Rumour has it that Hawkman will be making his Silver Screen Debut in the “Black Adam” film, coming out in a few years. As far as the character goes, I only knew him to be some sort of alien warrior who has a phenomenal degree of bloodlust, so this novel finally gave me an insight into the Thanagarian-winged wonder.
The story in ‘Darkness Rising’ is essentially a two-part story. The first part is about an alien named Morphicus whose aim is to spread an alien plague across the world in order to gain the power of all the infected. Hawkman gives him the power of the Nth Metal which only makes Morphicus harder to defeat. The second part is a similar story in which Gentleman Ghost tries to con Hawkman into retrieving the ‘Mortis Orb’, a mystical object allowing the dead to come back to life.
I found the novel to actually be quite riveting and although I wasn’t a massive fan of the character before, a solo novel allows for more character development of lesser-known characters. It’s quite evident that Carter Hall is a complicated case and his uncertainty in himself makes him all the more interesting.
The artwork had quite a distinct style which I thought suited the character and the story. The covers were pretty decent too and overall I found myself enjoying this novel more than I thought I would initially.
Favourite Panel:
Damn man, no need to go in like that! Ha!
Favourite Character:
Not that there was much choice, but it has to be Hawkman. He’s badass and he never seems to quit. Excited to read more stories about him!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★½
Character Development: ★★★
Artwork: ★★½
Enjoyability: ★★½
Re-readability: ★★
Level: Intermediate