FW Team-Up: Hawkman and Adam Strange

Siskoid and Scott X bend the rules of the podcast just a bit to bring you a three-issue team-up between Hawkman and Adam Strange, from Showcase #101-103. It's Rann vs. Thanagar before that was a thing! Listen as we solve this MYSTERY... IN... SPACE!

Listen to the Team-Up below, or subscribe to FW Team-Up on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental

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8 responses to “FW Team-Up: Hawkman and Adam Strange

  1. I am so happy you covered these stories.

    It is important to know that this is the story that began my life long love of the character Hyathis. The page where she delivers the cure of the Equalizing Plague in the form of rain on Thanagar just struck me as a kid. Almost a baptism! I had learned about the Equalizing Plague somewhere in a JLA back issue I had come across earlier (maybe in a JLA pocket book?) and it scared the hell out of me. Seeing her cure it and then declare herself ruler amazed me! So I was so thrilled when I started this podcast and heard you’d be covering this story.

    It also featured another set of characters I love – Manhawks! I learned to love them when I read about them in a DC secret origins digest! As a kid I was waiting to see what the hawks looked like under the mask. The thought of seeing a human head on a bird body was going to be awesome. When they are finally unmasked and we see they are … dun dun dun … just giant hawks, I was floored. The surprise of them simply being big birds who don human masks was such a mind bomb! I have loved them since.

    I’ll also say that I loved how this story was almost a primer for DC cosmic. We get everyone – Byth, Kanjar Ro, Manhawks, Sardath, Alana, the aforementioned Hyathis! How great it was to learn about these characters or see them again in one big story.

    Anyways! Thanks for discussing and nice breakdown! Always great to hear Scott X again.

  2. Hawkman, along with Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, is one of my favorite DC heroes because he was one of the few Super Powers action figures I had. However, it’s hard to be a fan of the character, and I struggle the most with reconciling the Katar Hol stories.

    There is an insurmountable incongruity with linking Hawkman to the space/cosmic corner of the DC Universe. It just doesn’t work in my mind. The hawk is a terrestrial creature; it can fly, sure, but it can’t survive in space. It’s grounded in its uniqueness to our planet, as are Katar and Shayera’s choice of weapons. Tell me again why a spiked mace and a net is better than a laser blaster for a “space cop”. And Hawkman’s whole visual gimmick and power is his feathered wings. Those don’t work in the vacuum of space, so it’s not like he can fly around the galaxy like Superman or Green Lantern. And if the Hawks have a spaceship, well, why do they need wings? I have as difficult a time thinking of Hawkman as a space hero like Adam Strange and Green Lantern as I do considering Adam Strange a classic Western hero like Bat-Lash or Vigilante.

    Great episode and great discussion, though, guys! Scott is always a terrific guest, and Siskoid is not too shabby of a host either.

  3. When I saw this in the feed I assumed you were covering the Silver Age Hawkman/Adam Strange team-up from Mystery In Space #90, where Adam gets the cover feature! I think this is the first time the characters met. It’s reprinted in The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told, which is where I read it years and years ago.

    But I remember seeing the ad for the first Showcase issue in the DC titles of the time. Looking back now, even the ad is nostalgic, looking like a Silver Age Ira Schnapp ad, so someone at DC was really on a nostalgic kick with this whole run of issues. Back when DC cared about its history. Sigh.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Qk9CA3F7yIU/SWyVbfTGNGI/AAAAAAAAAi0/tGBZ2rp1Ej0/s320/Hawkman_Showcase_101_Ad_crop-709790.jpg

    Fun episode! I’ve always dug the visual on Adam Strange. His stories are pretty fun too. But to me as a kid he just screamed “SPACEMAN!” and that was a cool edge to have over the usual capes and tights crowd.

    And I think you guys came up with the best Amalgamation yet. I want to read that Strange Hawk comic!

    Chris

  4. Hey guys, thanks for the fun episode. I picked up this run more than a few years back when I was first starting out as a Hawkfan. I found the first issue at a small comic con (read: hotel ballroom style) in Greenville and then eventually filled in the other two parts from mail order. Wonderful Kubert covers (really, is there any other kind?) and a woolly, fun story, especially for a fan of the Silver Age Hawk stories like me.

    I was going to mention the same issue which Chris Franklin mentioned above, so good on Chris for beating me to the punch!

  5. As you guys stated, these issues are a bit of a cheat when it comes to the show’s format, but who cares when the books are this fun?

    I’ve always liked Adam Strange, and was pleased to hear Scott namecheck me AND the Video Comics shows. I, too, learned how to pronounce Rann as “Ran” thanks to that show. DC may say it’s “Rahn” but we all know the truth.

    Al Milgrom’s layouts on these books are spectacular. While I like Murphy Anderson well enough, I wish he had been paired with an inker whose linework was better at suggesting movement and fluidity. And Kubert’s covers are, of course, fantastic.

    DC tried a Hawkman/Atom book, maybe a Hawkman/Adam Strange ongoing would have worked?

    Always happy to hear ScottX on the network!

  6. Lovely episode, I enjoyed these issues hugely. I do disagree that Showcase was ever a team-up book, that was more Brave and Bold pre-Batman taking it over. The only team-up I can recall in Showcase prior to this was Dr Fate and Hourman.

    While TV pronunciations are often stupid – they say Peter Parker has an ‘Aren’t May’ and Wonder Woman comes from ‘The Mascara’ – this time telly is right, it’s Rann as in ‘ran’. What does the Amazing World of DC Comics know?

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