Of all of DC's "One Year Later" titles, this was the one that perhaps piqued my curiosity the most. Shifting the title from Hawkman to Hawkgirl promised a radical change in the book's status quo, and of all the new creative teams, Walter Simonson and Howard Chaykin probably have the most impressive and lengthy pedigree in the industry among those writers and artists working on DC's super-hero titles. To my surprise, I found a story that really didn't change much from what was introduced in Hawkman #1 save for the deletion of the main character, and the men behind the book offer little more than standard fare. Hawkgirl is somewhat diverting but ultimately disappointing.
It's been a year since the Infinte Crisis, and at the Stonechat Museum in St. Roch, Louisiana, a new adminstrator has boosted the facility's profile and attendance by leaps and bounds. Her name is Kendra Saunders, and she's also the costumed heroine known as Hawkgirl. She's flying solo these days, though, and he's begun to haunt her dreams once again. It's a harbinger for strange happenings in Kendra's life, as she narrowly escapes with her life after not one but two bizarre mishaps. It may be connected to the mysterious, long-forgotten and lost vault of antiquities she's uncovered under the museum, but there's something else lurking down there she's about to find as well.
I understand why Chaykin was tapped to illustrate this title. After all, the title character is a young, shapely woman in her 20s, and if Chaykin's art is known for anything, it's for his voluptuous female figures. That flies in the face of Simonson's script, though, which attempts to portray Kendra as an intelligent, logical and confident young woman. Chaykin's vision of the character in skin-tight capris and a lacy top is far from in keeping with that. It is consistent with the character's past portrayal, but I think part of the point of this story is too show how Kendra has matured in her mentor's absence. Chaykin's use of patterns to convey texture and design in clothing and backdrops tends to distract from the story rather than add to the realism as well. His depiction of characters is inconsistent on top of that. For example, one page 7 (not counting ads), we see two profile views of Danny in adjacent panels. It doesn't even look like the same guy. Aside from skin color, nothing looks the same, from his hairline to his nose to his eyebrows.
Simonson sets up the new status quo clearly. New readers will have little trouble jumping onto this book (though I think more of an explanation of Hawkgirl's Nth metal belt might have been helpful). The writer has clearly taken an old-school approach to the book here, and I think for this series, that's a mistake. The title character is young, and it's such a radical change to see "Hawkgirl" emblazoned on the cover rather than "Hawkman," that I really expected something new andf unusual from the book.
The dialogue for this book takes me back to a simpler time in comics as well. Simonson crams a lot of exposition into the script, but it's not done seamlessly. The script often provides detail the art should convey on its own, and the exchanges among characters just doesn't sound natural. The book is a nostalgic look back at how super-hero comics used to be, and I did enjoy it on that level. 4/10
