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imself) looks and sounds ridiculous. It’s genu- ely criminal that Doc Fate was axed to make way r this clown, but regardless of that the book isn’t good. Stevens is neither well-defined nor kable, the story makes no sense thus far, and the work is poor. This is one twist of fate we could ve done without.

While Fate butchers one heroic legacy, other is admirably sustained in the pages of the lash. | was among the many outraged fans when ) (Flash) Allen was killed during the Crisis in

hile sidekick Wally West. a bout a decade later, I can look itmore objectively: there never as any good reason to kill off y, and writer Mike Baron

Jally an obnoxious, womaniz- g jerk, but the character has ellowed considerably under bsequent writers. Wally’s not e immatulately bland Barry llen, but he’s not a selfish, xist moron either (nor had he een prior to Baron’s inconsist- t, iconoclastic tinkerings): in- ead, the character has stabi- zed as a regular guy who actu- ly has FUN being a super- ro. Imagine! No overdramatic igst (as Wally himself notes), st a guy out for a good time hile remembering (sometimes luctantly) that super-powers me with responsibilities.

Series writer Mark Waid unquestionably one of the best mic writers in the business

unclear in its storytelling: this is exacerbated ten- fold by the colourist’s many goof-ups of the charac- ters’ skin colour, all the more confusing since everyone in the monastery is bald and they all (including our heroes) start to look alike after a while. Quibbles aside, it’s refreshing to see an attempt to return Green Arrow to greatness.

As for Green Lantern, there’s no going back-- at least, not since the events of ‘‘Emerald Twilight”? and Zero Hour. Those stories saw classic DC hero Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan driven

that he was the reincarnation of a heroic Egyptian prince. The later, modern-day Hawkman (Katar Hol) was a policeman from planet Thanagar who ripped off the original Hawkman’s modus operandi (fighting modern-day crimes with ancient weapons) as part of his efforts to study Earth law-enforcement (co-incidentally, the Thanagarian police uniform was a near duplicate of the original Hawkman’s in both form and function).

The original 1940’s Hawkman has been in semi-retirement for a while, but the newer version was very much active after DC concluded its continuity-restruc- turing Crisis on Infinite Earths mini-series in 1985. Like the Atom, Hawkman seemed one of the few Justice Leaguers to es- cape grim revamping, but Tim Truman changed all that with Hawkworld, a mini-series (and subsequent regular series) whichretroactively scrapped the modern Hawkman’s previous continuity (despite his many post-Crisis appearances) and started him all over again as a grimmer, grittier, angst-ridden, armoured, metal-winged, raygun-wielding lethal avenger.

The revamping didn’t go over all that well (and the mul- tiple post-Crisis incarnations of Hawkman were confusing), so DC set out to overhaul the Hawkster in Zero Hour. it’s explained therein that multiple

Hawkman were merely leftover temporal anomalies from the Crisis. Not only that, but this “*Hawkgod’’ thing shows up

t that made comics great. Flash # 0 is exemplary this heady storytelling mixture, and is also an ‘cellent intro to the series as Wally’s life literally shes before his eyes in atime warp: The only sour te is the fact that the current.“‘Terminal Veloc- ” storyline (leading to Flash # 100) reportedly gnals the death of Wally West: his proposed lacement is teen speedster Impulse, an airhead n-ager (the most popular revamping type apart m the aforementioned grim guys). Oh well, this nice while it lasts! . / .

