Hawkgirl #2 – Jadzia Axelrod, Writer; Amancay Nahuelpan, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: This series may not be the best in DC’s lineup, but it certainly is the most unique—a wildly ambitious story of interstellar destiny and 20-something anxiety as filtered through two very different alien women. Galaxy feels like the main character of this series as much as Hawkgirl does, which isn’t a big surprise given that Axelrod created the former. But the odd couple make a great fit, as they bond over the trauma that got them here and discover some surprising similarities. The parts relating to Kendra’s very complex past are probably the least effective, but the smaller moments—such as Kendra agreeing to go out to a bar for the first time one night and finding a connection before it’s rudely interrupted—are excellent. There are some quiet moments of reflection here, like Kendra’s thoughts of her past, that pack a powerful punch, and it’s great to see Galaxy and Kat older as an established couple.
Then, of course, there’s the vinegar in this salad—the new villain named Vulpecula. This twisted trickster made her debut last issue, coming to collect a woman she made a deal with decades earlier for twisted experiments. Her MO of making binding contracts with children and then harvesting them when they may not even remember it half a century later is one of the most sadistic MOs for a villain I’ve seen in a long time. When you combine that with her demented lab of horrors, her massive werewolf henchmen, and her entire aesthetic, she makes a bigger initial impact than any new DC villain has in a while. There probably isn’t any DC book right now that packs more into the twenty story pages each issue, so while not everything in this comic hits on all cylinders, I’ve got to give Axelrod credit for creating a wildly ambitious book that celebrates the DCU’s diversity in more ways than one.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
