Hawkman (Carter Hall)
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Carter Hall is a DC Comics superhero, the original Hawkman. Created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, he first appeared in Flash Comics # 1 (January, 1940). The history of this character is somewhat confusing, due mainly to the fact that his origins were retroactively changed with the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series as well as the Hawkworld ongoing series. As a result, there are two separate origins for Carter Hall: the Golden Age origin and the Post-Crisis (or current) origin. Both are described below.
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Golden Age origin
In the days of ancient Egypt, Prince Khufu is engaged in a feud with his rival, the Egyptian priest Hath-Set. The priest eventually captures both Khufu and his consort Chay-Ara, and kills them. Millennia later, in 1940, Khufu is reincarnated as American archaeologist Carter Hall, and Chay-Ara as Shiera Sanders. Hath-Set himself is reincarnated as a scientist named Anton Hastor. Upon finding the ancient knife Hath-Set used to kill him, Hall regains his memories of his past life and recognizes Hastor as the reincarnated evil priest.
Using the properties of "ninth metal" to craft a gravity-defying belt, Hall creates wings and a costume, ultimately confronting Hastor as Hawkman. He also encounters and remembers Shiera during this time. Following Hastor's defeat, the two begin a romance.
Hawkman becomes a charter member of the Justice Society of America, and takes the position of permanent chairman, following the Flash and Green Lantern. Shiera, meanwhile, adopts the identity of Hawkgirl and fight beside Hall throughout the 1940s.
Hawkman is JSA chairman in 1951 when the team is investigated by the "Joint Congressional Un-American Activities Committee" (based on the real-life House Un-American Activities Committee) for possible communist sympathies. Congress asks members of the JSA to reveal their identities. The heroes decline, and Hawkman and most of the JSA retire for the bulk of the 1950s.
Art by Dennis Neville.
The JSA and Hawkman regroup in the early 1960s following the Flash's meeting with his counterpart on the parallel world Earth-1, the JSA being active on Earth-2. Around this time, the Halls, having married, have a son, Hector. Little is known of Hawkman's activities during the 1960s, other than the JSA's annual meeting with Earth-1's Justice League of America.
In the early 1980s, Hawkman is instrumental in denying his son and other JSA children membership in the JSA, leading directly to the formation of Infinity, Inc.
Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, some of Hall's history was retconned by DC when the parallel worlds were combined into one, but one piece of retroactive continuity was written before Crisis and fills out early Hall history: All-Star Squadron Annual #3 states that during a JSA battle against Ian Karkull, the villain imbued them with energy which retarded their aging, allowing Hall and many others - as well as their spouses - to remain active into the late 20th century without infirmity.
[edit] Post-Crisis (or current) origin
Much of Carter Hall's post-Crisis history is fleshed out in the pages of DC's JSA and Hawkman (vol. 4). These two titles, penned to a great extent by writers David S. Goyer, Geoff Johns, and James Dale Robinson, examine Hall's previous lives - especially that of Prince Khufu.
According to the post-Crisis origin, Prince Khufu lives during the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt. From birth, he knows that his life will be unique. Khufu believes that his ka, or soul, will not journey on to the land of the afterlife. Rather, his soul and that of his betrothed, Chay-Ara, are fated to remain in the mortal world.
As prophesied by the wizard Nabu, a space ship lands in Egypt. Prince Khufu travels across the desert in the company of Nabu and the champion Teth-Adam in search of the wreakage. Finally, they come across the remains of a Thanagarian ship styled with a hawk-like motif. Nabu casts a spell so that the group can understand the strange language of the female space traveler. Just before dying, she whispers the words, "Nth Metal", the name of the substance that powered the downed ship.
Teth-Adam lifts the ship back to Khufu's palace, where it is placed inside the Temple of Horus at Erdu to be studied. The remaining Nth metal is examined, and its most obvious property proves to be its ability to negate gravity. The remaining sample from the ship is melted and used to create several remarkable devices, including a scarab which allows Khufu to fly, a deadly knife, and a battle glove referred to as the Claw of Horus. However, the metal also strengthens the souls of Khufu and Chay-Ara, binding them together in their love and imprinting them with the collective knowledge of Thanagar. Although the villainous priest Hath-Set murders the two with the knife of Nth metal, their souls live on in the mortal plane. They are reincarnated over many lifetimes, always finding true love in each other. However, they are cursed to be repeatedly killed at the hands of a reincarnated Hath-Set.
[edit] From Khufu to Carter Hall
After his death, Khufu's soul is reincarnated countless times in markedly different eras and locations. Some of his known reincarnated identities have been depicted in Hawkman (vol. 4) and include:
- Brian Kent (also known as the Silent Knight), alive during 5th century Britain;
- Koenrad Von Grimm, the son of a blacksmith in 14th century Germany;
- Captain John Smith of the 16th century English colony in Virginia;
- Hannibal Hawkes, the Nighthawk, a gun-fighter in the American Old West;
- Detective James Wright, a private eye in the early 20th century.
