A future Image Comics superstar debuts his first series and Flash finally gets running
Checkmate 7, Detective Comics 590, Firestorm 76, Flash 17, Hawk & Dove 1, Suicide Squad 17
As we dive into a stack of comics published between June 7–14, 1988, we have also reached the series debut of a young up-and-comer named Rob Liefeld, who then was only twenty years of age. Already responsible for Nightshade’s origin in Secret Origins and a Warlord Bonus Book, Hawk & Dove will be the book that he first truly shined on, so much so that he jumped over to the X-Men offices as soon as he finished the pencils on issue five.
But that’s just one of the six comics we have to cover today, so let’s dive into the action!
Checkmate #7 by Paul Kupperberg, Steve Erwin, and Al Vey
Three Checkmate Knights have made their way to Qurac as the continued battle against the arms shipments from the last three issues finally concludes this month. With it, Kupperberg gives some very prescient ideas about the upcoming conflict the United States would involve themselves in, right down to the names used in the fictional region.
Their mission involves building resistance forces against the Quraci government, all as a ruse to let them get to the fortification overflowing with enough weapons for Qurac to start a major war. This includes kidnapping the Minister of Transportation who served as a chief interrogator in a past life. He gives them the information about the weapons cache and they start the battle initiative that night.
With students and anarchists starting up battles around the city, the armory is poorly guarded. This makes entering relatively easy. As one Knight leads the rebels in eliminating the guard, the other two — including the first female Knight we’ve seen — enter to set explosives inside the weapons cache. As Knight-Three (who we last saw in issue four) readies everything, Knight-Two runs afoul of the assassin who’s been trailing Checkmate Knights for the last few issues. He finally figures out there’s more than one Knight when he realizes Knight-Two is a woman.
The assassin struggles with Knight-Two and opens fire on the weapons cache to hit Knight-Three. The armor doesn’t stop the bullets and leaves him grievously injured. Knight-Two sends the assassin tumbling down from a balcony, killing him. With the bombs already activated on a five-minute timer, Knight-Three orders Two out, saying in his injured state he would only slow them down and get them both killed.
In the aftermath, the remaining two Knights speak with Harry Stein. We learn that the uprising is falling apart without their American presence, leaving Qurac as a continued terrorist threat, but at least they don’t have the weapons.
Much of this story takes place in the Quraci capitol, Al Kuwait. All of this feels very reminiscent of the United States attacking Iraq when they invaded Kuwait, only for us to abandon the Iraqi rebels and leave Hussein in power. I will remind you that this book came out a full two years before Operation: Desert Shield and Operation: Desert Storm. Kupperberg was nothing if not prescient about global geopolitical events.
Overall, Checkmate remains a solid read, but it feels frustrating to be divorced from the rest of the DCU. Kupperberg seemed to want to keep it that way, even if he did introduce them in the pages of Action Comics with their uniforms designed by John Byrne. The next issue also brings Amanda Waller back into the book after her appearance in the first issue. It also finally deals with Black Thorn, all clear reminders that this is in the DC Universe even if it chooses not to use superheroes for whatever reason. (I’m not bringing up the presence of Harvey Bullock in the book only because his place in Batman continuity was far less firm in the days before Batman: The Animated Series.)
I think a comic book focused on the espionage events within the greater superhero universe would only add to this book, but I’m not now or ever have been a comic editor. We’re only about a year out from the book’s greatest achievement, a crossover event built around this book’s events and featuring a variety of DC heroes with espionage links. More of that thinking would only have helped this series in these early issues.
Detective Comics #590 by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Norm Breyfogle
While he will be credited for several more issues, it is my understanding that this story, “An American Batman in London,” wraps up the last significant contribution John Wagner would make to the Batman books. His co-writer Alan Grant takes over the book and will become a central figure in the Batman offices and beyond for over a decade.
An assassination of American veterans by suicidal terrorists leads Batman across the Atlantic Ocean after their leader, Abu Hassan, a Syraqui diplomat. Hassan is traveling the world and planning terrorist attacks, hiding behind his diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution. (The late eighties featured a lot of stories where “diplomatic immunity” is a get-out-of-jail-free card.)
