Circling the Coop…
With the spotlight currently on DC’s Hawkman franchise, engulfed by
the events of the Black Reign weekly crossover with its sister-title
the JSA, its the perfect time to step back and explore the many lives
of DC’s avian gladiator(s).
For the unitiated, Black Reign pits DC’s “current” Hawkman and the JSA against a team resembling Infinity Inc. – the “junior JSA” team from the 1980s made up of their children and godchildren – lead in 2004 by Black Adam of Shazam infamy. 411 has reviewed the first four (of six) parts of this weekly arc, which you can access by clicking on the following issues: JSA #56, Hawkman #23, JSA #57, and Hawkman #24. Part 5, JSA #58, ships this week, with the final chapter shipping next week with Hawkman #25. That issue also marks the end of the tenure of the current Hawkman creative team – 411’s “Best Writer of 2003” Geoff Johns and sizzling DC artist Rags Morales. Johns’ will still helm JSA, among his other DC offerings, while Rags’ next pencilling gig is the mega-hyped 2004 DC “event” called Identity Crisis – written by hot journeyman writer Brad Meltzer.
Pre-Flight Check
Two years after Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 and ushered in the Golden Age of the comics industry, DC’s winged barbarian debuted in the pages of 1940’s Flash Comics #1 – sharing the spotlight with the title’s namesake, the vintage Flash and the first Johnny Thunder. The original Hawkman was in actuality millionaire archeologist Carter Hall, also an avid collector of weapons and dabbler in science – creating a “Ninth Metal” that could “resist the pull of gravity”. Carter, as it would turn out, was also a reincarnated Egyptian Prince named Khufu. This revelation, a little tamer than Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl “reveal” – came to Carter after he touched a mysterious crystal dagger that was gifted to him and fell in a trance.
During his “earlier life” in Egypt, the trance revealed, that he’d been at odds with Hath-Set, a high priest of Anubis – the jackal god and Egypt’s god of death. Escaping the clutches of his foil, Khufu sought out
his lady-love Shiera, but upon finding her was wounded and captured by Hath-Set. They were both sacrified to Anubis, killed using the crystal blade, but not before Khufu promised revenge with his dying breath.
As comics “coincidences” go, Carter Hall awoke from his truth-revealing trance and “bumped” into his reincarnated lover Shiera (Sanders) after being drawn to a commotion at a subway station being frantically evacuated and showered with electricity. The reunited time-lossed lovers investigated and, in another “coincidence”, discovered that the reincarnated Hath-Set, in the form of a Dr. Hastor, was responsible for the dangerous electrical surges – Hastor had invented a monstorous lightning machine to, as many villains at the time sought to do, conquer and rule the world!
A Hawkman Hatches
Hall, donning a harness made of his gravity defying metal and sporting a hawk head and wings, tracked Hastor to his lab and foiled his plans, but not before the villain escaped. Hastor captured Shiera in retaliation and attempted to sacrifice her to Anubis, but this new “Hawkman” swooped down upon Hastor and dispatched him with a crossbow, saving Shiera and the day.
Interestingly, Hawkman donned his costume as a “grim jest, (in) the guise of the ancient hawk-god Anubis”. However, as stated, Anubis was the jackal god, not hawkgod. While this was likely an editorial error, some continuity revisionists would site a cloudy memory by Carter as the reason for the gaffe as he had only then learned of his Egyptian “heritage”. Also, a running theme of Hawkman’s Golden Age adventures would be his use of various weapons from his personal collection as the means of dispatching the villain de jour.
Hawkman was also a charter member of the Justice Society of America – the first super-team ever – that debuted in the pages of All-Star Comics #3, a few months after his own debut. He flew with the JSA and also, with Hawkgirl, was a steady presence in Flash Comics until its end in 1949. Hawkman’s last Golden Age appearance was in the pages of All-Star Comics in 1951. Times had changed and tastes were different. Super-heroes were no longer cool or cutting-edge. The industry’s Golden Age was tarnished and came to an end.
