Man, that is one pissed-off (and kinda beefy) Superman! If I was Hawkman, I'd be very, very nervous.The Story: "The Doom of the Divided Man" by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano. The JLA sits at in meeting room, when Hawkman comes in to make the startling announcement that he is resigning from the Justice League!
Hawkman informs that he and Hawkgirl's tour of duty on Earth has ended, and they are being called back to Thanagar.
As the JLA tries to argue, suddenly a wounded Red Tornado arrives in the company of a Dr. Bruce Gordon, who claims he is the one responsible for Reddy's current condition!
Reddy recuperates long enough to explain that he was working a lab assistant to Dr. Gordon, whose experiments brought out in Gordon his alter-ego, the villanous Eclipso!
Gordon had tried to destroy Eclipso once and for all, but instead it created three of them! (Man, are scientists generally incompetent in super-hero comics) Then the three Eclipsos spread out to all corners of the globe, drawing energies from the Earth itself. Batman analyzes and figures that if they aren't destroyed in six hours--Earth is doomed!
The heroes split up, with the Atom and Black Canary tracking one under the sea. Just as it looks like some goons of Eclipso are about to take them out, Aquaman arrives to stem the tide! Yay Aquaman! They then find Eclipso, and it's Aquaman(with the help of a flying fish) that defeats him and gets his black diamond from him, the source of his power.
Batman and Flash defeat their Eclipso, and Green Arrow, Hawkman, and the Elongated Man do the same thing. Done and done. Almost...
Back at the satellite, the three Eclipsos merge into one giant one, and grab the three black diamonds. He grabs them to use as a weapon, when they unexpectedly explode, destroying Eclipso!
Batman reveals he figured the three crystals could be sprayed with a chemical, causing them to overload with power, and working against Eclipso, sending him back into Dr. Gordon's body, where he lies dormant... for now.
The final page concerns Hawkman saying goodbye, and he's hurt that Green Arrow didn't even say goodbye. Turns out he was too upset, luckily Black Canary is there to comfort him:
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado
Notable Moments: Again, Wein plants his JLA firmly in the DCU, by bringing back yet another old villain, Eclipso, who I always thought was kinda cool, even if he had a pretty dorky uniform.
I love, of course, how Aquaman comes in in the middle of the second chapter and saves the day. Cool.
>>Flash is the only member not present in this issue, either in the story or the goodbye to Hawkman wrap-up.<<
ReplyDeleteUmmm...Flash was with Batman at the lab in Death Valley. Or was he moving too fast to be seen with the naked-eye? :)
Len showed why he was great at writing JLA. He has Batman put Superman and GL on patrol for disasters caused by Eclipso's energy-drain. The best explanation ever for removing the most powerful JLAers from the action. Much better than "away on a mission in space".
This was the first JLA issue I bought, and I kept thinking something would happen to prevent Hawkman from leaving. The last page really surprised me. I knew just how Ollie felt.
i don't know why i wrote that.
ReplyDeleteDunno why Wein would get rid of a perfectly good Hawkman. It's almost like he felt he had to keep up with the Joneses or something.
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