Carter Hall (comics)

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Carter Hall is a DC Comics superhero, the original Hawkman. Created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, he first appeared in Flash Comics # 1 (Jan 1940). The history of this character is a somewhat confusing, due mainly to the fact that his origins were retroactively changed with the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series and Hawkworld second/ongoing series. As a result, there are two separate origins for Carter Hall: the Golden Age origin and the Post-Crisis (or current) origin. Both are examined below.

Contents

1 Character history

1.1 Golden Age origin
1.2 Post-''Crisis'' origin

1.2.1 Reincarnations
1.2.2 From Khufu to Carter Hall
1.2.3 Alive again
1.2.4 Following adventures

2 Powers and abilities
3 See also

Character history

Golden Age origin

In the days of ancient Egypt, Prince Khufu was engaged in a feud with his rival the Egyptian priest Hath-Set. The priest eventually captured both Khufu and his consort Chay-Ara, and killed them. Millennia later, in 1940, Khufu was reincarnated as American archaeologist Carter Hall, and Chay-Ara as Shiera Sanders. Hath-Set himself was reincarnated as a scientist named Anton Hastor. Hastor turned to evil, while Hall regained his memories of his past life and recognized Hastor.

Using the properties of "ninth metal" to craft a gravity-defying belt, Hall created wings and a costume and confronted Hastor as Hawkman. He also encountered and remembered Shiera during this time, and following Hastor's defeat the two began a romance.

Hawkman was a charter member of the Justice Society of America, and became their permanent chairman, following the Flash and Green Lantern. Shiera, meanwhile, adopted the identity of Hawkgirl and fought beside Hall throughout the 1940s.

Hawkman was JSA chairman in 1951 when the team was investigated by the "Joint Congressional Un-American Activities Committee" (based on the real-life House Un-American Activities Committee) for possible communist sympathies and asked to reveal their identities. The heroes declined, and Hawkman and most of the JSA retired for the bulk of the 1950s.

The JSA and Hawkman reactivated in the early 1960s following the Flash's meeting with his counterpart on the parallel world Earth-1, the JSA being active on Earth-2. Around this time, the Halls, having married, had a son, Hector, who would later become the Silver Scarab and after that an incarnation of Doctor Fate. Little is known of Hawkman's activities during the 1960s, other than the JSA's annual meeting with Earth-1's Justice League of America.

In the early 1980s, Hawkman was instrumental in denying his son and other JSA children membership in the JSA, leading directly to the formation of Infinity, Inc.

Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, some of Hall's history was retconned when the parallel worlds were combined into one, but one piece of retroactive continuity was written before Crisis and fills out early Hall history: All-Star Squadron Annual #3 states that during a JSA battle against Ian Karkull, the villain imbued them with energy which retarded their aging, allowing Hall and many others - as well as their spouses - to remain active into the late 20th century without infirmity.

Post-Crisis origin

Prince Khufu lived during the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt. From birth, he knew that his life would be different from those around him. Khufu believed that his ka, or soul, would not journey on to the land of the afterlife following his death. Rather, his soul and that of his betrothed, Chay-Ara, were fated to remain in the mortal world. Through the guidance of the wizard Nabu, Khufu prepared for this eventuality.

As prophesized by Nabu, a space ship landed in Egypt. Prince Khufu traveled across the desert in the company of Nabu and the hero Teth-Adam in search of the wreakage. Finally, they came across the remains of a Thanagarian ship. The vessel was styled with a hawk-like motif and contained two individuals inside. Nabu cast a spell so that the group could understand the strange language of the female space traveler. She whispered the name of a terrible evil, Gorann Synn, and, just before dying, uttered the words, "Nth Metal," the name of the substance that powered the downed shipped. As Khufu would soon find out, however, Nth metal would also prove to have many other incredible qualities.

Teth-Adam lifted the ship back to Khufu's palace, where it was placed inside the Temple of Horus at Erdu to be studied. The remaining Nth metal was examined, and it's most obvious property proved to be its ability to negate gravity. The remaining sample from the ship was melted and used to create several remarkable devices, including a scarab which allowed Khufu to fly, a deadly knife, and a battle glove referred to as the Claw of Horus. However, the metal also strengthened the souls of Khufu and Chay-Ara, binding them together in their love and fulfilling the prophosey of Khufu's restless soul. Although the villainous priest Hath-Set murdered the two with the Nth metal knife, their souls lived on in the mortal plane. They were reincarnated over many lifetimes, always finding true love in each other yet repeatedly killed at the hands of a reincarnated Hath-Set.

Reincarnations

After his death, Khufu's soul was reincarnated countless times in markedly different eras and locations. Some of his known reincarnated identites include:

Brian Kent (also known as the Silent Knight), alive during 5th century Britain;
Koenrad Von Grimm, the son of a blacksmith in 14th century Germany;
Captain John Smith of the 16th century English colony in Virgina;
Hannibal Hawkes, the Nighthawk, a gun-fighter in the American Old West;
Detective James Wright, a private eye in the early 20th century (perhaps directly preceding his rebirth as Carter Hall).