We get several strong shots of London, likely reproduced from photos sent by the writers to the American artist. Batman’s visit comes on November 5th, better known as Guy Fawkes Day. (Call it a nice bit of corporate synergy that this book was published only weeks after V For Vendetta #1.) Batman arrives at the Syraqui embassy and confronts Abu Hassan right after he okays another attack. Hassan challenges Batman to see the United States and the United Kingdom as the rest of the world does, as oppressors to their nations’ freedom. Batman almost questions his own belief when Hassan’s bodyguard Faisal attacks.
Faisal tries to choke out Batman with a wire, but a stomp of his foot and a flip sends Faisal straight into Hassan. The impact sends Hassan hurdling backward. He crashes through a window and crashes to his death on the barbed wire fence below. Before he died Hassan had revealed the plot, to destroy Parliament as Fawkes had intended. He was well aware that no forewarning would be believed as multiple prank calls of Parliament attacks come in on the holiday.
Batman steals a car and drives straight for Parliament. He arrives just as the terrorists gun down the guards outside. Not wanting them to get outside, he sends the car straight toward the terrorists, diving out at the last possible second. The car strikes a terrorist and immediately sets off the explosives he carries, killing all the men there. Batman ends the book questioning if America might have caused as much harm as its enemies. He certainly has, killing at least five men in the issue “by accident.”
If you think creating another Middle Eastern nation seems unnecessary when DC has Qurac and Bialya already, I’ll point out that Kahndaq had already been introduced way back in Black Adam’s first appearance as well. Worse, the company would introduce five more fake Middle Eastern countries over the next ten to fifteen years. If only someone made an atlas of all these locations to help those writers…
Overall, a quick done-in-one that perhaps comes off as a bit too melodramatic. It also won’t be the last time Alan Grant will give us something reminiscent of V For Vendetta.
Firestorm #76 by John Ostrander, Joe Brozowski, and Sam DeLaRosa
As you can see from the cover of this issue, Brimstone has returned to the DCU in the aftermath of Legends, this time without a combined force of heroes to face it. But we do at least get the return of a classic Firestorm supporting cast member, Firehawk, for the first time in almost a year.
Lorraine “Firehawk” Reilly reenters Ronnie’s life as his parents work with her father, Senator Walter Reilly, to get Martin Stein a placement in a metahuman research project back at Vandemeer University. This would bring him back to home territory even as he’s still working to regain his memory. They succeed at this. In the aftermath, Lorraine stays with the Raymonds. Felicity asks some leading questions about Lorraine’s romantic feelings toward her stepson, questions that Ronnie doesn’t quite seem to get.
At the same time, a nuclear test project sees Brimstone’s heart teleported back into it by Darkseid. He has no plans for the entity outside banishment to Earth, but Brimstone immediately begins another rampage across America. This rampage takes him right toward the facility where Martin Stein is still staying. With an evacuation ordered, Martin somehow triggers the joining of Ronnie and Mikhail, summoning Firestorm to the scene. He passes out, having one of the “seizures” they mentioned him having in the past.
Firestorm tries to confront Brimstone, but Ronnie is honest about his and Martin’s failure to stop the creature before. Firehawk is well aware of how to stop it but has to make the several hundred-mile journey under her own power. She uses the earth’s rotation to aid her, flying higher into the atmosphere than ever before. She reaches Firestorm as he’s fighting Brimstone, but barely has any energy left. She tells him about the control module inside Brimstone that was previously taken out by a laser blast.
Firestorm tries the same move, but the laser is reflected by a new coating around the heart. He realizes his only hope is to remove the heart himself and he flies straight through the inside of the creature whose insides are as hot as a star. It burns away everything of Firestorm’s form except flames, but he pulls the heart free and causes Brimstone to vanish again.
In the aftermath, Firestorm cools down and resumes his normal form. He helps Firehawk up and to her surprise, kisses her! We end the issue there.
Ronnie and Lorraine had something of a “will they / won’t they” relationship with Gerry Conway at the helm, but she’s been sidelined since Mikhail’s entry into the book. She’s wholly unaware of the change in Firestorm, and that the hero now has a mind of his own. That should complicate things as we head into a new multi-chapter arc dubbed “Eden” with the next issue.
Flash #17 by William Messner-Loebs, Greg LaRocque, and Larry Mahlstedt
We pick up with this issue right where we left the previous one: with Wally hanging up on his landlord Mr. Gilchrist. His mother is shocked that Wally could turn down an honest request for help, but Wally tells his mother it’s what he has to do. Gilchrist was going to evict them and is the kind of man who would still do so even if he helped. He needs the man to make the concessions they need to stay.
