Hank Hall
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Hank Hall is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe who first appeared in Showcase #75 as Hawk of Hawk and Dove. He later became the supervillain Monarch in the crossover event limited series Armageddon 2001. He later became known as Extant, and appeared in the Zero Hour limited series (as well as some related tie-ins).
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Hawk and Dove
Hank Hall was originally the superhero Hawk, of Hawk and Dove. Hawk represented "chaos", while Dove represented "order." His brother, Don Hall, the original Dove, died during Crisis on Infinite Earths. Don was replaced with Dawn Granger, who mysteriously acquired her powers in London.
[edit] Armageddon 2001: Monarch
Monarch was an oppressive tyrant from a bleak, dystopian Earth fifty years in the future. The people were unhappy with his rule, particularly a scientist named Matthew Ryder, an expert on temporal studies, who was convinced he could use his technology to travel back in time and prevent the maniacal ruler from ever coming to power. He learned that forty years ago, one of Earth's heroes would eventually turn evil and become Monarch, and ten years from that would conquer the world.
[edit] Armageddon: The Alien Agenda
When hostile aliens encounter Monarch and Atom in the past (sometime between 230 and 65 million years ago), they attempt to enlist both (without either's knowledge) to assist them in creating a wormhole. The wormhole's creation would destroy the universe in which the primitive Earth existed, but would allow the aliens to travel freely.
[edit] Zero Hour: Extant
Shortly after returning to the present, Monarch confronted Waverider and absorbed most of his time-warping abilities, giving him the power to travel through time as he pleased. Calling himself Extant, he joined forces with renegade Green Lantern Hal Jordan, now known as Parallax, in a plan to alter time as they saw fit (as seen in Zero Hour).
His first act was to alter the future so that he could have a meta-human army at his disposal, mostly consisting of members of the Teen Titans; his plan was to amass an army so powerful that no one could interfere with his efforts to control time itself. Several heroes banded together to stop his plans before they began in the 30th century, and altered history so that his followers never came to exist in the future.
Down, but not out, Extant began to strike back at the heroes at Ground Zero, the beginning of time. Parallax had warped several meta-humans from various time periods together for the ultimate assault, and Extant hit the Atom with a chronal blast, de-aging him into a teenager. Sensing defeat was imminent, he escaped the fight, only to engage the Justice Society on a later date where, following another setback, he again attempted to escape. Instead, Extant was teleported (by Hourman and Metron of the New Gods at Atom-Smasher's behest) into the seat of an airplane whose crash Kobra had caused earlier (in his relative timestream). As a result of this, Atom-Smasher's mother was saved; she was on the plane when it crashed, but Atom Smasher replaced his mother with a weakened Extant, saving her life but murdering the supervillain. Extant is believed to have died as a result, and, indeed, his appearance as a zombie in Teen Titans #31 (2006) (alongside his brother, Don) would seem to confirm his death. However, as a time traveller, this doesn't preclude further appearances of Hank Hall, because many versions of him still exist throughout the timestream.
[edit] Extreme Justice: Captain Atom
In the Justice League spinoff, Extreme Justice, a new version of Monarch was introduced, but he now had the identity of Nathaniel Adam, better known as Captain Atom. He revealed that Captain Atom was actually a copy of him, created as a side-effect of the process that trapped him in the timestream.
[edit] Powers
Whether he is Monarch or Extant, Hank Hall possesses the same superpowers: enhanced strength and speed. Without his partner Dove to suppress his violent nature, his rage is boundless. His armor, crafted using advanced technology, is highly durable. After becoming Extant, he absorbed the powers of Waverider, giving him the ability to travel through time, control time and become nigh-omniscient.
[edit] Monarch origin retcons
- In order to explain why the irrational Hawk had become the evil but rational Monarch, some issues of Showcase revealed that a portion of Dove's ordered and rational soul had fused within Hank. This led to his change into Extant.
- A second retcon, shown in JSA, revealed that Hall was possessed by Mordru, but when Mordru left Hank's body, he had already been corrupted and become evil.
