Goshawk and Falconet # 1 (heavy spoilers so beware!)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Brought to you by the same studios that brought you Arachna # 1 and 2, we get a brand new superhero duo, Goshawk and Falconet. Let's check it out.

The story opens with Goshawk and Falconet soaring through the sky just above Santa Monica Bay. They fly towards a ship that is being robbed. Goshawk tells her to secure the cargo while he keeps the guards busy. 

The robbers are working for a villain named Black Parrot. Goshawk lands between two of them and bashes their heads together. Just then a third man pulls a gun on him from behind. Goshawk retracts his wings which knocks the gun out of the man's hand. Goshawk knocks the guy out while Falconet kicks the guy protecting the cargo. Falconet uses one of her claws to pick the padlock and finds a room full of captured women. She assures them that they're alright now.

On the lower decks, Black Parrot and a woman named Secretarybird think their mission is a success. With the harbormaster being bought and paid for they'll have no trouble delivering the cargo to their client. Just then the alarm goes off so they know they've been busted. They make their way to a life boat to escape. Up above Goshawk and Falconet are dancing and knocking out all the bad guys as they do so. Black Parrot got away but the girls are free and they thank the heroes. 

Later on, in the Bird Nest hidden under the Gunn Mansion, Baron and Sierra unwind and shower. Sierra mentions wanting to fly in their vehicle, but Baron says it is still under repairs after their last battle with Feathered Freak. They get ready for an upcoming party that Sierra arranged and asks Baron to at least try to mingle with the guests a little. 

The party starts later that night and people mention that Baron used to work with Tesla until he got lucky with Tesla stocks and cashed in. Baron thanks the Mayor and his men for coming and then hangs out with some policemen. The lieutenant enjoys the drinks as the bartender serves him more. Even though he's off duty he wants to make sure people think he's drinking non-alcoholic ones. His friend Awais asks about his wife, and he says she can watch over herself since she's more of the socialite. He says to take his advice and not take her for granted. Meanwhile Sierra tells her friends things are fine though sometimes Baron has a one-track mind towards his inventions. 

After the party is over, Sierra goes to see Baron for some fun time. Baron is busy watching videos of Arachna. This gets Sierra furious and asks why he keeps watching videos of superheroines when he has one right in front of him. She asks if he barely touches her because she's not in spandex 24/7 since he barely speaks to her when they're out of costume. Baron says his interest in Arachna is purely professional since they're all in the superhero field. Sierra storms off and says maybe she'll dress like Arachna next time so that he can pay attention to his own wife. 

The next day Baron and Sierra are at their pool with her being noticeably distant. Baron asks if she remembers when they'd dreamed about being married and fighting crime. Now that they've done that it feels like they're going through the motions. Just then an alarm goes off and they are warned that a '211' is in progress in the Bank of America. Baron activates a switch that drains the pool and opens up a slide for them to go into the Bird's Nest. Their flying vehicle is still under repairs so they head off on their motorcycles.

The suspects are getting away in two convertibles heading down West Sunset Boulevard. They shoot up a vehicle so bad it overturns. Goshawk notices that they're splitting up and tells Falconet to follow the other one but not to engage. Falconet sighs and agrees. Goshawk leaps off his bike and swoops in and takes out some of the thugs but gets punched in the face. One of the thugs grabs him from behind letting Black Parrot score a free hit on him. Goshawk throws a smoke bomb at Black Parrot and opens his wings to knock the other thugs back. He socks Black Parrot out and takes control of the convertible before they can crash. 

The police arrive and ask where Falconet is. Goshawk isn't sure since she turned off her communicator, but he's sure she's fine. Falconet is giving chase to the second car while dodging their bullets. Secretarybird is with them and shooting at Falconet with sadistic glee. The robbers are so distracted by the action that they accidentally drive off a cliff. Secretarybird leaps out of the car before it went over, managing to survive. She pulls her gun on Falconet who flies in to kick her. Falconet gets her in a headlock when suddenly someone swoops in and grabs her. 

This man turns out to be King Vulture. Falconet kicks him in his face, making him let her go. Falconet lands on the ground and figures that Secretarybird was the liaison between King Vulture and Black Parrot. Secretarybird runs at her from behind but Falconet manages to sock her out. She grabs King Vulture, ready to finish him off, and says she didn't need Goshawk's help for this one. Just then King Vulture presses something on her wings that makes them go out of control, making Falconet fly all over the place.

Falconet lands hard on her back and King Vulture chokes her out. He says he should kill her seeing that she resulted in taking away his cargo, his stolen money and he almost lost Secretarybird. He will take her back to his place to kill her properly, but first he searches her for any tracking devices and removes her utility belt. As he takes off her mask, he recognizes her. King Vulture is quick to leave with Secretarybird as he wouldn't want to risk a fight against Goshawk now. 

Goshawk soon arrives on the scene and finds the utility belt and other tracking devices. He swears to find Falconet.