Anyone remember Green Arrow? Y'know, ‘atded, green-garbed archer with a social con- lence and a quiver full of gimmicky arrows? If ', don’t feel bad. Oliver Queen is trying to

ly bloody vigilantism. That’s both a betrayal of original character concept, and unoriginal, un- latable storytelling to boot. At any rate, after of degeneration, Green Arrow realizes how he’s fallen when he’s forced (during the events Zero Hour) to kill his best friend, Hal (Green tem) Jordan. : _ Green Arrow # 0 opens with Oliver Queen ‘icking archery and super-heroics for good, and ling up in a monastery to try to regain his lost focus. He begins to do just that, and picks up admirer and prospective sidekick in the form of lal arts expert and starry-eyed aspiring archer ¢t Hawke. When mysterious assassins try to . he and his new friend leave the monastery Pe out this development, and the kinder, gen- Green Arrow’s adventures begin anew. Script- 'S pretty good, though the art by veteran Jim "tsa bit ofa yawn, and sometimes awkward or

mad by the destruction ofhis hometown, Coast City, and turning against the Green Lantern Corps when they try to prevent him from “‘recreating”’ the city with his ring. The desperate Hal destroys the Guardians (and many of his fellow Green Lanterns) before absorbing their energy for himself, becoming a mad cosmic force. Then, during Zero Hour, he takes his plans one step further and tries to recreate the universe. Since this would entail destroying the old universe, Hal’s heroic peers get miffed and gang up on him, culminating in his being fatally shot by old pal Green Arrow,

This leads into Green Lantern # 0, where the wounded (but still feisty) Hal retreats to Oa and makesa last-ditch attempt to tap the planet’s power for his purposes. He is opposed by new (and sole remaining) Green Lantern Kyle Rayner (another of those airhead teenager takes on an old concept), who was given the last power ring as the Guardians’ dying act. Despite some soul-searching, it comes down toa classic “‘this universe isn’t big enough for the both of us’’ showdown in which Oa is blown up and takes poor, crazy Hal with it. This ties up many loose ends in Green Lantern continuity (not to mention serving as an epilogue to Zero Hour) and is a very moving story (Hal comes across as sympa- thetic and devastatingly tragic moreso here than he has anywhere else since his villainous escapades began), but it’s still a kick in the teeth to seea classic character dealt such a lousy finale. Ah well, Kyle Rayner is tolerable, and Green Lantern # 0 is a worthy coda to this zero-hooplah.

And speaking of butchered classics, how “pout that Hawkman? For the confused or curious reader, the original Hawkman (Carter Hall) was an archaeologist who took to fighting crime with an- cient weapons and a winged anti-gravity harness of his own invention after discovering through dreams

claiming to have subconsciously empowered and/or inspired all the various Hawk heroes, whom he sets about trying to conquer and absorb. The various divergent Hawkmen are swal- lowed up, but before the Hawkgod can devour the remaining morsels he’s engulfed by some random time explosion (Zero Hour’s fulla them) which fuses him and the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl into the body and mind of Katar (revamped modern- day Hawkman) Hol, who as a result has the com- bined power and knowledge of all the Hawk heroes and the primal spirit that inspired them.

What does this mean? Well, Katar’s stronger and faster, he can read people’s auras and commu- nicate with birds now, he has natural feathered wings that he can retract into his back at will, and he’s relying on a combo of alien tech and ancient Earth weapons. This is all very cool and pleasantly evocative of the earlier Hawkmen, which was the intention. Unfortunately, it’s marred by two things: first, the infusion of who-knows-how-many hawk heroes into Katar’s psyche has left him rather dazed, slightly amnesiac, and morbidly philosophi- cal. This could get old rather quickly. Second, despite his new penchant for introspection, he’s more savage than in any previous incarnation: the zero issue concludes with his hunting down and bloodily slaughtering a gang of criminals who threat- ened his friends (“‘because I can,’” he says, when asked to justify this). Hawkman is visually and conceptually intriguing again, but in practice he’s being played as a dime-a-dozen bloody vigilante. Stop him before he kills again.

Yow! Outta space, outta time, I’m outta here! Join me next week for more reading material about reading material (the universe is amazingly symmetrical, isn’t it?). ~ Sean McQuaid

i: lighT & Truth !

contradictory incarnations of

Take me from the darkness of ignerance

Thrust me inte the

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ctober 25, 1994