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SIMONSON SOARS WITH HAWKGIRL
by Jennifer Contino (Pulse)
This March, it's one year later and Hawkgirl, not Hawkman is starring in her own DC series. Although secretive about what's coming up in the series, we did get some answers from new series writer Walter Simonson about soaring with this Hawk.
THE PULSE: This isn't your first time working with the world of the Hawks, how did you become a part of Hawkgirl?
WALTER SIMONSON: Luck. I drew a Silver Age Hawkman/Hawkgirl story Kurt Busiek wrote a couple of years ago as part of DC's tribute to the late Julie Schwartz. And those original Brave and the Bold Hawks Julie edited were the ones I read and loved as a kid.
My being on Hawkgirl today was totally the work of that crafty DC editor, Mike Carlin. I think it went something like this:
Phone rings. I pick it up. It's Mike. He says, "Do you want to write Hawkgirl? Maybe we can get [Howard] Chaykin to draw it." And I say "Yes."
Pretty much, that was it.
THE PULSE: Was this a project you pitched, or one that was pitched to you to become a part of? If you pitched, what can you tell us of your pitch, without spoiling things? If it was pitched to you, what was the greatest potential you saw in the character?
SIMONSON: I'd like to get the word 'pitch' in there one more time but alas. You saw my short answer about getting the assignment above. Essentially, Mike Carlin approached me about writing the character and mentioned Howard's name. I did some additional homework and thought that I would enjoy working with the character and with Howard. So I put together some ideas for future directions regarding Kendra, St. Roch, and several of the supporting cast members from the first four years of the title and gave them to Mike to look over.
Apparently, he liked them as I got the job.
Whups! Since I gave him some notes and ideas, maybe I did make a 'pitch'. Whew! I was worried there for a minute!
THE PULSE: Why did you want to write this series? You haven't done a lot in the DCU recently, what made this something you had to be a part of?
SIMONSON: How soon we forget. I wrote and drew ORION for just over two years and it wasn't all THAT long ago. The last time I looked, the New Gods were still a part of the DCU. And I wrote six issues of WONDER WOMAN as well. I've been working for DC pretty steadily one way or another for eight or nine years now. But I know what you mean. I seem to relish working mostly in the obscure corners somewhere.
THE PULSE: Exactly.
SIMONSON: But Hawkgirl was easy. I just like the Hawks. As I mentioned above, I read the [Joe] Kubert issues long long ago - still have at least two or three of the original comics around the house somewhere. I think I read the rest into oblivion. And I was imprinted by them. Both by Joe's lovely work on the characters and by the notion of the characters themselves. Flying people with Hawks' heads? What could be cooler!
Heck, I may even bring back Mavis Trent - in one form or another.
THE PULSE: I know I'd love to see Mavis again! So, which Hawkgirl is this? The one from the JSA or another version taking on the mantle?
SIMONSON: Hawkgirl is Kendra Saunders, the same Hawkgirl who's been in the HAWKMAN title since it began about four years ago. I have the distinct impression - especially from the homework I've been doing the past few months - that the Hawks have a rather, shall we say, complex history. The last thing I want to do right now is start off a new Hawkgirl. There's a lot about Kendra that seems begging for exploration and I've already started.
THE PULSE: How do you regard this character? What do you view as her greatest strengths? What are the character flaws that make her "human" and that you think readers will relate the most to?
SIMONSON: In a way, these seem to me to be questions about different sides of the same coin and I'll answer them together. Kendra's a young woman who was involved in a rather complex relationship that ended abruptly. Time's passed but she's still dealing with the aftermath of her life
before the Rann/Thanagar War, and with the effects of the War itself. And speaking as a writer, all of this gives her the potential for a rather rich emotional life. While not everybody goes off to fight for Thanagar, those parts of Kendra's life seem to me to echo experiences that ordinary people share. That makes her a touchstone for the struggles we all endure just living. But in Kendra's case, there's something extra. She is, after all, a young woman who died and essentially come back to life through the intervention of a dead former Hawkwoman. That makes her unique and expands the range of her possible responses to the stories in which she finds herself.
THE PULSE: Obviously you have to have some idea of how things played out for her in the Infinite Crisis, but how much of your own ideas got to go in this mix?
SIMONSON: I've spoken both with Geoff Johns and Jimmy Palmiotti about the Hawks. They've been really helpful getting me up to speed on the title and answering every question I had, no matter how goofy.
As far as Kendra goes, I've had a free hand. I've read all the preceding issues (and a few other things here and there besides). From them, I've worked up my own sense of her character and now I'm off and running.
THE PULSE: What, without spoiling things, can you tell us about this upcoming series?
SIMONSON: I'm planning on exploring a bit more of St. Roch's dark past to start with. Kendra's working at the Stonechat museum, and she discovers that the site itself has a strange and bloody history that is beginning to reassert itself in the present. And there may be some deep connection to the Hawks themselves.
I'm an old Lord of the Rings fan and while I don't think that book is particularly influencing my stories in Hawkgirl (no rings, no elves, no Black Riders-well, maybe there IS a Black Walker) ;-), I can't help being reminded as I'm typing this of the title of the second chapter in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, 'The Shadow of the Past'. I've always liked stories in which the past reaches out from the shadows and touches the present. I did something like that Thor, I did it Orion, I did it in Wonder Woman. Very fertile ground for stories. And once again, I find myself exploring a past with some terrible implications for the present.
Hawkgirl 50 really begins, given that it starts a year after the end of issue 49, right with the title's established milieu. Meaning that the existing structure around the stories - the Stonechat Museum, the supporting cast, the city itself - is still there. I'm incorporating threads from the previous issues into my own stories, not tossing everything out and starting over. Kendra hasn't moved to Metropolis; she's working at the Stonechat Museum. Because of the shift in emphasis from Hawkman to Hawkgirl, there will obviously be a shift in the way the book feels, aside from the change in the creative team. But I still want to book to feel as though it's grown organically out of the existing material.
Because of that, I hope to be able to explore some of the extant supporting characters a bit. Danny Evans appears in the first issue as more than a walk-on and a couple other characters from the earlier issues make appearances. In that regard, I want to emphasize the title's continuity with the previous issues.
THE PULSE: How does it feel to be working with Howard Chaykin on this?
SIMONSON: Great. Maybe I can finally save his career. Or vise versa.
THE PULSE: When the first issue comes out in March, how far ahead will you be in writing the series?
SIMONSON: Hard to say exactly but I'm shooting to be somewhere around Hawkgirl 56 or 57. Depends on which week of the month our first issue, issue 50, comes out.
THE PULSE: What do you enjoy the most about getting back to the monthly grind on a comic book like Hawkgirl?
SIMONSON: I really like doing continuing characters where you have a chance to expand your knowledge of their personalities and drop them into situations outside their comfort zone. I like working with supporting casts, figuring out new ways they can fit into the stories. I like enlarging the world in which the characters operate, discovering hitherto hidden corners in which strange and previously unknown things are happening. Usually terrible things. I like putting regular characters through hell.
And I like getting a regular paycheck.
THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?
SIMONSON: I'm working on the pencils for the final issue of ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER, a book I've been working on for some time. It's written by Elric's creator, Michael Moorcock, and deals with Elric's earliest encounters with Arioch and Stormbringer. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Google 'Elric'. There are some great websites out there that tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the character. Except, of course, for the story we're doing right now.)
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