Last year, just before DC were set to release Marc Andreyko and Aaron Lopresti's Hawkman and Adam Strange: Out of Time, the publisher announced the series had a new, more foreboding title: Death of Hawkman. While downplaying Adam Strange's co-starring role in the miniseries, it promised the final fate of DC's most confusing continuity conundrum. The final issue came out this week, and now we have a definitive answer to the question; "Will DC actually kill off a character in a miniseries named after their death?"

NOTE: Obviously, spoilers for Death of Hawkman #6 follow. You wouldn't read past this if you didn't want to be spoiled, right?

Yes, Hawkman did die at the end of Death of Hawkman.

 

Aaron Lopresti, John Livesay, Blond & Josh Reed / DC Comics
Aaron Lopresti, John Livesay, Blond & Josh Reed / DC Comics
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The miniseries has been a strange creature over the past six months, from downplaying Adam Strange's involvement (he's arguably more the star than Hawkman is) to a cover featuring Hawkgirl on a comic that contains zero appearances of Hawkgirl. From the very get-go, it did seem like Andreyko and Lopresti were setting up for some sort of swerve or possibly a metaphorical death, but nope. The dude is D-E-A-D, or as much as anyone with a history of resurrection can be in superhero comics.

 

Aaron Lopresti, John Livesay, Blond & Josh Reed / DC Comics
Aaron Lopresti, John Livesay, Blond & Josh Reed / DC Comics
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In his final moments, Katar Hol sacrificed the Nth Metal in his bones to overwhelm Despero and overload his machine, which seemingly vaporized the pair of them, along with Adam Strange. However, in an epilogue we can see that Adam Strange is trapped somewhere in a rogue Zeta Beam, and Despero reformed himself out of Nth Metal, but Hawkman is nothing more than a skeleton and an overly complicated piece of headgear.

The final caption promises this is "Not the end. Nowhere near it." so it's very possible DC will announce a follow-up series at some point soon. Given Hawkman's history of confusing continuity and ties to the history of the DC Universe, it wouldn't be surprising if he plays some role in the larger Rebirth mystery. I could potentially see a Hawkman being a member of the returning Justice Society in an attempt to give him a clean slate.

Whatever happens, Hawkman may be dead for now, but he lives forever in our hearts.

 

 

 

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