Eventually, the soul of Prince Khufu is reborn as Carter Hall, an archaeologist active during the 1940's. After regaining the memories of his first life in Egypt, Hall uses the hawk motif of the Egyptian God Horus to inspire his role as the original Hawkman. During the same period, his love Chay-Ara is reborn as archaeologist Shiera Saunders. After the two meet and marry, she becomes Hawkgirl, fighting at Carter's side. They become founding members of the Justice Society of America, and Hawkman even takes the role of chairman. The pair reduce their activities in the early 1950's but became fully active again in the early 1980's when Hall briefly joins the Justice League of America as a mentor. The two have a son, Hector Hall, who years later becomes an incarnation of Dr. Fate. Just following the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series, Hawkman and the JSA become trapped in a battle in an ever-repeating Ragnarok. Odin tried unsuccessfully to give this repeating Ragnarok to Dream as a trade, knowing that Dream had by this time selected Carter's grandson, Daniel Hall, as his successor.
Years after they vanish, Hawkman and the JSA return to the modern day when a primitive superpowered tribe volunteer to substitute themselves for the team in the Ragnarok cycle, allowing the team to return to Earth. Soon after, however, death finds Carter once again during the events of Zero Hour. He and his wife Shiera merge with Katar Hol in a new version of Hawkman, which briefly creates the "hawk god" creature. This individual adventures for a brief time but later loses his sanity and is banished to limbo.
[edit] Alive again
Years later, JSA member Kendra Saunders is transported to a ravaged Thanagar by the High Priests of the Downsiders. Seeking a champion to stop the evil Onimar Synn from enslaving the planet, the priests use Kendra's centuries-old connection to Carter to bring him back to the mortal plain. Following this unorthodox resurrection, Hall retains all the memories of his past lives, as well as those of Katar Hol, the Thanagarian Hawkman.
After defeating Onimar Synn, Hall once again becomes a member of the JSA. In addition, he operates out of the fictional city of St. Roch, Louisiana with Hawkgirl as his partner. However, he has trouble accepting that Kendra rejects his romantic advances, despite the fact that the soul of Chay-Ara now resides in her body.
After his most recent return, Hall once again takes up the role of hero. Operating both with the JSA as well as with Hawkgirl, Hall embarks on a wide variety of exotic adventures. His quest as a hero takes him from the streets of St. Roch to exotic dimensions and even into outer space as he fights in the Rann-Thanagar War. It is during this event that Carter mysteriously disappears.
In DC Comics' "One Year Later" event, much has happened since the Rann-Thanagar War. In fact, Hawkman (vol. 4) has changed to Hawkgirl at issue #50. Hawkman remains missing, and Hawkgirl is left by herself to patrol and protect St. Roch. In an August, 2006 Newsarama interview concerning the new Justice Society of America series [1], writer Geoff Johns confirmed that Hawkman would be returning to active status in the DC universe. His whereabouts and the capacity of his return remain to be seen.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Art by Andrew Robinson.
The Nth Metal in Hawkman's belt, harness, and boots is controlled mentally and allows him to defy gravity. His wings allow him to control flight, though they can be "flapped" through use of shoulder motions.
Hall's Nth metal also enhances his strength and eye-sight, speeds healing, and regulates body temperature, preventing the need for heavy protective clothing while flying at high altitudes. Nth metal is known to affect electromagnetism as well as the strong and weak forces of the universe. It is also mentioned in Hawkman: Secret Files that Nth metal possesses powers still unknown to Hall.
Due to his multiple incarnations, Khufu/Hall has become proficient in many types of weaponry. As a result, he is an expert with a wide array of archaic weapons from his past lives, including battle axes, maces, swords, spears and shields. As Nighthawk, he was a marksman with a pistol. In addition, Carter Hall is sometimes depicted handling futuristic technology. He has used a Thanagarian ship called "The Brontadon", and during the Rann-Thanagar War used Rannian hard-light armor. Hawkman is even depicted using technologically advanced laser weaponry in a possible future (Hawkman, vol. 4, #9).
As a result of his many lives and vast amount of experience, Hall is a brilliant tactician, fierce warrior, and strong leader. At the same time, however, he is extremely intelligent (considered a leader in his field of history and archaeology) and expresses a deeply romantic side in relation to his beloved soul-mate.
He has been characterized in comics as having a quick, fierce temper with adament views and opinions. At the same time, Carter finds it difficult to balance the "savage barbarian" of his past lives with the "gentleman" of his current incarnation.
