to create the Claw of Horus.

Back on top, Kendra is still talking with Zauriel from last issue. He suggests that she is Shiera and her memories are returning because her soul mate is returning, which you know from the title of this post is true. She leaves Zauriel, taking off on her own. With Sand, he asks Speed where she might have gone. At his suggestion, the whole team, Black Adam included, finds her weeping at the grave of her parents. She lashes out at them and attempts to run away again. As Black Adam attempts to stop her she flashes down to her bones, not unlike when Sinestro from Green Lantern would transport himself to the Anti-Matter Dimension, and teleports away.

As the time tries to track where Hawkgirl was off to, Flash, sufficiently healed and with the help of Teth Adam, reverses the sun that transported him to the past in the first place. He crashes into Black Adam just after Hawkgirl has disappeared, just in time to tell them that Hawkman is coming back. The issue ends with Hawkgirl on Thanagar, which is of course where she went. Robed men call her Savior and shows her the planet.

Outside of the neat trick of the top page, bottom page split, this issue is just a focusing of the previous, cutting it down to just Sand, Hawkgirl and Flash. Truly, the most interesting part is the past. Normally, the legacy and history of the JSA is an immediate thing. Each member is either an original hero or a descendant of one. The ancient Egypt parts take that to its furthest conclusion. Not only has the JSA been there since the rise of superheroes, the precursors to the JSA have been around since the origins of civilization. Much like the first trip to the past in issue 6, it is a place and time the series continually comes back to. This time it wasn’t much of a story. Luckily, the story it is leading into is a very good one.

JSA 23: Ascension

Goyer, Johns, Sadowski, Bair

We start with Kendra on Thanagar. The planet is currently under the thumb of Onimar Synn, who is an Inhumi, an Eater of Souls. He has taken control of most of the planet. As the priests who summoned her explain things they are attacked by Dark Wingmen, corrupted Thanagarians. Kendra grabs the weapons they have available, and using Shiera’s memories she fights back against them. They nab one of the good guys and the rest flee with Kendra before Synn shows up himself.

It then cuts to Dr. Fate and Dr. Mid-Nite looking over the comatose body of Fate’s wife. Mid-Nite is telling Fate what he can do for her, but Fate doesn’t like the medical explanation and wants to pursue a magical means to helping her. Fate starts to threaten him, but Sand walks in looking for help with Kendra and puts a stop to it. As they leave, her EKG monitor spells out ‘help me’ but it is not seen by the rest of the group. This plot, believed to be Mordru’s by Dr. Fate, is a long running, slow moving one.

In the meeting room, Sand outlines who they are taking to Thanagar to save Hawkgirl. It works as an update and roll call for the massive team. Sentinel is still injured, Wildcat and Black Canary are in Europe, looking for the Council from the annual and Geomancer’s attack of the team, Dr. Mid-Nite is going to stay to help with Fate’s wife and Star Spangled Kid is with her mother, who just went into labor. Luckily, Atom Smasher is back. Black Adam wants to go along and at the behest of Flash, who saw him in the past, he is allowed to join them. That still leaves them with the problem of how to get across space. But Dr. Fate has a plan for that.

Back with Hawkgirl, she is being lead to the headquarters of the resistance. Synn has taken over the capitol city and taken every bit of Nth metal for himself, aided by his two heralds Phade and Crypt. It cuts to Synn, who is torturing the kidnapped guy from the start. He villain monologues about how he’s going to destroy the planet, and then kills the guy. They take him to make him into one of the zombie Dark Wingmen.

The head Thanagarian, Zith Tarak, then tells Hawkgirl a truncated history of the planet and of Nth metal. Nth metal is made of an element that is unique to Thanagar and is “psycho-receptive,” meaning that it retains some of the memories of those it comes in contact with. That is how Hawkman and Hawkgirl can be continually reincarnated and how they have knowledge of Thanagar that they shouldn’t have. It is pure comic book hokum, but it is effective at slicing through the complicated sludge that had built up around the characters. He then explains why they went to all the trouble to transport her there. At the Well of Souls she should be able to pull back Hawkman, the prophesied savior of their planet.

