Hawkman 1

Real name: Carter Hall (contemporary), Prince Khufu Kha-Tarr (ancient)

Known relatives: Sheira Sanders-Hall (wife), Hector Hall (son), Hippolyta Hall (daughter in-law), Daniel Hall (grandson), Norda (godson), Kendra Saunders (grand neice)
First appearance: Flash Comics #1, January 1940
Team affiliation: Justice Society of America, later Justice League of America, All-Star Squadron
Occupation: Archaeologist, adventurer, former curator of Midway City Museum, current exhibition supervisor for Stonechat Museum in St. Roch.
Hair color: Blond/Brown (may have once dyed it black, in today's continuity)
Eye color: Blue
Residential area: Saint 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's means of flight was a special harness called the Ninth Metal, with which he fashioned a special harness that, when charged with crude electrical cells, enabled him to levitate, and made a pair of special wings with which to help control his flight better. He got the harness as a gift from the Hawk God Horus, another mythological god in his own right.

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-Ara 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 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.

Khufu would undergo many incarnations over the centuries, and at the beginning of the 20th century, was reincarnated as Carter Hall, and grew up to be a wealthy archaeologist in New York City who took facination in anti-gravity, and also in the Ninth Metal used by the ancient Egyptians.

In the 1930's, Carter Hall befriended Perry Carter, another researcher, little knowing that the latter was actually a Thanagarian who'd been assigned to work as an invasion scout on earth. He was probably the greatest born Thanagarian due to his facination in anti-gravity, which inspired him to invest a lot in studying biology, alchemy, metallurgy, and sorcery to discover what the secrets were, and this is what led to his finding out how the Ninth Metal could work. He also wondered what Hall could do with some of his own metal alloy, and substituted some of it in Hall's experiments to see what he could do with it, though it was awhile before he actually did.

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 before 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. He became a big success in New York, and took part in fighting the Nazi invasion fleet threatening England when recruited by Doctor Fate/Kent Nelson, along with several other superheroes of the time, including the Spectre. With their success, the US president suggested they form a team, and so came to be the Justice Society of America, for whom Hall was elected as the first chairman. He was also for a long time the longest serving chairperson for a team and a fully active member, and was also active in the All-Star Squadron years later. leading a great career as an adventurer that took him to place like the hidden city of Fiethera in Greenland and plenty of forgotten archeological digs. He was soon joined by Sheira, who took up a similar career as Hawkgirl. 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.

The magical energies of the sorceror Ian Karkull kept Hawkman and Hawkgirl looking young for many years, and they continued to work as archeologists for many years. They later had a son, Hector Hall, who first began a crimefighing career with the superhero team Infinity Inc. as the Silver Scarab, and is today the new Dr. Fate, replacing Kent Nelson in the role.

Historical facts

When Hawkman first debuted, he was portrayed as a figure of dread, and certainly quite a brave and fierce fighter indeed.

During the late 1980's, when several members of the Justice Society/All-Star Squadron, including Hawkman, went on a time travelling mission to fight against a demonic nazi sceme years before, they ended up being stuck in a time warp, fighting the same battle over and over again, and it was only after the Armageddon crossover that they were finally rescued, and the 8-part miniseries of the Justice Society was published in 1991 to focus on their return.

When the fourth Hawkman series was launched in 2002, writers James Robinson and Geoff Johns thought to explore the idea of the Winged Warriors having many reincarnations and lives throughout the centuries, and the first collection in trade paperback, Hawkman: Endless Flight, features some of that for starters.

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