Review – Hawkman Found #1

Hawkman Found #1 – 
DC Comics
 
Written by Jeff Lemire
Pencils by Bryan Hitch
Inks by Kevin Nowlan
Colors by Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Skipper
Cover by Liam Sharp
 
One of the biggest stories of 2017 was DC’s Dark Nights Metal storyline.  I have reviewed many of the books, both here on the website and on the podcast, and have been very impressed with everything I have read up to this point.  I will admit, as I read the tie-ins early on, I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be great if Jeff Lemire wrote one of these books?”  So I’m counting this as a late Christmas gift.  Not only do I get my wish, but he’s writing a favorite character of mine as well.  Time to dive into the pages of Hawkman Found.
 
If you’ve been reading Metal from the beginning, you know how important Carter Hall has been to this story.  He made the discovery, he tried to warn everyone and the rest is history.  Now we see Carter in, you guessed it, a very dark place.  Since I am avoiding spoilers here, I won’t go into great detail.  I’ll say this much, imagine living your worst nightmare.  Take that a step further, imagine not knowing if it’s real or not.  This entire issue really centers around Carter dealing with an unspeakable hell and whether he can overcome it.  There are some serious metaphors and stunning visuals to go along with them.  As the book draws towards it’s conclusion, there is a tense confrontation and a battle to match.  The last couple of pages were not only a great callback in the issue, but really gave me an emotional reaction that reminded me why I love comics so much.
 
I’m going to say it, I missed Jeff Lemire writing DC books.  I love his creator owned stuff too, but he just does such a great job bringing a raw emotion to the characters that he writes, it makes me crave that in the “mainstream”.  What he does with Carter Hall in this issue is nothing short of amazing.  This story fit so perfectly into the rest of the Metal story, and yet, I don’t feel like I had to read anything else to enjoy the book.  In a larger work, it still felt like a Hawkman story of it’s own.  I want to give a nod to the art team as well, who did a phenomenal job of bringing out that emotion when no words were needed.  There is a particular panel with Carter on a mountain that was particularly stunning.  I really hope we see more of Lemire in DC Comics in 2018, especially in special, limited run series.  For now, I’ll settle for reading this issue again.
 
RATING:  PULL / BUY