fair enuf, mistah danger, ill respond;
first off, again, im not saying warhawk was some incredibly designed character, or anything. in fact, i introduced his idea into this thread way back when as an image-like character (their stereotyped character -- a cheap thrill, all blood and gore, with spikes... grr!).
what i DO like about the character was that it was an ATTEMPT! a throwback for traditional fans (who, before this recent jsa storyline, hadn't had a hawk-character for quite a few years) and a great way for new fans to find appeal in a new character.
thats all!
did i like azbat? i thought some parts of were cool, but, he's DEFINITELY second rate to the original. did i like electro supes? same thing. but those characters were replacements, not face lifts (i exclude warhawk from that catagorization because he wasnt replacing anything, hawkman wasnt around).
replacements, im against. im ALL for updates, tho!
examples: (same ones i've mentioned before). NML was a COMPLETE breath of fresh air to batman, specifically gale and rucka's work. the character didnt' get a new costume (really) or a new personality, or a new sidekick, etc, etc... he was just updated. much like timm and dini did, as you pointed out. they took what was cool about the character, and just brought it up to times, making it popular to today's readers, without disappointing yesterday's.
same thing with loeb/mcguinness' superman (tho on a much more impressive scale). superman was crap -- for years! altho he was the first and/or the best comic book super character ever, his book was consistantly horrible, reflected in sales that, sometimes, even dropped below the top 75/100. thats pretty bad. and, its all because no one really cared. the stories weren't interesting, the art work was horrible, the character was dated. but, along comes a hot new artist and a fantasically good author, and, bam! y'got yerself a brand new superman! he's still blue, red, and yellow, still the biggest boy scout, still lvoes lois, hell, he even had a super dog best friend! however, he was completely updated to meet today's standards, without losing yesterday's.
and, perhaps, the best example is green arrow. who the hell liked green arrow? he was a relatively obscure character, that everyone sorta knew, but no one could really call a favorite (id group him along with hawkman). he's an admitted second, or perhaps even third rate/tier character, who was dated, perhaps, to even before the 70s.
now, along comes this new book, and... im completely hooked! along with millions (literally) of other comic book fans, bringing ga's sales up to the top 10 for, dare i say, the first time ever.
but, again, nothing was really changed about the character. he's still sorta rootin tootin, he's still green, he still has all those crazy arrows, ... same guy. but all it took was a tweak here and there, to bring him up to code.
i do NOT get that same feeling with hawkman. definite improvement in losing the flight belt, but the character still sorta looks and feels outdated. perhaps an updated suit, or personality, or storyline... something, anything...
im not suggesting he get laser guns, or fire wings, or change his name to warhawk, etc... but i find it a great injustice, to both the character and comics in general, to, seemingly, specificially exclude today's audience, just to please yesterday's. yes, everyone deserves a favorite character, somewhat-custom fit to their likes and wants -- but, my beef, is that there's no reason they couldnt broaden his appeal.