As the bad guys drive off, King Vulture ponders that Falconet is Sierra, so therefore her husband Baron must be Goshawk. He has some sort of connection to Sierra but feels she can't be spared or it will ruin his operation. 

Later on at the villain hideout, Falconet is hanging upside down over a giant vat of acid. King Vulture jokes that she's about to have a real acid trip and Falconet sighs over the dad jokes. Left alone, Falconet decides it's time to stop playing possum and get out of the chains before she's 'a bleached blonde'. She manages to break the chains and land safely away from the vat of acid.

Secretarybird asks if King Vulture wants to know how Black Parrot messed up another mission. He asks why he shouldn't just dump her in the acid alongside Falconet. He explains he's trying to remain composed for now. Secretarybird says she was only the liaison. If anyone messed up, it would have been Black Parrot, not her. King Vulture grabs her by the throat and says he doesn't care, he wants his money back.

Some of King Vulture's thugs come in to make sure Falconet is actually dead, and she knocks them out. She has one of their guns now and heads out to face King Vulture.

Goshawk is smacking Black Parrot around in the interrogation room demanding answers. Black Parrot says King Vulture has her but he doesn't know where he is. Even if he did he wouldn't tell him or he'd be dead. Goshawk drops him and the Lieutenant tells him he's being rougher than usual. Goshawk says they'll never find Falconet unless he's permitted to see the evidence locker. 

Back at the villain's lair a bullet shoots through a light bulb as we see reflections of Falconet getting smacked around through the shattered fragments. King Vulture then sticks her finger into the light socket and zaps her until she's knocked out. Secretarybird tells him it's best she stays sedated. She heard that Black Parrot managed to recover half of the money, so she goes to see him.

Secretarybird goes to see Black Parrot and gets a briefcase full of money. As she checks it out she mentions she heard he was caught. Black Parrot says she heard wrong. She advises him to lay low until the heat dies down. She asks him if he ever treats women the way King Vulture treats her. Black Parrot asks if he also roughs up Falconet. She says Falconet is tough and keeps trying to escape, something she wishes she could do. She drives off and it's revealed that Goshawk was posing as Black Parrot. He's glad to find out that Sierra is still alive.

Baron remembers meeting Sierra on the beach. She was a lifeguard but had a side job as a swimsuit model, even though she never made it to the cover of any magazines. They met and got along and eventually fell in love.

Later on Goshawk arrives in his HAVC (Hovering Arial Vtol Craft), following the tracker he planted on Secretarybird back to their base. The thugs try to shoot it out of the sky, but it evades the gunfire and drops tear gas. With the bad guys distracted and the aircraft on autopilot, Goshawk swoops down and starts beating up the thugs and asking where Falconet is. Secretarybird steps in and says 'that would be telling' and starts to open fire on him. She tries to make a break for it but is caught by Goshawk. It seems Falconet and King Vulture weren't at this location. Shortly after he leaves, Lieutenant Falk arrives to clean up the mess.

Secretarybird is tied up now as Goshawk plans his next move. He mentioned this whole thing started with them kidnapping women and now she's the one that's tied up. She has a cellphone on her that keeps going off. Goshawk sees that the phone is livestreaming and he tries to pinpoint the IP address. King Vulture is the one streaming and he comments that they just gained a new viewer. He has Falconet tied up and gagged to prevent her from giving any clues to their current location. He calls both of them by their real names and says he wants his money back. He'll send instructions and if Baron tries to go off script, Sierra will die.

After the stream is cut, Falconet insults him. King Vulture says after Baron brings them the money she'll have even less of a reason to stay with being his bored trophy wife. Falconet teases that maybe after that she can coax him into giving her the money. King Vulture says he beat her twice and doesn't want to hurt her anymore, but he will if he has to. Falconet says she sees regret in his eyes. King Vulture says he does know her, and if she does swear loyalty to him as his new Secretarybird, he'll let her go. 

Later that night at the Griffith Observatory, Goshawk arrives with the money. He says for King Vulture to have chosen this place he must really know him, but wonders who he is. He starts to think back on several people he knew from the party, including the mayor, Lt. Falk, his friends Mathias and Awais. Awais would know he took Sierra to a date once at the Observatory. It was later that night where Baron would propose to Sierra. Goshawk and Falconet would make their debut months later.

Some of King Vulture's men would arrive to attack Goshawk. King Vulture flies in to grab him, demanding to know where his money is. As they fly past one of the building's towers, a structure falls off it and crushes one of the thugs to death. Falconet is sliding off the dome-like roof of the observatory 

Goshawk pulls out separate wings from the briefcase he had with him and let it go. King Vulture flies off with the briefcase and Goshawk uses the wings to fly down and grab onto Falconet with his legs. He knew he couldn't trust King Vulture with a fair ransom exchange. He gives Falconet a set of portable wings for her to use as well. They both beat up on King Vulture and kiss.

