Monday Memories #36 - Legend Of The Hawkman #3

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

LEGEND OF THE HAWKMAN #3 - from 2000

Set not long after the Thanagarian Hawkman and Hawkgirl settle on Earth, this series shows them battling a foe that appears to be a demi-god from Thanagar who has been imprisoned on Earth and then inadvertently released. While their earlier conflict ended with Thasaro, the demi-god, being defeated, Hawkgirl ended up injured and, as female characters so often do, lost the ability to have children in later life.

Though an atheist, Hawkman appeals to the Thangarian gods who surprise him by physically manifesting and explaining where Thasaro has come from: surprise, surprise, they made him.

As so often happens in these sorts of tales, the slave becomes the master and the gods can't interfere which is why a revivified Thasaro is loose on Earth and terrorising Midway City:

With the blessings of the gods, Hawkman and Hawkgirl attack Thasaro who taunts Katar for his lack of faith, something which Hawkman disagrees with:

It is indeed the demi-god's doom as the Hawks strike him down, weakening him enough for the gods to turn up and finish him off after the hard work's been done. As a thank you, they restore Hawkgirl's ability to bear children.

While the story isn't one to set the world on fire, the art by Michael Lark (with colours by Lee Loughridge) is splendid throughout and it was nice to revisit this title for that if nothing else.