Hawkgirl #2 // Review
Taylor Barzelay is a superhero E.T. Her girlfriend is running late for an exam. (It's just torts. She knows torts.) Still, there ARE other things on the mind of the purple-skinned woman from out of town. She's just lost her job. (Armored fireballs were attacking. She couldn't think of making lattes. She had to help.) And then there's the metal-winged woman who became a rather unexpected house guest in Hawkgirl #2. Writer Jadzia Axelrod and artist Amancay Nahuelpan continue an engrossing mini-series with colorist Adriano Lucas. Axelrod continues the adventures of Taylor (who was just introduced in her graphic novel last year) as the plot with Hawkgirl continues to move forward.
Hawkgirl is still recovering from the previous night. She's ready to leave when Taylor suggests that she can help. There's chaos involved, and Taylor is familiar with the disorder. She does a bit of work on Hawkgirl, and before long, things are a lot better than they've been in a long time. She's feeling great, but will she be able to relax with a night at a dance club, or will there be some powerful entity coming along in search of the Nth metal that is so much a part of her?
Axelrod works with themes of chaos, order, and the crafty, manipulative energy that can easily pass between them. The deeper thematic elements serve as a firm foundation for all the action and emotional drama playing out in the foreground. Taylor is a complex figure who helps to show Hawkgirl a life she might miss. Rarely seen is the genuine joy in the life beyond the mask can be shown in a superhero comic book to amplify the intensity of the action. Axelrod manages this with great ease in another fun issue.
Nahuelpan delivers that joy to the page in a clean, clear series of panels. The personal life of Hawkgirl comes to the page quite vividly as she spends much of the issue in recovery of one sort or another. When the danger comes at the issue's end, Nahuelpan does a brilliant job of bringing that action to the page. The artist has a bracing sense of motion that maintains an impressively dynamic energy as the combat shoots through the issue's final pages.
Axelrod and Nahuelpan bring Hawkgirl through quite a bit of inner progression in a single issue. They manage to do this without making it feel rushed or forced. She's dealing with inner turmoil, so the character development feels natural. Internal struggle can be tough to bring to the comics page in a way that doesn't feel over-emphasized. Nahuelpan's intricate subtlety in characterization works well between the dialogue to develop something that feels quite vivid. Now that the antagonist entirely views the hero, that character development should start to go in exciting directions.
