Bass and Siskoid’s coverage of DC Comics Presents continues with issue #11 (July 1979) by Cary Bates, Joe Staton and Frank Chiaramonte, starring Superman and Hawkman! It’s “Murder by Starlight!”.
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Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental
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I’ve always loved Hawkman!! I would totally brush his wings slowly and meticulously if I could.
I do love all four of the FW team-up shows. I remember passing up this issue when on the stands back in the day. I loved Hawkman, but I just didn’t have enough money for it. My mainstays back then were Justice League, Legion, Teen Titans, and All-Star Squadron with Fantastic Four in there if I could. Not quite enough for DC Comics Presents, Hawkman guest starring or not.
And this is the version of Hawkman I will always prefer. The Thanagarian, Dick Dillin JLA drawn Hawkman.
Just want to point out that the Haunted Tank canonically (or should that be cannonically?) defeated at least one U-boat, several gunboats, and dozens of aircraft – including one kill achieved while in the process of being paradropped. Also more “Tigers” than the entire wartime output of Nazi Germany, but that was because they called pretty much anything with treads a Tiger or Panzer no matter what it looked like.
Also, I did not know Grant Morrison attempted to blow up the president of France. Was that another one of their experiments in chaos magic?
You didn’t mention my team up of Sgt Rock and the bay city rollers I’m assuming you forgot and didn’t do it because you hate the bay city rollers.
Back to this team up hawk man teams with some one Batman respects the blue falcon and dynomutt as there was a dc comics cross over blue falcon and dynomutt and super sons .so let’s have the them team up to fight the blimp and random hawk villain maybe the one from this issue .
Great episode as usual. Quick thoughts:
1) agree space cop Hawks are way cooler than reincarnated archeologists
2) love the idea that Thanagar has a 26 hour day like Bajor. Never noticed this before. More of this kind of thing in SF and comics please! Little touches like that give me big enjoyment for some reason
3) I’ve been on a read through of Bronze Age Superman. And the quandary was this – Denny O’Neil and Julie Schwartz tried to make him less powerful but the later writers like Bates and Maggin and Pasko couldn’t resist bringing back more of the Silver Age stuff. On the plus side Clark and Lois and the cast were more interesting. But when he can do things like talk to birds – what is there left for Hawkman to do?
4) and yes Polaris was established I think earlier than this as Thanagar’s star. Why? No idea
Bass is coming around on Hawkman? Miracles do happen!
I thought the “beam” on the cover was just the impact of Superman being pushed into the Eiffel Tower? With the perspective (which I agree is nicely done) one could argue he’s even bending the girders a bit as he hits it.
I always thought any extraordinary strength Hawkman and Hawkgirl had was attributed to their Nth Metal, gravity-defying belts/and or wings?
Bluejays are bullies. Most of our other birds share at the bird feeder outside our kitchen window. The Bluejays actively chase them off. They are indeed, jerks!
Hawkman did have a series in World’s Finest during this period. It’s where I really got to know the characters. It would have been a nice cross-sell to have this be a crossover with that series, but oh well!
Where’s Marc Teichman’s Who’s Who page? Isamu?
Fun show as always gents!
I’ll admit I’m conflicted about Hawkman. I think his look is cool, but this era of the character doesn’t do much for me. Or maybe I can’t help comparing to the Hawkworld version which I adore. Ah well.
When I read all of JLA volume 1 in 2022, I’m pretty sure there was an issue where Hawkman had taught the whole team to understand bird language. It’ll be too hard to find the exact issue, but the point was it allowed Hawky to send messages to the team when he was in trouble. First, it’s crazy to think that’s a skill to be taught at all. Second, it meant the team could understand birds, but not have a conversation with them like Hawkster, so it doesn’t quite dilute his uniqueness. But it is weird. Or am I misremembering this whole thing? If someone else can confirm, I’d be grateful.
Oh, bluejays. When I was a kid, a bluejay nest was in our yard and had babies for a few years. Well my sweet little cat Faith liked to spend time outside, and one of the jays would swoop down at her, and even perch on a front porch railing to stand guard against Faith going out. But an unintentionally funny moment was when Faith was squared off with another larger cat outside, and the jay swooped at the bigger cat, giving Faith an opening and BAP! Right on the bigger cat’s face, chasing him off!
I’d like to see this era’s Hawkman face Captain Mar-Vell, with their surprisingly similar backgrounds, super-computers, and conflicts with their homeworlds, leading to them stopping a Kree-Thanagar war happening on Earth, or a collusion between the Skrulls and Khunds.
Always fun to dream up a team up! Thanks for the great episode, guys!