In the latest wave of new comic book series for Dawn of DC Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders is getting her own solo series. Its been a while since we’ve had a dedicated Hawgirl series. Since DC Rebirth Kendra as Hawkgirl has been a core member of the Justice League. With the Justice League not being around during Dawn of DC that’s left Hawkgirl is left on her own. How will Kendra do as a solo hero after almost a decade of being used to being part of a team? Let’s find out with Hawkgirl #1.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Jadzia Axelrod
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
SYNOPSIS
Not long after moving to Metropolis Hawkgirl teams up with Superman, Power Girl, and Black Canary to fight the Helioans from the planet Cinders. During the fight Hawkgirl loses use of her wings and is saved by Galaxy (Taylor Barzelay from the planet Cyandii). With Galaxy’s help Hawkgirl and the other heroes defeat the Helioans.
Later, while reuniting with an old college friend Kendra admits she is not ready for any sort of relationship after ending things with Carter Hall and J’onn J’onzz.
At night Kendra learns about Galaxy’s backstory from Batman including that Galaxy saved the world from the Vane Incursion event that was so traumatic everyone on Earth forgot about.
As all of that is going on someone named Vulpecula collects on a favor owed to her by a woman named Maureen that wore a special Nth Metal necklace. This favor involves using Maureen as a vessel to open the door to the Nth World. This attempt fails though it appears to transform Maureen.
During Vulpecula’s attempt to access the Nth World Hawkgirl is mysteriously teleported to Galaxy’s apartment in Metropolis A-Town neighborhood. End of issue.
REVIEW
Hawkgirl #1 follows a trend of comic books by newer writers to the DC Universe that have a lot of things going for it but get in their own way. At its core Hawkgirl #1 does show that Jadzia Axelrod gets Kendra Saunders and how her recent history is a starting point for this new series. Where Axelrod runs into getting in the way of her own story is the typical narration problems we see in many comics where Axelrod inserts herself into the story.
When Axelrod simply focuses on getting over where Kendra is at both as Hawkgirl and in her personal life this first issue shines. Moving Kendra to Metropolis made for an easy way to have Hawkgirl #1 use Kendra’s Justice League connections. With the team being where she was a core member for almost a decade its understandable that Kendra would seek Metropolis as a place to live. While she doesn’t say out loud the way Kendra interacts with Superman, Power Girl, and Black Canary shows a comfort in still having these connections.
Hawkgirl and Power Girl’s dynamic in particular is shown with the most depth. This is understandable as Karen Starr is one of the people Kendra has known the longest. They have a natural banter chemistry that did not get in the way of the action. It also provided a way to have Superman as part of this banter that even showed how Superman works with others.
The inclusion of Galaxy in Hawkgirl is one that worked in the way she was introduced. Given that Axelrod created Taylor Barzelay there is a clear comfort writing the character. We see this with how Taylor’s powers as Galaxy are showcased and the immediate chemistry established with Hawkgirl. Galaxy also offers an opportunity to further explore Metropolis currently being a place where aliens from other planets are living. This is something that has only been mentioned in the Superman titles. Hawkgirl exploring this with both Kendra and Galaxy is a good extension of this sub-plot involving Metropolis.
On the personal side of Hawkgirl’s life, Axelrod does a good job at establishing how Kendra is not looking to rush into another relationship. Having operated as Hawkgirl full-time for almost a decade and just getting out of a long-term relationship with Martian Manhunter means Kendra is in a spot where she is in a life reset. She is finding what she wants to do next both as a hero and personally. While she can continue her superhero life as a solo hero the same can’t be done with her personal life. Rushing into a relationship would’ve been the wrong move. Reestablishing her life as Kendra Saunders is an important next step for her.
That said hopefully this is the only role that Axelrod will have Abilene, Kendra’s college friend, as a narrative tool for Kendra to communicate this status quo to the reader. It certainly read that way with how Axelrod wrote the interaction between Kendra and Abilene. If Hawkgirl is to have a long-term future Axelrod will need to do a much better job building Kendra’s supporting cast if the personal life side is going to be important to this series.
For all the positives in Hawkgirl #1 the part that holds it back from its full potential is the narration that Axelrod employs throughout this story. Narration as a tool to further a story is not the easiest thing to use in comic books. Most of the time a writer can’t avoid inserting themselves as the voice of the narrator. That is the case with Hawkgirl #1 and it leads to the story involving the new villain Vulpecula to be completely be forced.
Not helping how bad the narration is the fact that Vulpecula is written as a typical maniacal villain. For as much narration as Axelrod writes she tries to hard to relate a story about a fox to draw parallels to how Vulpecula is developed as a villain. The commitment to this leads Vulpecula to be a boring villain that it becomes a mistake to use a new villain for the first story arc of the new Hawkgirl series. It would’ve been better if Axelrod employed a Hawkman villain like Shadow-Thief for this first arc so there wouldn’t be a need for narration that sounds forced.
Saving these storytelling problems is Amancay Nahuelpan artwork. Even when Axelrod drowns pages with dialogue and narration Nahuelpan makes sure what is going on in each panel is not lost. The action scenes are dynamic that give a good idea of how we should expect Hawkgirl to have a lot of cool action sequences. Nahuelpan also does a good job at conveying character emotions that enhance what is being said, especially in long dialogue sequences.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hawkgirl #1 is a solid start to this new series starring Kendra Saunders. While Jadzia Axelrod runs into problems with how she writes narration there is a great foundation when Kendra’s chemistry with her former Justice League teammates is given time to shine. Hopefully the positives are what Hawkgirl builds from and avoids the negatives that appeared in this first issue.
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10