Hawkman's Darkest Past Life Faced The Black Plague | Screen Rant
The ghastly Black Plague has Carter Hall donning the birdlike mask of the plague doctors of 17th-century Spain from a forgotten past-life in the latest Hawkman from DC Comics. Poisoned by infection and his mind enthralled by his Sky Tyrant-persona, Hawkman fights a devastating plague and the resulting hysteria in Robert Venditti’s dark vignette, “Miasma of Fear.” With his soul and the future of humanity at stake, Hawkman discovers that, in times of despair and apprehension, even self-sacrifice and resolve may not be enough to save one another from the ravages of a pandemic — we need one another.
Infected by the Batman Who Laughs and possessed by the evil Sky Tyrant-persona, Carter Hall finds himself “in the space between our dimension and what lies beyond,” a victim of the Tyrant’s plot to bring death to the universe. Caught in an allegorical world of 17th-century Spain, one of the countless past-lives of Hawkman, Carter Hall becomes Dr. Carlo Salón, a plague doctor fighting for life in an age of darkness and decay. Draped in black and concealed beneath a hawk-like mask of alarming proportion, the shadowy plague doctor makes his grim rounds, recording the dead and examining what remains of the living. The plague mask worn by the doctor is a disturbing one, for both the reader and for the people Dr. Salón hopes to save, and the traumatic circumstances of the plague create fear and desperation in the huddled, wary masses. Conceived to protect against malady not to create anxiety and mistrust, the disconcerting mask becomes a symbol of the plague itself and the hero finds himself perceived, paradoxically, as the illness to be cured.
Venditti’s “Miasma of Fear” is a dark chapter in the winged warrior’s multiplicity of lives that demonstrates the purposefulness of true heroism and the contrary, and terrifying, aspects of humanity that manifest in its darkest hours. Charged with a census of the living and the dead, and to provide aid when possible, Dr. Carlo Salón encounters the citizens of Saville in dire hardship and their adverse reaction to his forbidding presence turns from fear and distrust to irrational violence. The well-intentioned plague doctor is attacked and restrained, to be put to the torch by a volatile mob in an act of misguided retribution. Decried as a demon from the abyss and an enemy of the people, the doctor is brought to the stake to “purify Satan’s messenger with the Lord’s cleansing fire — the world will be freed of this curse!” Inspired by some primal sense that sacrifice will appease the gods and the forces beyond human understanding, the ritual sacrifice becomes an act will ultimately condemn them all to death.
The gothic and oppressive atmosphere of Venditti’s Black Plague-era “Miasma of Fear” is enhanced by the creative team of Marcio Takara, Fernando Pasarin, and Oclair Albert, with Takara and Pasarin sharing penciling credits and Takara and Albert inking the dark tale. The artistry conveys a deep sense of dread and tension, built with the interplay of bleak panels and the melancholy of the funereal doctor probing the heart of the infection. Indeed, at times the perspective shifts to beneath the plague doctor’s mask, a claustrophobic lens created by the mask’s concealment, provoking a stifling and uncertain point of view appropriate to the mass affliction.
Inadvertently, in the age of the coronavirus, Venditti’s “Miasma of Fear” takes on a prophetic tone, cautioning humanity against the mistakes of the past and the hysteria that comes with widespread uncertainty and overwhelming despair. In times when unimaginable suffering is commonplace and hope, it seems, has fled the world, champions are found in the most unlikely of places. In life and in art, the mask protects the hero, as the hero protects those without. And while some are celebrated, others are reviled, as history repeats itself in an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. In Hawkman #23, “Miasma of Fear” from DC Comics, heroes wear the mask.
Find Hawkman #23, “Miasma of Fear” online from DC and Comixology, and check with your local comic shop about curbside delivery and more.
Source: DC