I had wondered what had happened with Zero Hour: I read a single issue of Hawkworld (with Firehawk, which is why I bought it in a fanboy lapse) so I didn't know about the details of the retcon.
The current Hawkman seems to resemble little reference to the urbane Carter Hall of the All-Star Squadron, nor the somewhat bland Thanagarian, nor the facist outcast from Hawkworld. Someone, it might even have been Geoff Johns himself, described him as "Conan with wings" - hardly the archeologist or the space cop we would expect.
Personally, I wouldn't have been too bothered by it at all, if only he wasn't some sort of fucked-up Zero Hour version. Lip service to stupid continuity decisions is irritating to new readers. I probably would have checked out Hawkman if not for that element of the concept. The concept of a reincarnated Egyptian prince with a bad attitude, wings, and a fucking big mace is pretty cool: some hybrid version of a variety of failed superheroes which include Thanagarian DNA is boring as batshit.
As for your other comments: yes, I'm also on the hunt for the second Promethea book, and wish the bastards would bring out more ABC tpbs with increasing regularity. Legion has never really interested me at all (it has massive potential, but I'm still haunted by the image of kids living in an upside down rocket headquarters). Batman -outside of DKR, which really was an excellent read - is part of the franchise problem I described before.
