ShadowHawk 14
Story by JimValentino
Art by Jim Valentino,
Randy Queen&
Batton Lash
A long(ish) time ago, there was a series written by Alan Moore, god of
gods, for Image comics. This series, called 1963 was an
affectionate, is none too well disguised, homage to the earliest days of
Marvel, featuring slightly alternate versions of Spiderman, Captain
America, The Hulk and The Avengers, and was due to tie in to the Image
universe via a special drawn by Rob Liefeld. Now, since Rob Liefeld is a
jerk (you heard it here first, folks!), this special still hasn't comer
out, and Alan Moore, presumably suffering from brain fever, has allowed
his characters (He retains ownership of them, which must have been a
significant part of whatever deal he struck with Image) to feature in
the current story arc of ShadowHawk, which deals with the hero of the
same name's current problem: AIDS. So, spurred on by the voice inside
his head, he time-travels back to the 60's, and lands on a sidewalk,
where he is immediately, and without provocation, attacked by the
Spiderman analogue. It was at about this point that I threw the book at
the wall for the first time. So, having established the level of
nonsense, the non-Spiderman stops fighting when he is spoken to by the
voice inside ShadowHawk's head, which tells him to stop, because his
opponent is sick. He agrees (wshh-thump), and they enlist the help of
the Tomorrow Syndicate to find the Cockroach, who the voice in his head
claims is the source of his problems. And so they go, and they fight the
collection of bad-guys, and it is revealed that AIDS was created by a
demented Russian Scientist (wshh-thump), and spread to Africa by a loyal
party dupe. After the fight scene, ShadowHawk gives a reprehensibly
simple description of the difference between the past and current
superheroes (wshh-thump), and then leaves. Altogether, a thoroughly
effective issue, if you wish to demonstrate exactly why most Image
writers should have their typing fingers broken. Crimes against
humanity, indeed.
Andrew
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