How Does a Pterodactyl Tell Time?

 

If anyone ever asks you to define the term "goofy fun," just show them a copy of Hawkman #23 (Dec 1967/Jan. 1968). Writer Richard Hughes and artist Dick Dillon provide us with a perfect definition.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are on patrol when they see a bank being attacked by a combined force of dinosaurs and cavemen. It's such an odd sight that even Hawkman--who is like most superheroes in that he's seen some pretty weird stuff during his career--gives us a "Holy Hawks! It's impossible!"

But this is a Comic Book Universe, in which very little is impossible. The Hawks battle the dinos and cave men for a few pages, at which point their opponents are swept away and then disappear.

A mortally wounded pterodactyl is left behind. Guessing that a bird-reptile will speak bird language, the Hawks seek out a death-bed confession.

The dying ptero explains that he's been brought out of the past, but dies before saying who is responsible. 

I wonder, though, how the ptero was able to explain so precisely that he came from 1,000,000 BC. How does he know the year according to modern reckoning? Heck, how does he understand the concept of time or calenders at all? Apparently, Pterodactyl School in the prehistoric past was very efficient!

A radiation trail leads them to a mad scientist lare, where Dr. Malevolo is using his time machine to bring creatures from the past to steal money. Probably to pay off the loans he took out to fund building a time machine, but that's just a guess.

When the machine is activated, Hawkman tosses Hawkgirl to safety, but he himself is sucked into the past.

He soon finds himself fighting a dragon-like monster, then later befriends a tribe of cavemen, teaching them to use fire and weapons. But when Dr. Malevolo brings some more perspective minions into the 20th Century, Hawkman is brought along.

The radiation used by the time machine wipes Hawkman's memory and makes him susceptible to Dr. Malevolo's orders. The bad guy sends him off to kill Hawkgirl. This obligates Hawkgirl to first fake her own death and then to lure Hawkman into a decontamination chamber.

This snaps Hawkman back to normal. The Hawks then attack Malevolo's lair once again and this time defeat him. The destruction of the time machine sends everyone and everything back to their proper times. Dr. Malevolo gets sentenced to some hard time and, I believe, is never seen again. 

That's understandable. Malevolo was just a generic mad scientist, without any sort of strong personality or traits that would lead a writer to bring him back for more shenanigans.

Otherwise, the story truly is goofy fun. It jumps around in an uninhibited way, tossing in stuff like a prehistoric dragon, a pterodactyl that can tell time, or teaching cavemen how to use bows and arrows in a willy-nilly fashion, whether or not any one of these elements advance the plot. In fact, teaching the cavemen stuff doesn't affect the story at all.

But it doesn't matter. Dick Dillon makes it all look cool and I wouldn't have left out any part of it. I normally enjoy strong story structure and a writer's ability to tie everything together. But there are moments when story structure must give way to pure fun. This is one of those occasions.

I wish I knew how that darn pterodactyl could tell time, though.

Next week is my wedding anniversary/wife's birthday break. In two weeks, we will take one of our occasional ventures into comics of the 1980s to begin a look at the Legion of Superheroes' "Great Darkness Saga."