The Brave and the Bold #34 (1961)
by Gardner Fox & Joe Kubert
After the Flash and Green Lantern, Hawkman is the third Golden Age hero to get a sci-fi Silver Age counterpart.
We begin with a guy rescuing an injured puppy on the street.
Only for the dog to turn into a bear and mercilessly mawl the guy.
Remember kids, this is why you don’t help wild injured animals!
Wait…
…the lesson is actually “don’t rescue alien shapeshifters wanted for interstellar crimes”.
This is where we meet our protagonists, alien cops Katar Hol and Shayera Nolastname.
They learn everything about Earth through a device that will later be called the Absorbascon, which in addition to being able to record and transmit the knowledge of an entire planed can also act as a long-running blog you will probably like if you appreciate my style of humor.
Police uniforms sure are stylish on Thanagar.
I had no idea there was an explanation for how they’re able to work in space without protection, I just assumed it was either because they’re aliens or because it’s the Silver Age.
What really makes the Hawkman series stand out against everything else published at DC at the time… and I would argue across superhero comics in general… is the outstanding Joe Kubert artwork. This is beyond stellar.
It might feel strange that the police commissioner instantly believes the word of two people who showed up in winged costumes, but remember this is the DC Universe.
Why wouldn’t this be the most logical explanation?
Wait, do Thanagarian cops wear wings on their backs when they’re on the field while the ones with desk jobs wear only winged helmets?
Why hasn’t THIS been maintained as part of the Hawkwman lore?
Since this will be a long operation, the Thanagarians need to disguise themselves as humans.
Enough with the pointless Hawkwman retcons, what we REALLY need is a modernized version of THIS phone call!
“Hello Ed. Since you’re retiring, can you give your old job to a stranger who I just met and is claiming to be a cop from outer space? Oh, I’ll also need to forge false IDs for him and his wife. No, I’m not off my meds, why do you ask?”
Because the Absorbascon told them everything about Earth, the Hawks can talk to birds.
Luckily for the Hawks, the shapeshifter decided to turn into a bird to steal a diamond.
Which I guess means that if he changed into anything else the case might still be open.
Across his career, Hawkman will fight using all sorts of alien weapons that only look like regular Earth weapons (by far the most iconic is a mace).
In the original version, he just borrows regular weapons from his museum.
Which turns into, you guessed, a Shapeshifter Fight.
Until they lose their target once he turns into a fish.
Up to this point the story has been incredibly modern and straightforward.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, is when the story goes completely bonkers.
Because the shapeshifter ends up in a hollow world beneath Earth’s surface.
A place where animals have superpowers, apparently?
The secret to Hawkwman’s investigative prowess: unbelievable luck, because some girl just happens to take a picture of the shapeshifter when he’s NOT imitating an Earth animal.
One of the things that sets the Hawkman series apart from MOST* of the other DC books (aside from the artwork of course) is that while this kind shenanigans happens across their publishing line…
…is that it doesn’t hijack the whole story!!!
If this was a conteporary Superman, Batman or Green Lantern story, it would be ALL about Hawkgirl’s jealousy. Instead she just goes straight to business!
(*I said “most” because the Flash is typically safe)
Despite his new lightning powers (???), the shapeshifter can’t hurt the Hawks…
…but he escapes AGAIN.
This guy is the most impressive shapeshifter I’ve seen since Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.
See what I meant? The jealousy plot is there, but it’s just a bit of color that doesn’t distract from the main story.
Up to this point the shapeshifter has been all about stealth, but I guess he’s overconfident after fleeing so many times.
Superman has the signal-watch.
Batman has the bat-signal and the red phone.
Green Arrow has the arrow-signal.
Hawkwman has… the Hawk-Pigeon.
How do you make GREEN ARROW the one with a less lame gimmick!?!?
The Hawks fight the shapeshifter in giant monster form, and their weapons are useless…
…except they poisoned them, knocking out their target.
With the case closed, the Hawks love Earth so much that they decide to stay.
Historical significance: 8/10
While Hawkman is not exactly a household name, he’s quite important to the overall DC Universe (despite DC doing everything it can to make him inaccessible).
Reimagining him as an alien defines the character at least until the mid-90s, before the retcon bonanza begins and DC becomes utterly unable to separate the alien version from the Ancient Egypt version.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Hawkman talks to birds. Plus the fact that there’s a whole underground ecosystem (apparently with its own sun?) where animals have superpowers is treated like a normal thing.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Greatly helped by being the length of a modern story, but it also has incredibly solid plot and dialogue. I trust that I don’t have to talk about the artwork.
