Hawkman #17 Review

Kicking My Shadow's Ass

Written By: Robert Venditti
Art By: Pat Olliffe, Tom Palmer, Jeremiah Skipper, Starkings & Comicraft
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 9, 2019


Our Winged Warrior is in the Shadowlands on the hunt for Shadow Thief, who....... Well, who stole our hero's shadow and along with him we have the The Shade...... who's shadow was stolen as well.  Yeah, it's a bad day to have a shadow, especially since Lex's offer to Carl Sands, who now has the power to command the shadows to do his bidding.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Hawkman can take his foe down and if he can overcome the feelings of violence within him that have been keeping him awake at nights.  Let's check it out.



For this issue of Hawkman we see our hero acting the fool because for the most part he's fighting his own shadow, which he find out actually hurts himself every time he lands a blow...... which he just keeps doing over and over again.  Beyond that though, this issue is pretty much a big ass fight scene, where Carter Hall is getting angrier and angrier, which pretty much leaves Shadow Thief looking like he's still not all that even with Lex's enhancements to his shadow vest. 

Yeah, there's something wrong with our hero, but it has less to do with his time as a Deathbringer and remembering his entire history and more to do with the Batman Who Laughs and while I'd like to say that this bit at the end was well set up....... it really just comes out of nowhere because all we saw previous to this is some nightmares that our hero was having and for what we dealt with previous to that, it seemed like it had more to do with his new origin story than anything else.  Pretty much though it feels like this Shadow Thief story/Year of the Villain bit was ended quickly so we can move on to the next threat in the DC Universe and that's the Infected and while I do look forward to see what we get from that going forward, it just feels like it came out of nowhere here.

All in all, the art in this issue isn't the best, but for the big ass fight scene that we get for the majority of the issue it works okay....... It's just a little less detailed than I like.  As for the story...... Well, like I said, this angry Hawkman that we get here feels out of nowhere, while I'm still wondering what the hell is going on with his mace.  I mean, it flies to him at a thought, it gets extra spiky when he's angry..... it's just weird and I'd like an explanation and I doubt we'll get that now that our hero isn't exactly himself.  This issue isn't bad though, it just feels like it's biting off more than it can chew right now with all the tie-ins it has to be involved with.

Bits and Pieces:

If you're looking for Hawkman to kick a lot of ass... Well, look no further, but if you're looking for a solid end to this Year of the Villain story than this issue might come up a little short because it seems too preoccupied with setting up its next tie-in story to really give Shadow Thief his due.

6.5/10