The rest of the team uses Dr Fate’s magic and the extradimensional properties of Fate’s Tower to transport themselves to where Hawkgirl is. As they arrive, Hawkgirl reaches down in the well and pulls out Carter Hall, Hawkman. That is what this issue was all about, taking the team to Thanagar and laying the rest of the ground work for the return of Hawkman.

JSA 24 : Icarus Fell

Goyer, Johns, Sadowski and Bair

It starts with Hawkman meeting the team, who arrived just as he came out of the well. Hawkman now has memories of all his previous lives, so he knows all the members of the team, including Black Adam, except Mr. Terrific, who appeared after he died. Even more touching than his reunion with Hawkgirl is his with Dr. Fate since, as I’m sure you remember, Hector Hall, Carter and Shiera’s son, is the currently wearing the helmet. Everyone gets caught up quickly, with Flash handing Hawkman the Claw of Horus just as a ton of Dark Wingmen attack.

He then shows what the Claw does; it renders Nth metal inert, causing the first wave of Dark Wingmen to fall out of the sky. The rest of the team jumps into action. While they fight, the dialogue also hits the big characterization points. Black Adam and Atom Smasher don’t get along, Hawkman is just assuming that he and Hawkgirl are going to pick up right where they left off, etc. Things are going okay until Phade and Crypt, Synn’s two lieutenant’s show up. Phade immediately severs Dr. Fate’s vocal cords, rendering him powerless, unable to cast his spells. Atom Smasher goes after Crypt, who swallows him up.

Synn then makes his presence known, using his ill-defined Nth metal powers to take away Flash’s anti-friction aura. Without out that he runs fast enough to tear himself apart. He also reduces Sand to sand thanks to his silicon instead of carbon state. He then launches Black Adam into space with a backhand. Finally, he reverse Hawkman’s trick on him and renders the Hawk’s Nth metal inert. Basically, he single handedly tears the team apart.

The team is captured and in their prison awaiting execution, Mr. Terrific science babbles about the powers of Nth metal, which are basically whatever they are needed to be. As they try to assess their situation, Synn comes and takes away Hawkman and Hawkgirl, leaving only Mr. Terrific and the depowered Dr. Fate and Flash.

Synn does a pretty great monologue to the Hawks as he prepares to make them walk the plank off the floating city. He is not a complex villain. As call himself a pervert and a sadist. He just wants to do evil for the fun of it. He is just your run of the mill Space-Hitler. He is at least somewhat intelligent, though. Not wanting to make a martyr of the Hawks, he is going to execute them like he has so many others, anonymously by dropping them from the city. No great show, no fanfare. And the issue ends with the Hawks plummeting from the city.

This issue is mostly a fight scene. It is the middle issue of a three issue arc. Things have to look bad before the good guys can triumph, so the fight effectively deconstructs the team. Once Hawkman gets his short reunion with his old teammates, it moves right to the action. Like most of this series, it is really well done and a ton of fun.

JSA 25: Seven Devils

Goyer, Johns, Sadowski, Bair Meikis, Neary and Leigh

This is the final, double sized issue of The Return of Hawkman. Last time left the team scattered and beaten, with Hawkman and Hawkgirl plummeting from the flying city of Thalrassa to certain death when they hit the surface.

Hawkman doesn’t give up, though. He breaks free from the ropes that are tying the two of them together and dives purposefully at a group of flying Dark Wingmen. In mid fall, he manages to knock out then break the neck of a one of the fliers before stealing his wings and managing to catch Hawkgirl just before she lands on a pile of bones. It is a really neat sequence, that does its job of showing just how cool Hawkman should be, even if it does it at the slight expense of Hawkgirl, who just passively falls to her death.

