Hawkworld - Prey of Birds - Travis M. Holyfield

Panel 1: Exterior.Night. A Thanagar slum. A slim, grimy, young street person pushes through shin-high filth. He is nervous, throwing furtive glances around him as he scuttles through the night.

YOUNG MAN: This is not a world for weakness.


Panel 2: The young man has stopped by a stack of crates and discarded containers. Perhaps even the Thanagarian equivalent of a dumpster. Again, he stops and glances around, wary of watchful eyes.

YOUNG MAN: This is not a world of mercy.


Panel 3: Closer focus. The young man reaches behind the stack of objects. His tongue juts out of the corner of his mouth with concentration and exertion.

YOUNG MAN: This is not a world of charity.


Panel 4: The young man straightens up, holding a small metallic box in front of him. He looks at it greedily. This is the contraband he has come for.

YOUNG MAN: This is a world of predators and prey.


Panel 5:  The young man glances up in the sky. A phalanx of Thanagarian police fly over the alley, miraculously not looking down on our little criminal.

YOUNG MAN: This is a world of HAWKS.


Panel 6: The young man takes off down the alley at a run, the metallic box clutched under his arm.

YOUNG MAN: And my mother?

YOUNG MAN: She had the nerve to name me "Mouse".

Hawkworld – Wrong Turn Detour – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: An alien thief – DATTZ ZATZZ (New character) – is in the starship equivalent of a hot-rod. He has the look of a cool, smooth talker. His ship is in space, next to an orbital check point over HAWKWORLD. On the screen in front of him is THANDRIS (New Character), a police officer from THANAGAR. She should have a measure of obvious attractiveness, but not to an overplayed degree, especially since she’s in uniform.

THANDRIS: Do you have anything to declare, Sir?

Panel 2: ZATZZ looks at the screen as if he’s trying to flirt with THANDRIS, not aware about what’s actually going on.

ZATZZ (1): How about that I think you might have stolen my heart.

ZATZZ (2): Tell me, you come over here from nearby Hotsworld?

Panel 3: THANDRIS look at ZATTZ, a serious face that is in no way amused or taken in by ZATZZ words.

THANDRIS (2): Sir, do you understand that this is a very serious matter that should not be taken lightly?

Panel 4: ZATZZ looks confused and concerned.

ZATZZ (1): Wow, this place got real serious all of the sudden.

ZATZZ (2): Like when did Halkworld add a checkpoint?

THANDRIS (1): Halkworld? That criminal scum of a planet?

THANDRIS (2): Sir, this is Thanagar, Hawkworld.

Panel 5: Beat Panel. ZATZZ had a blank-eyed look of horror on his face as he realizes the mistake he’s made.

Panel 6: ZATZZ is flying his ship away from HAWKWORLD at top-speed, a number of THANAGAR police ship in hot pursuit with weapons firing as they try to chase him down.

(END PAGE)

Hawkworld - Uprising - Grant McLaughlin

Tovar, a Hawkperson in his prime, is delivering a rallying speech against the Optimacy (the upperclass of Thanagar) to the world's poor and downtrodden.

Three rows.  Row one is a single panel.  Row two is made up of panels 2 through 4.  Row three has the final two panels.

1 - Tovar stands at a podium atop a platform.  A large crowd stands before him, listening intently.  Let's go with a 3/4 angle to establish the scene.  The only important thing is that we should only see Tovar's front.  Note on word balloons: the first three can be close together, but the fourth should be slightly separated.

TOVAR (1): The Optimacy claims that they only want to help.

TOVAR (2): That they are protecting us.

TOVAR (3): That they know what's best.

TOVAR (4): In their arrogance, they believe that we will not see their actions for what they are.

2 - Close up shot of Tovar, with the panel framing him and his podium.  Shot from the front.  Tovar slams his fist on the podium to emphasize his words.

TOVAR: An attack.

3 - Same angle.  Tovar speaks with his hands, having one out pointing towards the crowd as if to punctuate every sentence.

TOVAR (1): An attack on every single Thanagarian who thinks differently than they do.

4 - Same angle.  Tovar spreads his arms wide to include the entire assembled group.

TOVAR (1): We - all of us - under threat.

TOVAR (2): And when threatened, it is only right for our fight or flight instinct to kick in.

