Thanagar
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Thanagar is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe. Thanagar is the original home of the humanoid Thanagarian race, noted for the discovery of gravity defying Nth metal. The planet is in orbit around the star Polaris.
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[edit] History
[edit] Pre-Crisis
In pre-Crisis history, Thanagar was a peaceful scientifically-advanced world, in which crime was virtually unknown. It was run by a single government and there wasn't any need for a police force. That is until an alien race called the Manhawks, who instigate the practice of stealing for the thrill of it, invaded. As a result, Paran Katar established the "Hawk-Police" (or "Wingmen"). Amongst the first Wingmen was Paran's son, Katar Hol. Order was restored, but not completely, as a few Thanagarians also became involved in thrill-stealing.
Katar and his wife Shayera Hol, also a member of the force, later arrived on Earth pursuing a shapeshifting villain named Byth. Katar and Shayera decided to remain on Earth and study human police methods. They became superheroes as Hawkman and Hawkwoman.
Following a plague, Thanagar entered an expansionist phase, and began a war with Rann. This was eventually resolved, but Thanagar made several covert attempts to take over Earth. Katar and Shayera sided with Earth in this conflict. The Shadow War of Hawkman continued up to the Crisis.
[edit] Post-Crisis
In Post-Crisis history, established in Timothy Truman's Hawkworld miniseries, Thanagar was portrayed as already being an expansionist planet which plundered other worlds, and the Hawk-Police became corrupted. Thanagarian noble classes used to live in floating cities, with aliens in the "Downside" ghettos.
Thanagar was one of the planets which united to invade Earth in the Invasion! storyline. Prior to the invasion, a Thangarian agent was sent to Earth and posed as a new Hawkman.
As in the original history, Katar Hol and Shayera Thal came to Earth in pursuit of Byth, now a corrupt Wingman, and remained to establish a relationship between the two planets. The media dubbed them as Hawkman and Hawkwoman, due to their similarity to the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Thanagar later developed the Elite Hawkmen Force, an elite squad of Wingmen. The planetary government continued to be expansionist and corrupt, and eventually Hawkman and Hawkwoman claimed sanctuary on Earth.
Thanagar's government was subsequently overthrown by Onimar Synn, who had taken control of Nth Metal. He was defeated by a resurrected Hawkman, but returned in the Rann-Thanagar War.
[edit] Infinite Crisis
In the Rann-Thanagar War miniseries, part of Infinite Crisis, the planet was destroyed after the leader of a rogue group of Thanagarians, during a battle with Adam Strange, teleported the planet Rann to the Thanagarian system, hoping to create a dictatorship between the two worlds. At first it was believed that the sudden appearance of Rann caused Thanagar's orbit to change and it passed too close to that system's sun. A large number of Thanagarian refugees fled to Rann and a war began between them and the Rann.
During a battle between the factions, the forces of Rann and Thanagar were faced with a fracture in space that resembles those that were seen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Tigorr of the Omega Men later discovered a stray Thanagarian surveillance satellite, which had documented footage of Superboy-Prime forcing Thanagar out of orbit. Though the satellite was soon lost in the chaotic environment, Adam Strange gathered the heads of each faction so that they might stop fighting amongst themselves and work together against the new cosmic threat. On the barren surface of Thanagar, he soon found the evidence to convince all the warring groups: handprints deep within an enormous crater, created by Superboy's interference. L.E.G.I.O.N., Thanagar, Rann and New Cronus combined their forces to make a full assault on the force behind the rift, with Ion (Kyle Rayner) in the lead.
Green Lantern Corps members Kilowog and Kyle Rayner later terraformed Thanagar, making it again suitable for habitation.
Thanagarian weaponry has recently begun appearing on Earth, smuggled by the Secret Society of Super Villains.
[edit] Other media
In the Justice League animated series, Hawkgirl Shayera Hol described Thanagar as "a war-like world—there one must strike first or die".[1] The animated Thanagarians appear to have actual wings as part of their bodies.
In the episode "The Terror Beyond," it is learned that in ancient times, the people of Thanagar worshiped a pantheon of extradimensional entities known as The Great Old Ones. At that time, Thanagar was a hard world. Theirs was a primitive and savage culture; in return for offerings made to Ixthultu, the Old Ones leader, he gave them agriculture, mathmatics, and philosophy—the foundations of their entire culture. As they matured, however, the Thanagarians stopped worshipping them; modern Thanagarians bow down to no higher power. Their knowledge of the Great Old Ones was used in the creation of their personal weaponry. For this reason, their weapons (such as Hawkgirl's mace and Hro Talak's battle-axe) have mystical properties and can work against Green Lantern's power ring or Superman's invulnerability.
In the later episodes entitled "Starcrossed", an emissary of Thanagar, the army commander Hro Talak, declared to Earth that, "For generations, we on Thanagar have been locked in a bloody war with these monsters [the Gordanians, referred to as 'our mortal enemies']." It was revealed that Hawkgirl was actually not a policewoman sent through a wormhole as she had earlier claimed, but a lieutenant with the army.[2]
Ostensibly, Shayera's duty was to be ambassador to the Earth (similar in capacity to her fellow Leaguer Wonder Woman's role for Patriach's World and the Amazonian culture); she was to ensure mutual co-operation between Thanagar and Earth. Thus, she set up the alliance between the two planets when it seemed the Gordanians were about to invade the Earth.
The Thanagarian army claimed they would set up a planetary force field to help the inhabitants of Earth. After gaining the go-ahead and acceptance of world governments and the Justice League, they forcefully imposed martial law and stated they were establishing a garrison on Earth.
Lt. Hol believed that she was doing the best thing for Earth. However, not even she knew that the Thanagarians actually intended to build a hyper-space bypass network that they would use to assault the Gordanian homeworld. Hro Talak stated:
| For decades, the Gordanian homeworld has been protected behind an impregnable defensive line. But this chain of hyperspace bypasses will allow our armada to jump their defenses and make a direct assault on their empire. Earth is the last link in that chain. Once that chain is completed, we can attack and wipe out the Gordanian threat forever! |
Lt. Hol protested that "if we open a hole in hyperspace, it will destroy this entire planet!" To which Talak replied, "Sadly, yes. For Thanagar to live, Earth must die." At this point, Lt. Hol betrayed her homeworld to save her adopted homeworld, for which she was exiled and stripped of her rank. The Thanagarian military, under Cmdr. Talak's orders, retreated from Earth.
Justice League Unlimited showed that Hro Talak's task force returned too late to stop the main force of the Gordanian invasion. In a suicide mission, Talak carried out a kamikaze ramming attack, motivated by patriotism as in despair over his failed relationship with Hol.
Thanagar was completely conquered by the Gordanians, although an underground Resistance exists (such as the one on Korugar); the former army command operatives Paran Dul and Kragger mention having been part of it.
The Thanagarian response to their final fall appears to be a general consensus blaming the action of Shayera Hol. As a member of the Justice League's founding council, she admits her faults and justified her actions to the Justice League:
| I came to this planet as a patriot. I had a mission, and I carried it out. What I couldn’t know, was that I would come to care for the Earth, and her people. That I’d come to care for all of you. I’ve spent the last five years torn between my feelings and my duty. |
The final fate of Thanagar under Gordanian rule remains unknown.
