Hawkman #26

Hawkman #26 (On Sale: April 18, 1968) has a cover by Dick Dillin and Charles Cuidera.

"Last Stand on Thanagar" is by Raymond Marais, Dick Dillin and Charles Cuidera. This is Marais' first story for DC and may be an alias. Marais is also credited with work on The Sub-Mariner at Marvel and Flash Gordon at King. This is the first of ten stories he would write for DC. Hawkman and Hawkgirl are called home when the Thanagarian fleet in the Ilian quadrant falls. When General Ariosto, head of the winged police force, addresses the assembled operatives, he announces that one of the them is a traitor, who has leaked defense information through his Absorbascon. The Synaptic Felxometer reveals the traitor to be Katar Hol, who escapes with Shayera's help.

Stalked, with Shayera in custody and the real traitor loose, Hawkman heads to subspace and Earth to determine who stole his Absorbascon. Meanwhile, Queen Elba of the Infinite Empire has ordered her man on Earth, Colonel Alpheus, to stop him.

Hawkman had recently discovered the Egg of Harun on Earth, which he believed to be a harmless relic, but which is actually a nullifier device invented by the enemies of the Empire, and which had prevented its conquest of the Universe for three centuries. Katar escapes with the egg into hyperspace, although his ship is badly damaged and is attacked when he approaches his home. His ship is destroyed and Hawkman is wounded, but he still manages to get to headquarters, and gives the egg to Ariosto, which raises doubts in the general's mind whether he is truly a traitor.

The back-up story is "The Rocket Lanes of Tomorrow" from Real Fact Comics #1 penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Joe Simon.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.