5 - Shot from behind Tovar, looking out to the crowd.  Many look on, determination on their faces.  However, the focus here is Tovar's back.  His wings have been ripped out at the root.  While the wound has begun to heal, the stumps remain scabbed and scarry.  The whole thing is pretty hideous.  Tovar raises a hand, one finger up to show the number 1.

TOVAR: They would deny us one.

6 - Reverse angle, pulled back a bit for a shot from behind the crowd.  Tovar has his arm raised high, making a fist.  Many in the crowd raise their arms to imitate him.

TOVAR: So let us show them the other!

Hawkworld - Wonder Twins, Prog 2 - Ray Wonsowski

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends...

Coming back to the prog-fueled adventures of Zan and Jayna, still taking inspiration from Emerson Lake and Palmer's "KarnEvil9", this time from the 3rd Impression. By the way, if you're looking for some trippy prog rock goodness, ELP is a great place to start; the whole of KarnEvil9 can be found on their masterpiece album Brain Salad Surgery...download it today!

Layout:

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444555
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Panel 1- in orbit above the planet Thanagar, the warship " Death in the Wind" shines, reflecting the light of its sun, the star Polaris. The ship looks like one of those winged scarabs found in the tombs of ancient Egypt:

CAPTION: ...the Fifth Order of All Wingmen?

Panel 2- walking to the bridge, Commander PRANA STEL, a tall Hawkwoman with Hindi-like features, carries her winged helmet in one hand, her other rests on the shoulder of her adjutant. This would be a young KATAR HOL, probably just fresh out of the Academy and on his first posting, no older than 15 or 16. He carries his helmet as well, but it has no wings.

KATAR: No man yields who flies in my ship!

PRANA: A fine officer someday...

Panel 3- close up on the faces of PRANA and KATAR, looks of unexpected surprise, bathed in red warning lights.

OFF-PANEL (from loudspeaker): DANGER!!

PRANA: Stations! Know your places!

Panel 4- PRANA, putting on her helmet, takes the conn of the bridge; it should vaguely resemble a pharaoh's throne. Various WINGMEN take their stations at their consoles.

PRANA: Let the bridge computer speak!
OFF-PANEL (from loudspeaker): STRANGER!

Panel 5- a gloved hand points at an alien version of a radar screen. The electronic markings should have a hieroglyphic look to them. One glyph is tailed by an erratic vector line.

OFF-PANEL (from loudspeaker): Load your program...

PRANA (off-panel, small lettering): By all seven hells, that best not be Rann...

PRANA (off-panel): Who dares cross our path?!?

Panel 6- screeching past the nose of the Thanagarian warship is a small, beaten spacecraft that looks like a forklift with blunt wings and a jet turbine bolted on top. In the windscreen, we can see JAYNA in the pilot's seat angrily struggling with the stick controls, ZAN standing behind white-knuckling the chair with a look of fear on his face. Lasers from the belly of the warship rain down around the Twins' escape craft

ZAN: I thought you said you could fly this thing?!?

JAYNA: Jam it, Zan!!

...to be continued...

Why Hawkworld? (Why Thanagar?)

Because Hawkman (and Hawkwoman), while great concepts, have been the characters NO ONE at DC seems to know what to do with, mired in confusing continuity, and everytime someone tries to simplify the Hawks, they get MORE confusing.

Seriously, why would you do this on purpose?

Except once...

Aahhh...that's better.

See, right after Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC decided to reintroduce origins to their main heroes from scratch. Some got fresh origins set in their pasts (Superman got John Byrne's Man of Steel, Batman had Frank Miller's Year One, Green Lantern's Emerald Dawn). Others started over in the present (George Perez's Wonder Woman), and some were new beginnings for old characters (Wally West becoming the new Flash after the death of Barry Allen).   But my personal favourite of all of these was Tim Truman's HAWKWORLD.

Katar Hol and the dregs of Thanagar. Art by Truman

Before Crisis, all we knew of the Hawks was that they were two of Thanagar's planetary police. But in Truman's hands, Thanagar was a corrupted fascist caste society, and Katar Hol, with the help of Shayera Thal, try to root out that corruption and bring hope to those who live in the lower cities. When their quarry, a criminal named Byth, escapes, the chase leads to Earth, where Hawkworld, the series, becomes less about heroes and villains, but more about law vs justice, security vs freedom, and order vs anarchy.

So while we seem to be pretty gifted in depicting societies we live in, I thought it would be fun to try our hands at a truly alien culture.

Plus, it's space cops with antigravity wings. Pure awesome.