Thanagar

Thanagar is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe.

Thanagar was the original home of the humanoid Thanagarian race, noted for the discovery of gravity defying Nth Metal. The planet is in orbit around the star Polaris.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Pre-Crisis
1.2 Post-Crisis
1.3 Infinite Crisis

2 Other media

History

Pre-Crisis

In pre-Crisis history, Thanagar was a peaceful scientifically-advanced world, in which crime was virtually unknown. It was run by a single government and there wasn't any need for a police force. That is until an alien race called the Manhawks, who instigate the practice of stealing for the thrill of it, invaded. As a result Paran Katar established the "Hawk-Police" (or "Wingmen") and order was restored, not completely however since a few Thanagarians taken up the idea of thrill-stealing. Amongst the first Wingmen was Paran's son, Katar Hol.

Katar and his wife Shayera Hol, also a member of the force, later arrived on Earth pursuing a shapeshifting villain named Byth, and decided to remain, and study human police methods. They became superheroes as Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

Following a plague, Thanagar entered an expansionist phase, and began a war with Rann. This was eventually resolved, but Thanagar made several covert attempts to take over Earth. Katar and Shayera sided with Earth in this conflict. The Shadow War of Hawkman continued up to the Crisis.

Post-Crisis

In Post-Crisis history, established in Timothy Truman's Hawkworld miniseries, Thanagar was portrayed as already being an expansionist planet which plundered other worlds, and the Hawk-Police became corrupted. Thanagarian noble classes used to live in floating cities, with aliens in the "Downside" ghettos. Before his untimely death Paran provided covert humanitarian aid to the denizens of Downside.

Thanagar was one of the planets which united to invade Earth in the Invasion! storyline. Prior to the invasion, a Thangarian agent was sent to Earth and posed as a new Hawkman.

As in the original history, Katar Hol and Shayera Thal came to Earth in pursuit of Byth, now a corrupt Wingman, and remained to establish a relationship between the two planets. The media dubbed them as Hawkman and Hawkwoman, due to their similarity to the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Thanagar later developed the Elite Hawkmen Force, an elite squad of Wingmen. The planetary government continued to be expansionist and corrupt, and eventually Hawkman and Hawkwoman claimed sanctuary on Earth.

Thanagar's government was subsequently overthrown by Onimar Synn, who had taken control of Nth Metal. He was defeated by a resurrected Hawkman, but returned in the Rann-Thanagar War.

Infinite Crisis

In the Rann-Thanagar War miniseries, part of Infinite Crisis, the planet was destroyed after the leader of a rogue group of Thanagarians, during a battle with Adam Strange, teleported the planet Rann to the Thanagarian system, hoping to create a dictatorship between the two worlds. At first it was believed that the sudden appearance of Rann caused Thanagar's orbit to change and it passed to close to that system's sun. A large number of Thanagarian refugees fled to Rann and a war began between them and the Rann.

During a battle between the factions, the forces of Rann and Thanagar were faced with a fracture in space that resembles those that were seen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Tigorr of the Omega Men later discovered a stray Thanagarian surveillance satellite, which had documented footage of Superboy forcing Thanagar out of orbit. Though the satellite was soon lost in the chaotic environment, Adam Strange gathered the heads of each faction so that they might stop fighting amongst themselves and work together against the new cosmic threat. On the barren surface of Thanagar, he soon found the evidence to convince all the warring groups: handprints deep within an enormous crater, created by Superboy's interference. L.E.G.I.O.N., Thanagar, Rann and New Cronus combined their forces to make a full assault on the force behind the rift, with Ion in the lead.

Green Lantern Corps members Kilowog and Hal Jordan later terraformed Thanagar making it again suitable for habitation.

Thanagarian weaponry has recently begun appearing on Earth, smuggled by the Secret Society of Super Villians

Other media

In the Justice League animated series, Thanagar is described by Hawkgirl Shayera Hol as

My home, Thanagar, is a war-like world—there one must strike first or die. — Hawkgirl to Superman in Secret Origins

Later, in the cataclysmic Starcrossed, an emissary of Thanagar — the army commander Hro Talak — declared to Earth that "For generations, we on Thanagar have been locked in a bloody war with these monsters [the Gordanians, referred to as 'our mortal enemies']."

It was revealed that Hawkgirl was actually not a policewoman sent through a wormhole, as she had earlier claimed, but a lieutenant with the army ("Five years ago, we secretly sent an advance agent to Earth to learn more about your people and to study your defences. That agent was Lieutenant Shayera Hol, better known to you as Hawkgirl." — Hro Talak).

Ostensibly Shayera's duty was to be ambassador to the Earth (similar in capacity to her fellow Leaguer Wonder Woman's role for Patriach's World and the Amazonian culture); she was to ensure mutual co-operation between Thanagar and Earth. Thus, she set up the alliance between the two planets when it seemed the Gordanians were about to invade the Earth as well.

The Thanagarian army claimed they would set up a planetary force field to help the inhabitants of Earth; after gaining the go-ahead and acceptance of world governments and the Justice League, they then forcefully imposed martial law and stated they were actually establishing a garrison on Earth.

Lt. Hol believed that she was doing the best thing for Earth; however, not even she knew that the actual plan. The Thanagarians intended to build a hyper-space bypass (q.v. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) network that they would use to assault the Gordanian homeworld: to quote Hro Talak, "For decades, the Gordanian homeworld has been protected behind an impregnable defensive line. But this chain of hyperspace bypasses will allow our armada to jump their defences and make a direct assault on their empire. Earth is the last link in that chain. Once that chain is completed, we can attack and wipe out the Gordanian threat forever!"

Lt. Hol protested that "if we open a hole in hyperspace, it will destroy this entire planet!" To which Talak replied, "Sadly, yes. For Thanagar to live, Earth must die."

At this point, Lt. Hol betrayed her nation to save her adopted homeworld, for which she was exiled and stripped of her rank. The Thanagarian military, under Cmdr. Talak's orders, pulled out from Earth.

Justice League Unlimited showed that the bulk of the Thanagarian army returned too late to stop the main force of the Gordanian invasion. In a suicide mission, Talak committed kamikaze out of patriotism as well as despair over his failed relationship with Lt. Hol.

Thanagar was completely conquered by the Gordanians, although an underground Resistance exists (such as the one on Korugar); the former army command operatives Paran Dul and Kragger mention having been part of it.

The Thanagarian response to their final fall appears to be a general consensus blaming the action of Shayera Hol. She herself – now a member of the Justice League Unlimited, on the founding council – admits her faults, and justified her actions to the Justice League as: "I came to this planet as a patriot. I had a mission, and I carried it out. What I couldn’t know, was that I would come to care for the Earth, and her people. That I’d come to care for all of you. I’ve spent the last five years torn between my feelings and my duty."

The final fate of Thanagar under Gordanian rule remains unknown.

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