Still powerless, Flash goes to Red Trinity first, but they do not have time to do a search for the missing child between their “Kapatalist Kouriers” jobs. He turns to an unlikely ally next, Jerry “Speed” McGee, his ex-girlfriend’s estranged husband.
Just out of the hospital, Flash knows McGee is a rare expert in speed and might help him get his powers back as they investigate Vandal Savage’s whereabouts and in turn, the location of Gilchrist’s kid. Savage even leads them along, sending another man in a Flash costume to attack. Wally’s neighbor Mason Trollbridge helps stop the attacker and they find a note for the Flash.
They follow the note to a warehouse and a certain trap. Wally is back in costume despite still not having his powers. They’re confronted by Nick Bassaglia, Trudy Powell, and some goons. Nick guesses Wally is still powerless and orders his men to open fire. With bullets whizzing their way, Wally regains his speed and plucks the bullets from the air. He ties up Nick and his men. Trudy begs for her freedom, essentially prostituting herself to Wally, but he declines and ties her up too.
The three men enter the facility and find yet another member of Blue Trinity — and again not one matching the name of the previous team members — strapped to a bomb inside.
Messner-Loebs has paced his issues of The Flash in a way more like early 2000s comics than much of what was published in 1988. But the slower pace has worked wonders in humanizing Wally after a year of him just being a huge asshole. He gets his powers back when he needs them the most, a full four issues after he lost them. It’s given us a humbler Wally, one who knows he must lean a bit more on those he’s met along the way. Three issues in, he’s already a better person than he was ever presented as in Mike Baron’s run. Aided by Greg LaRocque whose line work gels well with inker Larry Mahlstedt, the book finally feels like it’s heading in the right direction.
Hawk & Dove #1 by Barbara Kesel, Karl Kesel, and Rob Liefeld
It’s truly amazing how many of the Image Seven made their way through DC Comics only to be snatched away from Marvel with the offer of more money and higher profile assignments. Marc Silvestri was the first, moving to Marvel’s Conan the King after just a handful of stories for the “mystery” books at DC. Todd McFarlane was next, seemingly with no one at DC seeing a role for him outside Infinity Inc until it was too late. Erik Larsen will soon depart Doom Patrol for Punisher. Even Jim Valentino started his mainstream comic work in an upcoming Secret Origins, but it was Marvel that offered him regular work. With this title, we get the only significant DC Comics work of Rob Liefeld until after the turn of the century.
Hawk seemed to be something of a project post-Crisis as he bounced across several titles as they sought the right use for him. John Ostrander, Mike Baron, Dan Jurgens, and Paul Kupperberg all wrote stories featuring him, with Dennis O’Neil, Mike Gold, and one Barbara Randall overseeing those books. It is with that last editor that the gel of this new series originates.
Having married inker Karl Kesel (apparently between the ink work on the first and second issues of this series,) the couple pitched this revival of the characters and Superman editor Mike Carlin became the fourth editor to oversee the character in the post-Crisis era. This would also mark Karl’s debut as a writer after inking several high-profile projects, most notably over John Byrne in Superman and Legends.
But everyone was faced with a problem as the book debuted because Don “Dove” Hall was still quite dead.
The Kesels and Liefeld start with a new villain. Kestrel seems to be a psychotic killer working for some unseen masters. He’s decked out in a variant of Hawk’s costume but in purple and black. He kills a few young men that had recently been in Nicaragua as the book progresses. It’s a location Hawk recently was freed from in Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1.
From there we switch to Hank Hall as he’s back in his hometown of Washington, D.C. As Hawk, he stops a group of criminals driving at high speeds. But as he gloats to a police detective named Wolfson in the aftermath, the criminals escape. He leaves to rush to the Georgetown University football practice where he’s pestering the coach about getting a place on the team, something he’s apparently been at for a while. The coach threatens to call security if he shows up again.
As he leaves, Hank meets track star Kyle Spencer as well as the roommate of Kyle’s girlfriend, Renata Takamori. They invite Hank out for dinner and drinks that night with Renata seemingly interested in Hank.
While leaving the field, Hank runs into Linda Kieves, Don’s old girlfriend. They have a bit of conflict over the circumstances after Don’s death when Hank was still too involved with the Crisis to attend his brother’s funeral. He cannot expose his secret identity so he just takes her disappointment in him.
