This is not going to end well.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Iban Coello
Colors: J. Nanjan
What They Say:
Hawkman arrives on Earth, determined to bring Hawkgirl back to Thanagar. But Hawkgirl and her allies in the Justice League have an entirely different idea about where she belongs.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Injustice has a lot of irons in the fire and it can move around well to different storylines that don’t involve the primary characters that usually dominate. Sometimes relegating them to secondary status is a big bonus because it shows them in support mode and that the story isn’t always about them. We’ve had some good stuff going on lately and this issue is about setup for more of what’s to come, but it does it by taking two familiar characters that we really haven’t seen much of for an age outside of minor bits and allows them to just loom large. I’ve long been a fan of both characters and their complicated and convoluted histories, so seeing them in something simpler and cleaner is appealing.
While we do get a little time here with some of the cleanup efforts going on with the villains that escaped, notably with Shiera bringing in Cheshire and Sinestro getting all uppity about it, the bulk of the issue is focused on Shiera and Katar. After seeing him flying off from Thanagar in a rage that Shiera wasn’t there, he basically comes across as the controlling and abusive significant other here as he’s furious that she’s involved her in Superman’s war when he said that they wouldn’t. He towers over her physically and there’s simple bully material written all over him, which has been part of his character to varying degrees over the years. But here, he goes all out in getting ready to take her back and making her do so because he is her husband and what he says goes.
Suffice to say, Shiera wants nothing to do with that. She’s quite good here as she makes it clear slavery on Thanagar ended centuries ago and that she’s a proud free woman who will chart her own course. That, naturally, only serves to infuriate him more. What also does that is Cyborg stepping in when Katar starts getting physical and that just shows another dark side to Katar in how he fights. It is within him to be sure, he fights to win not because of codes of honor and the like, and Diana’s arrival amid the fight has her calling him out on that even though it doesn’t make a lick of difference. But what drives it nos Diana or Victor, it’s Shiera. Katar’s approach is certainly terrible and abusive, but she’s beyond done with it and she makes it clear to him. Which just means he’s going to seek some real revenge now. An enemy of my enemy, right, Bruce?
In Summary:
The bulk of this issue is action as the slugfest gets underway and just runs with it. This means less dialogue and story overall, though we get some solid dialogue with it. Where this installment shines beyond Shiera and what she says and does is with Iban Coello. His artwork here takes the book up a few notches from the norm as, combined with Nanjan’s coloring work, just has a richer and more dynamic feeling about it. Part of it is that the characters feel more “on model” and that Hawkman really has a great sense of strength about him here that’s often lacking in the series with other characters. Hopefully Coello is on board for a few more issues of this run at the least, if not a whole lot of them because his work is probably my favorite in the run.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: February 9th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