The only thing that feels completely out of place is the whole hollow Earth bit… it really doesn’t need to be here, the shapeshifter could just have been to ONE planet that Hawkman doesn’t know everything about!!!
How close is this to the modern character? Uhm…
Yeah let’s not go there AGAIN.
Check the reviews for the Golden Age Hawkman and the Golden Age Hawkgirl for A TINY FRACTION of that nonsense.
Bonus: usually when I do one of these, I have to scour the Internet for comments the author made about the creation of the character… typically decades afterwards.
This time it’s already in the same book!!!
You know that bit in Batman’s origin when he takes the name when a bat flies through the window?
That’s how Hawkman was created!!!
I believe Gardner Fox is fully aware that he’s making history in creating the first superhero married couple. I wonder if he wanted Hawkman and Hawkgirl to be married in the Golden Age but was prevented to?
A quick check tells me he was already married when he created Hawkman.
Why this was the first appearance of the new Hawkman, the fact that he was going to return was well-known enough that there’s a letters page.
Which includes a letter from none other than Roy Thomas.
This makes me wonder: has ANYONE ever liked Hawkman having a mask instead of the helmet?
Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single person praise this.
Probably because it sucks.
Shayera isn’t “Nolastname”, it’s Hol, as she is clearly said to be Katar Hol’s wife.
Yes, nowadays, it may not be a safe assumption that a wife has taken her husband’s last name, but certainly in 1961 it was.
Hawkman’s helmet looks incomplete without the side wings.
If they’re borrowing ancient weapons from the museum, this leads me to wonder what happens when one gets damaged or destroyed during a battle. It must be wonderful to explain the loss of a priceless artifact to the board of directors.
Hawkwman was one of those characters who looked cool even if his powers weren’t as impressive as Flash or Green Lantern’s. He was such a beloved member of the JLA that his resignation in # 109 caused a fan outcry, and he returned less than 10 issues later. I like to think of him as everyone’s favorite friend who isn’t a best friend.
Gotta love Silver Age comics’ narrative expediency.
It is either that or some alien notions about residences and personal needs that can explain Hawkgirl’s line about being able of taking over the former museum curator’s home “because he was retiring”.
Either she learned off-panel that Ed was already with one foot in some other residence that he had planned to move into after leaving his job or she extrapolated from Thanagarian habits of throwing retirees into the street because they presumably no longer need homes.
The former is far more likely, but the later is certainly funnier.
On a more serious note, taking a step back we can see some very interesting creative decisions built into the design of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
First, as you note, is their being a married couple. A rare enough choice in the 2025, let alone the early 1960s.
There is also their being visually indistinguishable from the Golden Age characters while also being literally a different species from a different solar system. Right there you have a lot of potential plot seeds, some of which took over thirty years to be tapped into. And on top of that they just happen to have similar names to those of their counterparts and to be given the exact same names as civilian identities. That did not happen to the previous Silver Age reimaginings (Flash and Green Lantern). On hindsight it is surprising that it took so long for someone to propose that they might be mystically linked to the previous generation going by those names.
The arrangement with the Commissioner is also notable; he knows their secret identities and technically broke quite a few laws in order to create their cover identities. That is quite a lot of trust being given by both sides, with plenty of potential serious consequences.
There are also a few marks of the zeistgeist of the time. The Hawks ask for permission from their home government, but apparently do not request diplomatic status (yet?) to the USA’s. Mavis Trent, who goes on to become a long lasting supporting character, is shown to test the limits of Shayera’s patience and of her own cluelessness while poor Katar can’t help being a man and therefore targeted by women.
The funny thing is that I doubt that we are even expected to wonder if Thanagar is any different from Earth when it comes to married couples and how to deal with undesired attention from third parties. Being space aliens is supposed to explain exotic technology and all sorts of powers, but of course the two planets will barely have any social, cultural, ethical or emotional differences. There are no Beatniks (or later Hippies) on Thanagar, and the unsaid but clear implication is that USA’s 1950s culture is some sort of baseline which most alien cultures naturally gravitate towards.
Come to think of it, there is quite some irony in that the most explicitly conservative member of the classic Justice League of America is also one of only three (the other two being Martian Manhunter and his own wife Hawkwoman) who were literally raised in an alien culture with alien values.
The cloth masks are definitely second rate compared to the hawk helmets in terms of style, but I’d bet it’s a lot easier to see out of the cloth masks. Then again, who needs precision sight when you’ve got a mace?
The sea turtle in the 1st Aquaman meme looks really traumatized. Actually, so does the orca.
Aquaman, Tyrant of the Sea, enslaving and brutalizing his unwilling subjects. 🙂
And then I check out the blog you recommended and the top headline is “Golden Age Aquaman Is A Nightmare”
I knew it!