The Silver Hawks Cometh
1956’s Showcase #4 ushered in a new Silver Age in the comics industry with the debut of a new Scarlet Speedster recognizable as “the Flash” in name only. This new hero was so popular, that many Golden Age heroes were reconstituted – a new Hawkman was part of this renaissance.
The Brave and the Bold #34 introduced readers to a new Hawkman and Hawkgirl in 1961. This incarnation of the heroic legacy of an earlier time was grounded more solidly in the science fiction genre. Katar Hol and his wife Shayera Thal were aliens from a peaceful planet called Thanagar.
The hawk-garb, while reminscient of their Golden Age counterparts, had a very different origin. The wings, and anti-gravity belt (made of an alloy later dubbed “Nth metal” [not “ninth metal” like in the Golden Age]) were creations of Katar’s father Paran Katar and intended to aid in the study of birds. However, the threat of the Manhawks soon fell upon Thanagar, and Katar donned a protective hawk helmet, wore the wings and belt created by his father, and engaged the Manhawks head-on with his fellow Thanagarains. The Manhawks were vanquished, but crime became rampant on this once peaceful planet necessitating the creation of a police force. This crime-fighters would assume the hawk-garb as an homage to Paran Katar, although the ant-gravity belt was the most functional of the “uniform”.
Midway City Blue
Katar Hol became to most decorated Thanagarian police officer. He was teamed with a junior officer named Shayera Thal, who he at first chided for a lack of experience, but soon fell in love with after their successful capture of the villains dubbed the Rainbow Robbers. They later married and were assigned to travel to Earth in the pursuit and capture of Byth Rok, a Thanagarian thief and former police commander. He, among his many crimes, stole and ingested a “metamorphosis pill” that grants him the ability to transform into any animal, large or small. Byth used this new power to flee Thanagar.
Hawkman and Hawkwoman, using weapons borrowed from a museum, capture Byth, and remain on Earth to study law enforcement practices. They befriended Midway City police head George Emmett who furnished them with the “secret identities” of museum curators Carter and Shiera Hall (the same names as their Golden Age contemporaries).
The Hawks appeared in subsequent issues of Brave and the Bold in 1961 and 1962, as well as stint in Mystery in Space during 1963 and a same-year Hawkman team-up with the Silver Age Atom in that hero’s self-titled series in issue #7. Hawkman got his own series in 1964 that ended 27 issues and four years later. However, in 1968, the Atom’s solo series became a team-up book with Hawkman. Continuing the numbering of the Atom series, The Atom and Hawkman #39 debuted and lasted only a few issues, ending with #45. This Hawkman would also continue to play a minor role in the Justice League of America – an homage team to the JSA comprised of many of the refurbished Silver Age’s Golden Age namesakes. Hawkgirl would join the ranks of the JLA later.
Flying Between Worlds
The worlds of the Silver and Golden Ages first subtly crashed into one another in the pages of 1961’s Flash #123 and the meeting between the Flashes – Jay Garrick and Barry Allen. The Silver Age Flash / Barry Allen accidentally bridged the “vibrational barrier” of his Earth and a neighboring Earth, coming face-to-face with his comic-book-hero-turned-flesh Jay Garrick / the Golden Age Flash. The world that Barry had thought fictitious turned out to be a parallel Earth. So successful was this inter-Earth cross-over that many more followed in the pages of the Flash and later the JLA. Many heroes from the Golden Age residing on, a newly-named, Earth 2, would meet their Earth 1 / Silver Age counterparts over the coming years.
The Golden Age’s Hawkman would enter the Silver Age in the pages of 1963’s Flash #137 with the rest of the JSA in the Silver Age Flash’s battle with the immortal villain Vandal Savage. Although both Hawkmen appeared in 1970’s Justice League #82, I don’t recall that Carter Hall and his Silver Age namesake Katar Hol ever met in that issue or ever, unlike many of their contemporaries such as both Green Lanterns (who first met in 1965’s Green Lantern #40), both Atoms (who first met in 1967’s Atom #29), and a few others who met in other titles.
