The DC K.O event continues and we got Hawkman vs. Aquaman in the second round. We already knew who was going to win after seeing the solicitations for next year's books. If you haven't seen any of it, this is full of spoilers. I can give you one quess as to who won and you'd be right. But I'll do my darndest to squeeze something good out of this review.
This all happened in the Aquaman book, and there was no way someone not named Batman was going to upstage a character in his own book. And it wasn't much of a fight.
The set up is two out of three, so whoever wins twice advances. There were other matchups, such as Superman vs Captain Atom and Wonder Woman vs. Lobo. Both went the full three matches. That's pretty cool, since it gives each hero a chance to shine for a moment or two and show their stuff off. Hawkman got no such moment here. After macing Aquaman in the face once (no damage of course), he went down really fast and easy in two quick fights. Apparently, Aquaman has powered up quite a bit since I last saw him.
In the last round, Hawkman picked up the Claw of Horus and advanced to the next round, but I'm guessing no one gets to use the weapons they obtained in the previous round. We never saw the Claw of Horus, although this Aquaman is pretty much god-mode so it might not have made much of a difference.
It's a shame that they gave every advantage that Aquaman enjoys and nullified Hawkman's. Aquaman is the hero of the oceans, and Hawkman is the hero of the sky. That is where each excels. It would have been cool if they had a battle in the sea, one in the air, and then one on land to decide. But apparently Aquaman can propel himself through the air with water now, while Hawkman can't tell which way is up when he gets in the water. Again, this is an Aquaman book so the water in this plot pool is deep. I would want to see Aquaman come over to Hawkman's book and see what happens, but Hawkman hasn't had his own book for over five years so I guess we're out of luck.
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| From Aquaman No. 12 |
The only, and I do mean the only thing positive for Hawkman in this book was when Horus, the Thanagarian Nth metal hawk god appeared and mentioned Shayera as Carter's wife. This surprised me quite a bit, because Carter has been in the JSA series with Kendra and has never mentioned Shayera once, while Shayera appeared in the Green Lantern Corps series and it was heavily implied that she had some sort of history with John Stewart. In the three issues she appeared in, she never once mentioned Carter either. For non-Hawk readers, this will surely cause some confusion and maybe even some belief that writer Jeremy Adams got the names mixed up. I wouldn't blame them because that vitally correct statement came out of nowhere.
At any rate, this was a huge disappointment. Not unexpected, but still a disappointment. If you're going to throw heroes against each other, at least give both a chance to show off their abilities. We didn't get that for Hawkman. I'm rather relieved that this event is over for Hawkman (as far as I know), and DC can continue the tournament as they like. Which means Harley Quinn will defeat Aquaman in the next round.
Rating: 2/5
Well said! I just wish the whole thing could be over…. Almost didn’t get this comic because of the KO tie, but I’ve been reading Aquaman.
ReplyDelete-Matthew Lloyd
Aquaman has been disrespected for decades and four writers have made him famous with the latest doing more than any others to put him in the upper echelons. I'm not sorry Carter got embarrassed but it had to happen to someone personally with his power up I would have liked to have seen him take on Lobo instead because Hawkman needs some wins also. And Harley isn't beating Aquaman because she's not getting past Zantanna and besides thats the other bracket his next opponent will be Lex
ReplyDeleteHawkman put up a strong showing against Black Adam - he should have done better in this match-up. Weak writing.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Adams in an interview recently talks about how he's been begging DC to do a Hawkbook and he's been asking why they aren't being used more. So he says he keeps dropping in Hawk stuff into his stories here and there just to hopefully inspire some other writer to want to pick up the rest of the pieces. He's aware of Carter-Shayera pairing and Kendra's state as well and when he was asked he confirmed that he has read the Venditti series and thought it was "fantastic." So it's nice to see he's a fan.
ReplyDeleteAquaman's ongoing series has been really good but it's been about him gaining the powers of the gods. He has the "blue" which is like Swamp Thing and the Green or Animal Man and the Red. Some people are theorizing that this version of Aquaman will be key in the K.O. Event and then key in the first Absolute and mainline universe crossover since these godlike powers have come from universe hopping.
It's sad that Hawkman never stood a chance because Aquaman really has never been written with more power and I think it just means they're letting Adams continue his story.
Youre probably right though knowing DC they'll just have Harley win the whole thing. So dumb