Saturday, May 23, 2015

Convergence: Hawkman #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jeff Parker
Art By: Tim Truman, Enrique Alcatena, John Kalisz
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 20, 2015


When Animals Attack


*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

When we last watched our hawks fly, they were getting used to a world under a dome, where they were some of the only heroes still active since their Nth metal wasn't affected by the dome's de-powering bit.  They stopped crime, revealed their identities, but we found out that the Shadow War was still on as they came across a cloaked Thanagarian ship and after fighting a harrowing battle against Man-Hawks, our heroes confronted the Shadow Warriors only to find out that these invaders and the dome are the least of their worries.  After the absorbascon was hooked up to all of the invader's sleeper agents, it revealed to our heroes what the future holds outside of the dome.  That's right, they saw a Crisis and before they had anytime to soak all of that info in, the dome disappeared and now our Hawks are forced to fight for their city and their very survival.  Let's check this out and see if our heroes can pull through against an alliance between the Rat Men and Bat Men of Earth-AD.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with our heroes still reeling from the idea of a future Crisis, but don't worry they don't stay sad sacks too long, they gear up from the Thanagarian's weapons room and decide that they are the masters of their own fate and if they are going to die from some sort of Convergence or Crisis, they're going to do it fighting their asses off.  So Hawkman and Hawkwoman fly out into the desert to confront their apposing city, but before they make it to enemy territory, they're attacked by a horde of Bat Men.  Even with the sheer numbers that the Bat Men possessed, I still think that our Hawks would have been able to take them down, it's just too bad that for the first time ever, the Rat Men and the Bat Men have decided to work together and the Rat Men shoot our heroes out of the sky.


When Katar and Shayera awake, they find themselves strapped to a missile that the Rat Men say is aimed for Gotham, but they don't plan on doing anything as simple as blowing up the Gothamites, no they have loaded the missile with Cortexin in the hopes that after the city is infected with it's gas, they too will someday evolve into animal humanoids like this issue's adversaries' ancestors did after the Great Disaster.  That's some diabolical shit right there.  Not only do the Rat Men plan on winning this battle, they intend on turning their enemies into them.  It's a good thing that Shayera, after Hawkman proclaims his love and his sorrow for failing said love, finds a hidden blade and cuts their restraints.  Getting free doesn't stop the missile from firing though and it looks like all is doom and gloom for Gotham, but wouldn't you know it, the Thanagarian Shadow Warriors make their return and deflect the missile back down towards the Rat Men, because like Hawkman and Hawkwoman, the Thanagarians decided that they were going to go out like warriors............. or assholes because man did that missile come close to nailing our heroes........... Also I have to wonder about the Cortexin because we never hear about it again, so I guess we'll go with it doesn't affect Thanagarians.


In the end, the Thanagarians........ our heroes included, win the day and best the terrible forces of the Rat Men.  During the battle though the Shadow Warrior leader gets mortally wounded and to show her thanks for Hawkman and Hawkwoman being true warriors, she gives them control of the absorbascon and as our issue closes, our heroes use the device to see the end of everything they know due to the Crisis, but they also realize that there might be a new beginning and they fly off with hope in their hearts.


That's it for this issue of Convergence: Hawkman and I have to tell you, I didn't really have high expectations for this title since I didn't really care for the first issue, but man did this go above and beyond to give us a fun, interesting story and thankfully I can leave this title thinking that it wasn't bad.  It's our hawks the way we like them, kicking ass and loving each other and we also get the added satisfaction of having them take on hordes of enemies, unlike other heroes who only have to take on one........ That's right, Hawkman and Hawkwoman are bad asses.  Seriously though, Jeff Parker really brought his A game while writing this issue and like the first issue, I really enjoyed the ending because where we left the first issue with seeing the Crisis and only feeling doom, here we see it again, but with a hopeful optimism for what comes after reality is destroyed........... I'm talking about the continuation of the DC Universe if you didn't get my gist and all the fun stories that followed from that event.  So it turns out that Katar and Shayera are fans too.

Bits and Pieces:

The story really picks up for me here and that's possibly because we've got all the setup out of the way and don't have to force concepts like the absorbascon down people's throats........ Sorry, if you're a fan of it, that's a little too weird science-y even for me, but this comic does a damn fine job in turning this title around and I couldn't be happier to see the hawks flying here and I don't know if it's because I just enjoyed this story better than the first issue, but I even ended up enjoying the art more than in the previous issue.

7.5/10

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