Of course, after being cool for a couple of pages, Hawkman goes right back to being creepy, telling Kendra how like her old self she is, despite the fact that she still thinks of herself as Kendra and not Shiera. It is a weird situation, no doubt, but Hawkman seems determined to force the issue. Of course, to him she is the same person as not just his wife but his wife over many lifetimes. It is going to be weird. Back in the prison, Mr. Terrific is looking for a way out. Flash can tell something is wrong with Terrific, who tells him it is that he is having a hard time buying reincarnation stuff since he doesn’t believe in souls. He hasn’t believed in any sort of higher power since his wife was killed by a drunk driver. Flash tries to comfort him, telling him about how he lost a child years ago and ending with the thought that no matter what anyone believes, they are a team and are in this together. So they will have to get out together.

Back with Synn, Zith Tarak is now the receptacle for his monologues. He is going to use his Nth metal powers to turn the whole planet into zombies like the Dark Wingmen. He then going to use them to conquer other planets until he has conquered the whole galaxy. You know your usual Space-Hitler stuff. As he talks, a Sand storm starts raging. In the middle of the storm, the Hawks steal some uniforms from Dark Wingmen and then fly back to the city.

In the prison, Mr. Terrific finally finds a weak point in the walls and Flash vibrates through it, despite the great pains it causes with friction burns. D. Fate quickly subdues the guard and they make their escape. Outside, the growing Sand storm allows Hawkman and Hawkgirl to take out Phade and get close to Synn. His raging at them about his power is cut short by the return of Black Adam.

As Black Adam tangles with Synn, the team regroups, catching each other up until the sand storm eventually coalesces into Sand, having pulled himself back together atom by atom. Crypt springs into action, only for Atom Smasher to tear him apart from the inside. Black Adam is having trouble with Synn, but the rest of the team arrives just as Synn gets the upper hand. Seeing the JSA in front of him again, he pulls all the Nth metal around them to him, making him a giant made of stone. Atom Smasher attempts to grow to match his size, while the rest of the team scatters and gives Black Adam his second awesome moment of the issue.

One of the things this title is great about is that no matter how big and unwieldy the team gets, every character gets their moments and rarely do they feel forced. Atom Smasher get his as he grows to giant size and punches Synn’s rock head off. Of course, he just reforms it and lays Atom Smasher out, but it was still a good spot for him. The real stars of this issue are the Hawks though, who defeat Synn by wresting control of the Nth metal from him with the power of their love and cause Synn to explode.

After Kendra again rebuffs Carter’s advances, the grateful Thanagarians transport the team back to the Brownstone, where Carter is overwhelmed to find out the team is now based out of a museum. In the Golden Age, Carter Halls day job was as a museum curator, that is how he came to possess the ancient Egyptian hawk relics that let him fly. The issue ends with the four remaining Golden Age JSAers: Wildcat, Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkman, wondering about the teams place in the world. Completely devoid of subtlety, they make their case for the JSA. They lay it all out, how they are the heroes that inspired the other heroes, that is why so many of them took their names; why there are so many Flashes and Green Lanterns. While the Justice League and Teen Titans are the famous heroes for civilians, the JSA are the heroes the other heroes look up to.

With that, Sand leads them back inside for a team photo. The Return of Hawkman pays off a lot of the early groundwork of this series, though mostly just that of Hawkgirl. It is also just a damn fine comic book punch up. And while the JSA never has a completely stable roster, but this does add another major player to the team. The first two years of JSA were largely very good, but a lot of it was spent getting characters where they needed to be. I would say that the Return of Hawkman is the first great JSA story.

Next time: Our Worlds at War

 

I called the last story the end of the first part of this book, and it is. But the second part starts with a story that is largely a payoff to set up from earlier issues that also sets up the biggest arc of the series, the redemption of Black Adam.

JSA 16: Divide and Conquer

Johns/Goyer and Sadowski/Bair

The rhythm on this title so far, and with most superhero titles in general, is for a sort of cool down issue after a big story, a chance to show the fallout of what has just happened and adjust the relationships in the book. After the big double arc fighting Kobra and Extant this issue at first, if you ignore the cover, seems to conform to that, but instead veers right into the next big story, and the biggest one in the book yet.