From Khufu to Carter Hall

Eventually, the soul of Prince Khufu was reborn as Carter Hall, an archaeologist active during the 1940's. After regaining the memories of his first life in Egypt, Hall used the hawk motif of the Egyptian God Horus to inspire his role as the original Hawkman. During the same period, his love Chay-Ara was reborn as another archaeologist, Shiera Hall. After they met, she became Hawkgirl and the two fought crime as a pair. They became founding members of the Justice Society of America, and Hawkman even became chairman of the team. The pair reduced their activities in the early 1950's but became fully active again in the early 1980's when Hall briefly joined the Justice League of America. Just following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hawkman and the JSA became embroiled in a battle in an ever-repeating Ragnarok.

Years after they vanished, Hawkman and the JSA returned to the modern day when a primitive superpowered tribe volunteered to substitute for the team in the Ragnarok cycle, allowing the team to return to Earth. Soon after, however, Carter would find death again during the events of Zero Hour. He and his wife Shiera merged with Katar Hol in a new version of Hawkman, which briefly created the "hawk god" creature. This individual adventured for a brief time but later went insane and was banished to limbo.

Alive again

Years later in a mystical ceremony on Thanagar -- where the JSA had travelled to learn the truth of the Thanagarian ship which had crashed in ancient Egypt -- Carter Hall was reborn as his youthful self from the 1940s, except with brown hair instead of blond. Following this unorthodox resurrection, Hall has all the memories of his past lives, as well as those of Katar Hol, and find this a great burden to bear. Moreover, he has had trouble accepting that the new Hawkgirl, Kendra Saunders, is not his beloved Shiera, a source of friction between them despite their working partnership as Hawkman and Hawkgirl II.

Hall once again became member of the JSA, and operated out of the fictional city of St. Roch, Louisiana (clearly based on New Orleans).

Following adventures

Hawkman (Vol. 4) #45, art by Joe Bennett.

In the Hawkman vol.4 issues leading into the Rann-Thanagar War, a group of Silver Age Hawkman villains went to St. Roch and drugged Hawkman with a hallucinogen called Delirium. While under the drug's effects, he beat Hawkgirl within inches of her life. Wracked with grief, he and Charley Parker, the Golden Eagle — who had recently returned to the city - went out to find the villains but were lured into a trap. In the ensuing battle, Hall was seemingly slain. Parker then became Hawkman IV, vowing revenge and claiming to be the "true" Hawkman's son (he considered Hall a "false Hawkman"). He rebuilt a Thanagarian ship using blueprints encoded in his armor, and asked Hawkgirl to follow him to Thanagar. When she refused both his proposal and sexual advances, Parker beat her and revealed the truth regarding his relationship with Hawkman, declaring himself a true Thanagarian Hawkman.

He was intent on killing Kendra, thinking of replacing her with a Thanagarian maiden when Carter Hall surprisingly returned for a final showdown with his former protégé. He had faked his death with the aid of his son, Hector (Dr. Fate), and when the time was ripe he returned to stop Parker's plans.

Over the course of this battle, many facts were revealed regarding the connection between the two battling Hawkmen. The most important: that Parker is the son of Fel Andar and plus, that he was the one responsible for orchestrating the "death" of Hall to bring about retribution for his father's fate.

As stated in Hawkman # 45, Fel Andar (Hawkman II) was considered a traitor by his former comrades. He was spared a life sentence, but was condemned to life imprisonment on Thanagar - although he has escaped twice to reach his son on Earth.

Hall defeated Parker and, after sending his bloody foe - along with a recording of his confessions - to Thanagar, he then began to restore his relationship with both Kendra and the JSA.

In the One Year Later storyline, much has happened since the Rann-Thanagar War. In fact, Hawkman v.4 has been changed to Hawkgirl at issue #50. Hawkman has disappeared, and Hawkgirl is left by herself to patrol and protect St. Roch. It is implied in issue #50 that Carter's death is not confirmed. In fact, his teaching position remains open in case of his return, but no clue has yet been given as to his exact whereabouts.

Powers and abilities

Hawkman, an expert warrior, especially with archaic weapons.

Hall uses Nth Metal to defy gravity. The metal is in his costume's belt and boots, and its abilities are controlled mentally. His wings allow him to control flight, though they can be "flapped" through use of shoulder motions.

The Nth metal also enhances strength, speeds healing, and regulates body temperatue, preventing the need for heavy protective clothing while flying at high altitudes.

Hall has also demonstrated extremely keen eye-sight, observing objects at great distances or at speeds faster than can be perceived by the normal eye. It is assumed that this is an effect of the Nth metal.

Due to his multiple incarnations, Khufu/Hall has become proficient in many ancient weapons. As a result, he is an expert with the archaic weaponry from his past lives - particularly maces, nets, spears and shields.

Due to his many lives and vast amount of experience, Hall is a brilliant tactician, fierce warrior, and strong leader. At the same time, however, he is extremely intelligent (considered a leader in his field of history and archaeology) and expresses a deeply romantic side in relation to his beloved soul-mate. Often, Carter finds it difficult to balance between the "barbarian" of his past lives and the "gentleman" of his current incarnation.