I started reading Rise of the Golden Eagle right after finishing the preceding book, Wings of Fury, and yet I felt like I had missed something important in the story. It turns out I had.

DC, after faithfully reprinting the proper sequence of stories in volumes 1-3, opted to skip more than a year's worth of the Hawkman series before collecting volume 4. I suppose they thought the events of those issues weren't very important -- or perhaps they weren't very good -- but I confess, I felt a little lost. What's all this about zombie attacks? Who are some of these supporting characters? Hey, when did Carter and Kendra start sleeping (just sleeping, mind you, none of that other stuff) together?

I suppose I'll never know, unless I decide to track down more than a dozen issues of the series. (I probably won't.)

So, how was Golden Eagle? Once the confusion sorted itself out, pretty good. Hawkman's getting attacked from all sides by a variety of old and new foes, and to make matters worse he nearly beats his partner Hawkgirl to death. (This is not a good way to cement a working relationship, by the way.) To add spice to the pot, there's a shiny new hero in town, the Golden Eagle, a former Teen Titan believed to be dead but, apparently, alive and kicking and full of hero worship for the Hawks.

You just know something is going to go wrong. And when it does, there's all sorts of bloody brawling to contend with. Good stuff, really.

Now will someone please fill me in on the zombies?

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
12 May 2007