Hawkgirl 1

Real name: Sheira Saunders (contemporary), Chay-Ara (ancient)
Known relatives: Carter Hall (husband), Hector Hall (son), Hippolyta Hall (daughter in-law), Daniel Hall (grandson), Norda (godson), Kendra Sanders (grand neice), Nestor Sanders (uncle)
First appearance: Flash Comics #1, January 1940 (Flash Comics #24 marked her debut as Hawkgirl)
Team affiliation: Justice Society of America, later Justice League of America, All-Star Squadron, and now JSA
Occupation: Adventuress, news reporter, co-manager of Midway City Museum, supervisor to the Stonechat Museum in Louisiana
Hair color: black/red/brown
Eye color: brown
Residential area: currently St. Roch, Louisiana, previously New York City, New York, Midway City, Illinois

History:

One thousand years after Egypt, under rule of Vandal Savage in the guise of the Pharaoh Cheops, had built a line of the Great Pyramids, the country of Egypt had declined and its lower end taken over by the Hyksos and its cruel Pharaoh, who founded the Fifthteenth dynasty, and was assisted in his reign by the even crueler high priest, Hath-Set.

However, there was a rebellion led by prince Khufu Kha-Tarr, the latest in a long line of Hawk Avatars, aided by his true love, a Hyksos Noblewoman named Chay-Ara, who despised the cruelty of her own people.

Khufu and Chay-Ara worked out a plan to trick the Pharaoh by having Chay-Ara get captured by his troops, then Khufu staged an attack to make it look as if he was trying to kill her to prevent her from talking to the enemy, and was then captured as well. Chay then fed her captors counterintelligence, telling them that she no longer trusted Khufu after he tried to kill her, and then presented the Pharaoh with a rigged Ninth Metal harness, which he tried on without the wings, and vanished into the stratosphere, and fell to earth, killing himself. In the confusion, more rebels in Ninth Metal harnesses and wings moved in to attack, but Hath-Set ambushed and succeeded in mortally wounding Khufu with a Crystal Dagger before being felled by the rebel archers. Hath-Set cursed Khufu before he died, telling him that they would one day meet again in reincarnated form. Khufu died of his wounds shortly afterwards, and Chay-Ara died during that time as well.

Until then, after he had, quite by a fluke, obtained the Crystal Dagger that had ended his life as Khufu, Carter Hall had a dream that reawakened him to his past incarnation and Egyptian origins. Then, even more luckily, he ran into Sheira Saunders, a journalist for the Sentinel newspaper in the city, and discovered that she was indeed the reincarnation of Chay-Ara, and tried to convince her of what she'd been centuries too.

However, their conversation was interrupted by a power blackout caused by the evil Dr. Anton Hastor, who in this case was the reincarnation of the evil priest Hath-Set, now a modern-day criminal who demanded that the city surrender to his rule. Knowing that he must take action, Carter Hall decided to put the Ninth Metal to use, fitting together a costume with both that and some wings, and prepared to take on Hastor. The two old foes soon recognized each other and a battle ensued between them, and Hall won. Hastor was seemingly killed, but survived and would try again on various occasions to strike at his archnemesis. As for Hall, he decided to continue a career as a masked crimefighter, taking on the name of Hawkman, and becoming one of the growing community of superheroes in the DCU. And Sheira would eventually come to realize her having been Chay-Ara in ancient times, and she and Carter later fell in love again. She would eventully design herself her own outfit as Hawkgirl, joining Carter on many exciting adventures together. This proved very effective when, during one adventure with the JSA, Hawkman and the rest of the JSA, save Wonder Woman, were taken hostage by Brainwave, and Sheira and the other women close to the JSA were united to free them. When the Justice Society disbanded, Hawkman used a teleportation device built by Paran, who'd revealed his identity by that time and had given Hawkman the machine as a present, to transport them from the HUAC meeting. He retired, as did many of his fellow team members from then, and then married Sheira.

Both Sheira and Carter were kept young as a side effect of the magical energies of the sorceror Ian Karkull, and continued later in life to work as archaeologists. They bore a son together, Hector, who later joined Infinity Inc. as the Silver Scarab, and today has become the new Dr. Fate. They became the godparents of Norda, the son of a winged Fietheran and a human, whom they often took Hector to see when visiting Fiethera.

Some time after the futuristic hero called Waverider rescued the JSA from limbo that they were in when stuck in a time warp, during the Armageddon crossover, so Sheira and Carter ended up meeting Katar Hol and Shayera Thal, the Hawkman and Hawkwoman who succeeded them in their own roles. Sheira too would subsequently take up the Hawkwoman codename, making her the third to go by that name following her having originated as Hawkgirl in the yesteryear.

During Zero Hour, Carter, Katar, and Sheira were physically fused into one being(it sounds pretty weird, doesn't it?). This being was patterned on Katar's body and persona, but also enabled him to physically sprout wings and didn't need a Ninth Metal armor costume, as a result. Within him then were the spirits of combined Hawk Avatars, including Sheira's and Carter's.

Thanks to this, they were trapped in the Hawkgod dimension for a time. But when Kendra Saunders died at the age of seventeen(?), Sheira's spirit would be incarnated into Kendra's body and return to life.

Historical facts

Hawkgirl was probably the first female take on a role originated by a male superhero in her time, and in her costume and wings, she was simply a knockout.

When Superman made the scene in Metropolis and began a new heroic age, the Justice Society members were content to remain retired then and let the Justice League continue to lead in the spotlight. Things changed though when Vandal Savage once again reared his ugly head, capturing several members of the JSA, including Hawkman, and were saved by first and second Flashes Jay Garrick and Barry Allen. Carter and Sheira subsequently joined the Justice League as liasions to the younger heroes.

Just like her lover, Hawkgirl could fly at great speed by means of her artificial wings and Ninth Metal antigravity belt. The antigravity belt also enables her to lift enormous weights aloft. She wields ancient and medieval weapons from both hers and her husband's extensive collection in battle. Sheira is a superb hand-to-hand combatant. She retains unusual physical vitality thanks to having absorbed temporal energy from the villianous Ian Karkull decades ago.

When she was reincarnated in her grandneice's body, Speed Saunders realized this because her brown eye color had taken over for Kendra's originally green one.

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