The issue begins with a rogue speedster, like the Flash, killing people around the country. Who or whatever this is, a pretty big body count is racked up in the first few pages. The the scene switches to Dr. Mid-nite and Black Canary out on a date in their civilian identities. A man in a trench coat appears and taunts Dinah about Ollie (Oliver Queen, Green Arrow) being dead. When confronted by Mid-nite, he reveals he knows their secret identities and that he is Count Vertigo, a longtime Green Arrow villain and member of the Injustice Society. He attacks and the scene ends. It moves to Wildcat and Sand watching Raging Bull in a theater. They are accosted by two other patrons who turn out to be Geomancer and Killer Wasp.

Back at JSA Headquarters, the rest of the team is investigating the deaths by mystery speedster. They realize that he is spelling something out with his kills: Clariss. Flash knows the name, Edward Clariss was a villain he fought back in the 40’s under the name Rival, not dissimilar from the Silver Age’s Reverse Flash. He apparently died when he ran so fast he broke light speed and disappeared, which was then end of him. Of interest here is one of the series few editor’s notes, which states that this occurred in Flash Comics 104, which was the one story about Rival as well as being the last Golden Age appearance of Jay himself. Judging from the pattern, Mr. Terrific knows where Clariss will strike next: Keystone City.

Mr. Terrific gets reports from Canary and Sand about their attacks, when the rest of the Injustice Society shows up. Icicle, Tigress and Shiv. Shiv is a new member, first appearing in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., Geoff Johns Star Spangled Kid starring book. She was Courtney’s rival there. They got in thanks to the Thinker. Wildcat mentioned back in issue 10 that the security system at the headquarters was based off of the old villains ‘Thinking Cap’ and patterned on his brainwaves. Shocking no one, the AI gained sentience and turned evil, becoming a new Thinker. Thanks to him, the Injustice Society not only has a counterpart to each JSA member, but also knows their secret identity and weaknesses. They immediately put this information to good use, with Tigress shooting Sentinel in the chest with a piece of Blackbriar Thorn.

This really changes things. Sentinel is undoubtedly the teams most powerful member, and with him incapacitated, they are really short on power. Mr. Terrific grabs Alan and rushes him to the on-site operating room, usually staffed by actual Doctor Dr. Mid-nite, leaving only Star Spangled Kid and Hawkgirl to deal with the four villains. In Keystone City, Flash catches up to Rival just before he can murder Jay’s wife. With the lovebirds, Mid-nite tosses a blackout bomb to give him and Canary time to change into their costumes and pervs on her a little bit.

In the theater, Sand and Wildcat fight with Geomancer and Killer Wasp, but the tide seems to turn against them with the arrival of Black Adam. That accounts for all of the Injustice Society, plus some extras, but no sign of Sorrow. At least until the last page, where Johnny Sorrow is breaking into the home of Louis Sendak, the Scarab, last seen in issue 4 of the series, where he is going to unleash the King of Tears.

This issue starts like a small issue, with the team relaxing, but it quickly ramps up into the opening act of a big story. After their defeat by Wildcat alone, the Injustice Society pumped up their ranks, adding Thinker, Shiv and Black Adam. This makes them, despite their earlier defeat, seem like a real threat to the JSA.

JSA 17: Cold Comfort

Johns/Goyer and Sadowski/Bair

This issue opens with Mr. Terrific performing heart surgery on Sentinel, while Icicle freezes the room from the outside and Thinker taunts him with the teams eminent destruction. He recaps the situation, with Sand fighting Killer Wasp and Geomancer, Wildcat fighting Black Adam, Dr. Mid-nite and Black Canary dealing with Count Vertigo, the Flash in a deadly race with Rival and Star Spangled Kid and Hawkgirl stuck in the JSA HQ with the rest of the Injustice Society. Hawkgirl and SSK are having trouble fighting Shiv and Tirgess. Dr. Mid-nite is able to disable Count Vertigo by making him vulnerable to his own power. Jay and Clariss run so fast that they start to disappear into the Speed Force, the power that gives all of DC’s speedsters their speed. One of them comes back.

With that ambiguous ending, the book jumps to Sand, who quickly dispatches both Killer Wasp and Geomancer. Then it is on to Wildcat, being held in the outer atmosphere by Black Adam. Black Adam threatens to kill Wildcat, unless Wildcat has a better suggestion.

