Hawkman: Wings of Fury

A costumed hero's identity crisis fuels the latest adventures of one of DC's less appreciated Golden Age characters. Hawkman has sometimes been presented as a reincarnated Egyptian prince, now living as crime fighting archeologist Carter Hall. At other times, he has been identified as Katar Hol, an alien policeman patrolling Earth while posing as a native. Johns's script makes the most of this uncertainty. In one episode, the alien policewoman called Hawkwoman comes looking for her lover; in another, the confused young woman who is the latest incarnation of Hawkgirl tests the limits of her relationship with him. "Carter Hall," meanwhile, wonders who he really is and whether he can stop obsessing about his past incarnations by collecting gravestone rubbings from cemeteries around the world. The psychological probing is a lot less important than the accompanying physical combat, as Hawkman and his partners soar above the city while battling super-powered villains. A platoon of DC artists does a superb job with the action scenes, and even when the plot is spinning its wheels, it's hard not to enjoy a book this visually exciting. (June)