It seems they celebrated too soon and King Vulture slashes Goshawk across the back. Falconet stands between them and he seems to back down. He says he'll just take the million and go. Goshawk tries to distract him so he can gain his second wind, and asks who is he and how he knows them. King Vulture says he should tip more. Goshawk recognizes him as Reddy the bartender from the party earlier.

Falconet yells she's worth a hundred million and kicks King Vulture back. Both heroes beat the hell out of him until they figured he'd had enough. At this point Goshawk says their Wingines are also out of power and they wouldn't be able to chase him if he flew away. Despite everything, Falconet wonders if there was still some good left in King Vulture.

King Vulture does fly away with the money saying he'll come back for Sierra someday. Falconet asks Goshawk if he rigged the suitcase with a virus or fake money or something. He says just hiding the wing-discs was risky enough. There's always more money to be made, but there is only one Sierra Gunn. Goshawk says this person lied, they always tip their staff royally. He says whoever he is, they'll face him as husband and wife. Sierra says they'll face him as Goshawk and Falconet. 

Two weeks later, King Vulture is in his lair singing a tune and taking off his wig. Just then the doorbell rings and he goes to see who it is. Baron and Sierra decided to stop by to visit their old friend. The man greets them and welcomes them inside, telling Sierra to make herself at home. It turns out that King Vulture was their friend Awais.

My thoughts- 

Pretty cool book, though I do have to ask, does every superhero and villain in X-53's version of LA have bird themed names and gimmicks? Other than Goshawk and Falconet, we have Black Parrot, Secretarybird, King Vulture and some off-panel previous encounter with another villain named Feathered Freak? They really love their birds. 

So Goshawk and Falconet are a married crimefighting couple, and even though they act lovey-dovey in costume, their marriage is on the rocks outside of costume. Goshawk is absorbed in his work and Falconet feels neglected. This gets more complicated when you factor in King Vulture has some sort of interest in her and for better or for worst, Falconet is curious about him.

The book focuses mostly on the main characters and the story at hand so we don't to see much of the supporting cast. We do see that Goshawk and Falconet work with the police either allowing them to or covering for them. The page where Goshawk thought up his list of suspects helped keep track of the side characters. Awais was the obvious choice when Goshawk mentioned he would know about the observatory and earlier at the party he did tell him not to take Sierra for granted. 

King Vulture is an odd character. While the question is raised if he has some good in him, and he does seem to care about Sierra.... he's also someone that was involved in kidnapping women and it seems he smacks Secretarybird around to the point that the thugs already see it as a habit. So he doesn't want to hurt Sierra, but he has no problem abusing Secretarybird? Does he just hate her? 

As for Secretarybird, she's no angel either. She seems to take a little too much pleasure in shooting people up. She gets abused by King Vulture and wishes she was strong enough to stand up for herself. She also gets felt up by Black Parrot, so she gets treated horribly all around. But then at the same time she wants to see things be done to the women they kidnapped, so it's difficult to be completely sympathetic towards her. 

The story has a lot of action and in X-53 fashion, a lot of cheesecake. Get ready to see Falconet get in and out of costume, or even when fully clothed, a lot of panels zooming in on her big behind. Similarly, while Secretarybird keeps her clothes on, she sure doesn't know how to zip up her blouse properly. Probably the most intense scene we have seen so far is a panel actually showing Baron and Sierra going at it. You can find more extreme images online for the cultured gentlemen out there, but still this panel might shock those that aren't ready to see that much cheesecake. Then again, I guess we can ague that none of the X-53 books are for younger readers anyway.

Arachna makes a cameo, so yes, she does exist in the same universe as these heroes and villains. Sierra did mention that Baron is always looking at 'superheroines' so we might get even more heroes down the line. 

There are a few nitpicks here and there, but possibly the biggest one was Falconet randomly sliding off the dome, presumably to her death had Goshawk not rescued her. Where did she come from? How did she get there? Was she tied to something rigged to let her drop at a certain time? That part wasn't clear and I re-read the previous page. 

Anyway we'll see how things go. This story has compelling characters with an intriguing situation. The villain knows who they are, but they have no idea who he is. Right now Baron and Sierra are in as much danger going to visit Awais just as they are anytime they'd invite him to hang with them. Actually with the villain knowing who they are, I'm surprised they weren't tearing the city apart trying to find him, similar to how Arachna was obsessed with finding Doctor Diabolique in the last issue. 

A minor detail was in the middle page of the book, there was also an extra 60's Batman show type cliffhanger page with questions, like will Goshawk find Falconet, will Falconet survive and whatnot. It was a funny touch. 

Lastly I went with the basic tier for this book, so I got some cards and stickers relating to Goshawk, Falconet and King Vulture, including an extra card too hot to post here. It also came with sketch prints of Goshawk and King Vulure. The back cover also advertises Arachna # 3. 

I can't wait for more of these books. Let's see where this story goes.