Back at HQ, Hawkgirl is still fighting with Tigress while Star Spangled Kid is evading Shiv. Stat Spangled Kid gets the jump on her opponent and takes her out, befreo making her way to the control room for Thinker. Meanwhile, Tigress has gotten the upper hand on Hawkgirl and is about to kill her. Her life flashes before her eyes, but it’s not her life, but many different lives. This is just another note in the “what the hell is going on with Hawkgirl” file. A bright light shoots out of her and knocks out Tigress.

In the operating room, Mr. Terrific has just managed to stabilize Sentinel when the door bursts open to reveal Star Spangled Kid, who had knocked out Icicle and Blackbriar Thorn. There is no greater sign of Johns’ ascendency on this book than Courtney’s increased importance. She manages to single handedly take down some of most powerful Injustice Society members. Back outside the HQ, Sand meets up with Canary and Mid-nite, who have gotten from Count Vertigo that Sorrow is going after the Scarab to release the King of Tear. They head to his home.

They find Sorrow and Dr. Mid-nite attacks him, but Sorrow removes his mask, apparently killing him.

That is where the issue ends. The team manages to overcome their opponents, but superheroes fighting supervillains with nothing else at stake is not that interesting. There has to be something else going on and there is here, but this issue doesn’t really elaborate on that until the very end of issue. Once it gets into Sorrow and the King of Tears, the payoff to the story hinted at in issue 10, things actually start to get interesting.

JSA 18: Sorrow’s Story

Johns/Goyer and Yeowell and Sadowski and Bair

Like the title suggests, this issue is tells the history of Johnny Sorrow. It does this through his interactions with JSA team leader Sand.

With Dr. Mid-Nite apparently dead, only Sand and Black Canary are left standing to stop Sorrow. As he injects the Scarab with … something so he can use him as a conduit to bring forth the King of Tears Sand recalls the last time he faced Johnny Sorrow, way back when Sorrow was just a run of the mill crook and not a disembodied mask in a suit. Even though Sandman, the hero who Sand used to be the sidekick for, tells him to get away, Sand stays to fight with Sorrow, only to accidently hit him with his little harpoon gun on Sorrrow’s intangible vest and cause him to be apparently killed.

This is the first appearance of the gruesomeness that seems to overpower Johns’ work at times. Here, used as an outstanding moment in a story it is effective. When it happens too often it is just gross. The story then jumps to six months later. Sorrow appears in his current form and kidnaps Sand out of his bed. He takes him to an abandoned theater. There, with the bodies of another superhero team, the Seven Shadows, former team of the Scarab, that Sorrow has killed, he tells Sand his story. When Sand shot him he wasn’t killed, but transported to the Subtle Realms. There he found spirits that turned him into the being his is now and sent him back to secure the way for their king, the King of Tears. Once back he heads to find his wife, but to his horror discovers that showing her his true face kills her. So he took Sand to get revenge. Before he can do anything, the JSA arrives. The Spectre starts to go after Sorrow, so in response he summons the King of Tears.

After that, Sorrow teleports away, and the team tries to fight the indescribable horror that is the King of Tears. Flash and Green Lantern Sentinel fail to take it out, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl try. Knowing what is coming next, that part has more weight, seeing the two Hawks working together, secure in their transcendent love for each other.

The Spectre then steps in and eats the monster, only to find that he has no real power over it. The Spectre punishes the souls of the wicked, but the King of Tears has no soul. So he cries it out and they trap him as the Spectre’s tears. And so ends the flashback. At the current time, the King of Tears pours out of the poor Scarab and Sand and Black Canary stand alone against it.

This issue doesn’t push the story forward very far, but it does play to the JSA’s strength, their history. Showing the first encounter with the King of Tears in the 40’s and showing how the team defeated it then adds something to their fight with it in the present. Especially after seeing how ineffective the teams most powerful members, Flash and Sentinel, were against it. The only one that had any effect was the Spectre and he is no longer part of the team.

And that is where I am leaving things until next week, when I will go over the second half of Injustice Be Done.