The Brave and the Bold #43
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Brave and the Bold #43 is the fifth of six Silver Age Hawkman tryout issues that ran in that anthology title before the character earned his own solo series, and its central importance lies in being the first appearance of the Manhawks — the alien bird-thieves whose invasion of Thanagar is directly responsible for the founding of the entire Thanagarian police force, the institution that made Katar Hol and Shayera Thal who they are. By embedding that origin myth into the plot via an extended flashback, writer Gardner Fox gave the Silver Age Hawks a richly self-contained mythology: the villains of the present issue are literally the catalyst for the heroes' civilization. The story also introduces Paran Katar — Hawkman's father, ornithologist, and inventor of the anti-gravity wings and hawk-helmet — whose first and only Silver Age appearance here underpins every aspect of the Hawks' equipment and identity. Taken together with its companion issues, this issue was part of the sustained tryout campaign that culminated in Hawkman receiving his own title in 1964.
In "The Masked Marauders of Earth!", Hawkman and Hawkgirl race to Midway City when word arrives that the Manhawks are terrorizing the planet—reminding Hawkman of a past he thought buried, when his father first forged the Thangarian police force in response to their earlier crimes. Written by Gardner Fox and brought to life with dynamic art by Joe Kubert, this 1962 adventure blends cosmic intrigue with Earthbound action, all framed by Kubert’s striking cover.
In "The Masked Marauders of Earth!", Hawkman and Hawkgirl race to Midway City when word arrives that the Manhawks—once linked to the founding of the Thangarian police force through a past betrayal—are terrorizing Earth again. With the echoes of a forgotten conflict resurfacing, the heroes must confront the Manhawks before their ancient grudge ignites a new war.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was produced by the same Fox-Kubert creative partnership that had launched Silver Age Hawkman in The Brave and the Bold #34 (February–March 1961), with Gardner Fox scripting and Joe Kubert providing both interior art and the cover. The series functioned explicitly as DC's try-out vehicle under editor Julius Schwartz, and the six Hawkman issues (#34–36, #42–44) formed a deliberate audition run — #43 being the second of the three 1962 installments — that Fox and Kubert used to deepen the Hawks' backstory before Hawkman finally graduated to his own magazine in April–May 1964, where Fox continued writing (though Kubert was replaced by Murphy Anderson). No production-specific documents or editorial correspondence about this individual issue have surfaced in publicly accessible sources.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated August–September 1962; written by Gardner Fox, with interior art and cover by Joe Kubert.
- Title story: 'The Masked Marauders of Earth!' — Hawkman and Hawkgirl answer a distress call from Commissioner Emmett in Midway City and battle a second wave of Manhawks who have set up a hidden base in northern Canada.
- First team appearance of the Manhawks, described as giant alien birds wearing human-faced masks that emit matter-displacing eye-beams; the same species will later reappear in Hawkman #18.
- Contains the most detailed retelling of Hawkman's pre-series origin to that point: a flashback reveals that as a teenager, Katar Hol and his father Paran Katar first encountered the Manhawks on Thanagar, captured one of their masks for analysis, and fashioned the hawk-shaped helmet as a counter-weapon — directly causing the formation of the Thanagarian Wingmen police force.
- First (and, in the original Silver Age continuity, only) appearance of Paran Katar — Katar Hol's father, ornithologist, and the inventor of the anti-gravity belt and artificial wings that define Hawkman's equipment.
- Mike's Amazing World of Comics notes that the flashback in this issue depicts events chronologically earlier than those shown in B&B #42, making it Hawkman's chronologically earliest appearance in-continuity.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in DC Special Series #19, Showcase Presents: Hawkman Volume 1, the Hawkman trade paperback, and The Hawkman Archives Vol. 1 (which collects B&B #34, 35, 36, 42, 43, and 44).
- Superman (as Clark Kent) and the characters Ben Rebhuhn and Chet Atkins are indexed in the catalog for this issue; no corroborating source found online identifies how or where they appear — they are likely participants in the letters column or a house ad rather than story characters.
Cast · 9 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in All Favourites Comic #35 (1963), Super-Team Family #12 (1977), DC Special Series #19 (1979), Superman Taschenbuch #32 (1981), Hawkman #[nn] (1989), The Hawkman Archives #1 (2000), Showcase Presents: Hawkman #1 (2007), DC Finest: Hawkman: Wings Across Time #[nn] (2025)
Key issues in The Brave and the Bold
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