Hank hears a scream and goes to stop a mugging, but he gets hit in the head from behind. He has visions of his brother and their history, but when he wakes up, the criminals have been subdued which he assumes he did in his delirium.
At the restaurant, we learn Renata works part-time as a waitress. Hank meets Kyle’s girlfriend Donna Cabot, who doesn’t get a first name. After some back and forth and Renata almost spilling the entire meal before being rescued by a blond woman, Hank brings up Hawk to get some idea about his next move. He takes their advice and runs off to a warehouse that matches a hat one of the criminals wore.
Hawk confronts the criminals at a warehouse, but they surround him. He says he’s ready to take them all on and smiles with an almost animalistic grin. But before he can strike, he hears the word Dove from behind him. He turns to find two of the men already disabled by a woman in a variant of his brother’s old costume.
It’s an absolutely superb climax to the first issue. If I had picked this up back in 1988, I’d be itching for the month between this issue and the next. Even now, when I’m well aware of the new Dove’s secret identity, this is just an incredibly well-crafted first issue. Neither Kesel feels like an inexperienced writer here. Any excesses Liefeld would develop haven’t quite appeared yet — or Karl Kesel’s inks have cleaned them up.
I won’t pretend I’m not a little biased when rereading this comic. The ongoing series that follows this would be one of the books I sought out in my early DC reading days. Its first two years were very, very good superhero comics. My fondness for these characters has lasted ever since, so I’m truly happy to get a chance to reread all these books years later.
Suicide Squad #17 by John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell, and Bob Lewis
This issue opens with an attack in Manhattan by a larger, expanded Jihad, bent on destruction until they find the “heroes” who attacked them back at this book’s beginning. They slay dozens.
The team is waiting at the local airfield to head back to Belle Reve in the aftermath of their battle last issue. Waller contacts them to tell them to not involve themselves in any way. Flag responds that he understands the order to engage the Jihad. Waller is furious and tries to get Bronze Tiger to take command, but he relays that he heard the same orders as Flag. Furious that the team might expose themselves to the public, Waller knows she cannot do anything to stop them.
Captain Boomerang tries to back out of engaging the Jihad, but Flag refuses to remove the explosive from his arm. He makes it clear he will detonate it if Boomerang doesn’t aid in the battle with the Jihad.
Meanwhile, Waller contacts Harry Stein of Checkmate and orders him to gather all intelligence on her governmental foil Tolliver. He agrees and I’m assuming this sets up her appearance next month in Checkmate! Nightshade comes to her in her new black and purple bodysuit and demands to be sent to confront the Jihad as she was once a member of that team undercover. Amanda reluctantly gives her a plane when Nightshade says she’ll quit if Waller doesn’t agree.
The issue ends with the team preparing to strike, setting up a big fight feeling ahead of the next issue. This is more solid character work from Ostrander who arguably makes this book more interesting when the team isn’t in action than when they are. Ostrander never quite got all the flowers he deserved from the comic community, but each issue of Suicide Squad serves as a strong argument he should.
Usually, at least one comic a week is below average at best, but these six comics were all just incredibly well-written. We’re hitting a period of DC Comics with so many great titles, but I’d rank all six of these titles well above average. We will see if DC can keep that momentum in seven days when we dive into new issues of Justice League International, Manhunter, and more!
If you’re enjoying our coverage of books like Hawk and Dove, Flash, and Suicide Squad, let us know by leaving your thoughts on this piece!
I vividly remember first seeing Liefeld's Hawk & Dove work on the spinner rack at the grocery store where I got my monthly fix. Though I couldn't explain why (even now) there was something in his early art that really entranced me. I just couldn't recall seeing anything else like it.
Owing to limited means, I never let my self peek inside the book. I was pretty committed Marvel-only guy at the time. I was initially excited when he moved over to New Mutants/X-Force...but the gild fell off that rose pretty quickly as the whole too many pouches, no feet, everyone with giant guns, etc. tropes started to proliferate.
I was always ticked that New Format books were direct to comic stores, though. My local small town drug store couldn’t get them, so after reading Checkmate’s debut in Action, I couldn’t read the main Checkmate series until years later hunting back issues. I eventually got a pull file at a comic store in the city, but that was over a year after this. The good old days!