The Confusing History of Hawkman - a podcast by MTR Network

%CODE_HAWKMAN%
We took a little break but we’re finally back with another Character Corner. We still have to finish up our Peter Parker series but we wanted to take a bit of a detour from Marvel and head over to DC and cover one of the most confusing comic book character histories ever: Hawkman.Now you may be asking yourself “Why Hawkman? Why now?” And that’s a very valid question. Why would we tackle one of the most confusing comic book characters of all time at this point? The answer is simple: Scott Snyder’s Dark Knights: Metal. Snyder wrote an incredible 52 issues of Batman during New 52 and he’s now back with a series that not only answers questions about Batman but also Hawkman, Nth Metal and the rest of the DC Multiverse. While it’s a daunting task to take on Hawkman’s history (one that rarely works out), Snyder definitely has our attention with the first issue of Metal, as well as the preludes Dark Days: The Forge and The Casting.

Carter Hall&the Golden Age

Hawkman starts off relatively simple. Carter Hall first appears in Flash Comics #1 in 1940 as an archaeologist. After finding and touching an ancient knife that Egyptian priest Hath-Set used to kill his past self, Hall regains his memories of his past life. He realizes he is the reincarnation of Egyptian Prince Khufu. He meets up with Shiera, a woman who reminds him of a woman he saw in his dreams as Khufu who he believes to be Princess Chay-Ara, his long lost love. Using the mysterious metal, Nth Metal, they form harnesses that give them the power of flight. Throughout the years Nth metal has taken on many different qualities, from powering the harnesses the Hawks wear grantingthem flight to increased strength, regeneration powers and more.

Silver Age Space CopThe Silver Age of DC comics brought us new versions of older Golden Age characters. Barry Allen replaces the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick. Hal Jordan becomes the new Green Lantern replacing Alan Scott. The same happens to Hawkman, except DC gets a bit weird. Instead of making an entire new and easily distinguishable character, Brave and the Bold #34 debuts Katar Hol as the new Hawkman. Katar is an alien law enforcement officer from the planet Thanagar. Even worse, Katar and his wife Shayara (they didn’t even try with the names) take on the names Carter Hall and Shiera Saunders as their human secret identities. Adding even more confusion, Silver Age Carter and Shiera also work as archaeologists in a museum. Thus marking the beginning of the confusing history of Hawkman. See, Crisis On Infinite Earths establishes that both Katar Hol (using the alias Carter Hall) and the original Golden Age Carter Hall exist and operate (even met a few times). So now readers have two different Carter Halls to keep track of. But don’t worry, it gets even worse and more confusing.

Hawkworld&Things Get Weird (well…weirder)



In 1989,  Tim Truman creates a three-issue miniseries called Hawkworld that seemingly retells the origin story of Katar Hol. The mini-series is later turned into an ongoing series written by John Ostrander. It’s a dark, gritty story that gives us the hard-nosed origin of the Thanagarian cop. It’s really good and a recommended read. There’s only one problem: Instead of making this story a simple retelling of Hol’s origin, DC decides that this story was IN canon and happening currently. Problem with that was there was already a Katar Hol running around who was a member of the Justice League International. To fix that, DC claims that the first Katar Hol was actually a deep cover Thanagarian Agent named Fel Andar who married Sharon Parker, an Earth woman who was later mind wiped to believe she was Hawkwoman.  Andar is later exposed and after killing Sharon, returns to Thanagar leaving behind their son Charlie to later cause Hawkman&Hawkgirl all kinds of problems (but now we’re getting ahead of ourselves).

Now having made a complete and utter mess of Hawkman’s history,

Further episodes of Character Corner - A Podcast on Your favorite Comic Book Characters

Further podcasts by MTR Network

Website of MTR Network