Bending Bird Cage Bars
The Silver Age / Earth 1 Hawkman continued to play a minor role in the DC Universe and particularly the JLA into the 1980’s and the ensuing Crisis that would engulf DC’s multiverse.
Over on Earth 2, as I’ve stated before… in 1979 ‘s Adventure Comics #466, it was also revealed that in 1951 the JSA was essentially forced into retirement during the proceedings of a U.S. Congressional Committee – for presumably engaging an agent from a hostile foreign power. The nature of the “engagement” was actually the foreign agent’s attempt to kill members of the JSA. Instead of unmasking to prove that they were “Good Americans”, Hawkman / Carter Hall, speaking for the JSA, refused – and the team,
literally, disappeared…
However, unlike his younger counterpart, the Golden Age / Earth 2 Hawkman evolved and influenced 2 titles that would debut a few years before the aforementioned Crisis took its toll on him.
Expanding the Nest
In 1981, DC retroactively introduced the All Star Squadron to DC’s Golden Age mythology of Earth 2. Essentially, in 1941, a year after the JSA initially formed, the U.S. President , Franklin D. Roosevelt, conscripted the JSA to “mobilize every one of this nation’s costumed heroes – men and women – into a single, super-powerful unit – a sort of All-Star Squadron”. This new team was formed in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and reported directly to the President. The first arc of the All Star Squadron series was quite faithful to the tone and spirit of the Golden Age. Hawkman played an important role in the life of that series and subsquently added to the depth of his retroactively enhanced Golden Age adventures and strengthened his leadership role in the JSA.
Infinity Inc., a team of second generation JSA’ers, debuted in the pages of the All-Star Squadron and launched their own self-titled series shortly thereafter. This team had formed from JSA-rejection – a few of the JSA’s children and god-children had tried-out for JSA membership, but were unsuccessful. They went off and formed their own team – two key members of which were “related” to Hawkman. His son, Hector Hall, had donned the mantle of the Silver Scarab and was the leader of this new “junior JSA”, while Hawkman’s godson, the half-Feitherian, half-human Norda Cantrell, assumed the nom de guerre of Northwind and also joined. For those keeping score, the Feitherian bird-people race debuted in 1946’s Flash Comics #71.
The Crisis on Infinite Earths was the mega-event of 1985 that saw many of DC’s multiple Earths destroyed, leaving only one Earth in its wake. On this sole world the Golden Age Hawkman, the JSA, and the All-Star Squadron all occupied a part in Earth’s past, while the JLA and Infinity Inc. were very much a part of the present.
Fading Away… Literally
However, interestingly, as I’ve previously stated… In 1986’s the Last Days of The Justice Society of America, the presumably final tale of the JSA was chronicled. In it, many of the now elderly JSAers were conscripted to foil an insidious plot by Adolf Hitler – in a timeline that had been rewritten somehow and chronicled the success of Hitler and Earth’s premature destruction. That revisionist history’s wasteland world was tearing reality asunder and threatened to supplant the “new” post-Crisis Earth.
Dr. Fate transported himself and his fellow JSAers from the “modern age” back to 1945 to restore the timeline and ensure Hitler’s defeat. The JSA prevailed, but only by being transplanted to Limbo and engaging the mythological Norse fire-demon Surtur.
The battle to permanently stave off the end of the world would need to be waged for an eternity – thrusting a now virtually immortal JSA into a presumably never-ending battle with the Norse fire-lord.
The future of many of the JSA, including Hawkman / Carter Hall, did not look bright indeed. A never-ending battle to stave off the end of the world? There seemed to be no day of rest for DC’s Golden Age heroes. That would change many years later.
Post-Crisis… Crisis ?!?
In any event, this new post-Crisis world and the next fifteen years were not kind to its Hawkmen – particularly Katar Hol.
Tune in next time when Near Mint Memories tackles part 2 of Winged Migration looking at the post-Crisis continuity messes that engulfed the Hawkman franchise(s).
