MattBrady
11-28-2002, 09:12 AM
So Hawkman has finally returned to the DC Universe in the pages of the most recent issues of JSA. If you've only been reading JSA, and don't have much of an idea of either what a big deal Hawkman's return to continuity is, or what a good job writers David Goyer and Geoff Johns did in pulling together all of the weird threads of Hawkman's past into one coherent ball, we've got some help for you.
Originally published last year and a website ago, the following article outlines Hawkman's convoluted past and the dangers inherent to any creator that wanted to touch him. Enjoy.
He’s flown from the loftiest heights only to have his wings clipped by muddled continuity and confusion. Yeah, if you’re looking for a character that perfectly shows the problems that not going with continuity can bring, there’s no one better than Hawkman.
“Honestly, Hawkman is the character we have collectively done the most disservice to,” says DC Executive Editor Mike Carlin. “Too many completely new starts just set the continuity on a spiraling tailspin. There was a wave of ‘rebooting’ that DC went through in the late eighties, and Hawkman unfortunately had the most ‘rebooting’ done with his character and mythos, so much that we just decided to give the character a rest, and to let the ‘radioactivity’ die down.”
As Carlin says, reboot after reboot –each seen as being good for the character – only served to further obfuscate his story. Reboots contradicted one another to some extent, resulting in the need for further fixes, which set up a vicious circle that finally resulted in Hawkman being shunt into limbo. The comic book equivalent of “We have no idea what to do with you.”
How did things get to this point? And more importantly, how are things going to be pulled back together when Hawkman returns in the pages of JSA? Read on – but be careful. If you’re prone to dizziness or shortness of breath when presented with confusing storylines, you may want to wear a helmet when reading.
Life Was Simpler With Two Earths
Okay, starting from the Golden Age and making our way up, Hawkman made his first appearance in Flash Comics #1 as Carter Hall, a wealthy scientist/history buff/playboy (depending on who you believe) that realized he was the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian Price Khufu when he picked up a Egyptian knife. Khufu was a reformer and do-gooder in Egypt, and pledged, as he was being murdered that he and his love, Shiera, would be reunited in another lifetime. Soon after, Carter met Shiera Sanders.
Unfortunately for the reunited lovers, the guy who killed them, Hath-Set was reincarnated as Dr. Anton Hastor, and planned to conquer the earth. Hall donned a pair of wings, a hawk-disguise (in honor of the Egyptian god Ra) and a belt made of “ninth metal” that had antigravity properties and went into battle. Shiera later became Hawkgirl, and the two fought crime together. Later they joined the JSA, and had a son (Hector, once the Silver Scarab, once dead, and now the current Dr. Fate). Simple, right? Compared to what’s coming up, it sure is.
When Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox and others were re-imagining Golden Age heroes, Hawkman got the same treatment as the Atom and the Flash – a new origin, based more in science and science fiction than fantasy and mythology. Debuting in Brave and the Bold #34, this new, Silver Age Hawkman was an alien by the name of Katar Hol, who went by the alias of Cater Hall while on earth. Hey – it was the Silver Age, okay?
This Hawkman could fly thanks to antigravity metal of his father’s design, and was a policeman on his homeworld of Thanagar – a virtual utopia. Katar was accompanied by Shayera Thal (you guessed it, Shiera Hall on earth), who went by the name Hawkwoman, as using “girl” in a character’s name was as accepted as it used to be. These Hawks joined the JLA and served with the likes of Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, etc.
Thanks to “The Flash of Two Worlds” in 1961’s Flash #123, the Golden Age Hawks were relegated to Earth-2, while the Silver Age Hawks were shown to be (along with the rest of the “modern” heroes) on Earth-1.
See? Simple – Carter and Shiera Hall, Earth-2. Katar and Shayera Hol, Earth-1. Easy, right?
Yeah, right.
Then Came The Crisis
The sad thing is that the idea behind Crisis on Infinite Earths was a good one – mush all the multiple Earths that had sprung up over the years into one, destroying several along the way, as well as a few characters that were, continuity-wise, too awkward to keep around. It was a simple idea, designed to give the DCU one continuous line of continuity from prehistory through to the future.
Unfortunately, the execution suffered here and there, leaving a few problems. Originally, Hawkman wasn’t a problem of the Crisis. Both Carter and Katar called themselves ‘Hawkman,’ Carter served with the JSA, Katar with the JLA. To make things even simpler, and not detract from the JLA, the JSA were sent into Ragnarok for a period of time (beginning in Last Days of the JSA) where they fought an eternal war. Talk about your sucky retirements. But it was a move that allowed Katar and the rest of the JLA to shine as the DCU’s modern-day heroes.
Still pretty simple, right? Hold on.
Enter Hawkworld
Then comes Hawkworld, a lush, three-issue prestige format miniseries by Tim Truman that gave Katar Hol a meatier origin on Thanagar than he had previously. Hawkworld was for Hawkman what the John Byrne revamp of Superman was for that character, George Perez’ relaunch of Wonder Woman for that character and what The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One were for Batman. In essence, Hawkworld was a retelling of the hero’s story in a more modern format.
For instance, in the Brave and Bold telling of Katar Hol’s origin, Thanagar was a utopia that was menaced by the Manhawks, giant birds of prey that wore human masks (as if being a bird of prey isn’t cooler than being a human..). In Truman’s version, Thanagar was a utopia on the surface only – the heavenly towers of Thanagar were built on the backs of the downtrodden masses, lining in the Downside, the bottom levels of the cities. Yep, those Regan-era comics were a fun time.
Interestingly, while many fans take issue with Hawkworld as the beginning of the Hawkman mess, the creator of the Silver Age Hawkman himself, Garner Fox, blessed the series in a sense.
“I was in communication with Gar for a number of years, and he was always fascinated by what had happened with comics in terms of creators rights and work for hire, and royalties and foreign reprint compensation and all that stuff,” Truman says. “We had talked about doing a John Carter of Mars fantasy type of book, and in one of his letters he told me about envisioning these mile-high towers with men jumping between them. All at once, for some reason, I started thinking about his old Hawkman stores, and the fact that if people had wings, they’d probably live in mile high towers, so I wrote back to him and proposed doing a Hawkman story together. He loved the idea. I think he even did a little work on some sketches and story ideas, but I never got to see those.”
At the time, Truman was finishing some projects with Eclipse. When his schedule finally cleared and he was able to write back to Fox about pitching Hawkman to DC, it was too late for collaboration. Fox had died the very night Truman wrote the letter to him proposing the project.
But Hawkman wasn’t dead just yet. Mike Gold, an editor who’d recently come to DC from First Comics (where Truman and John Ostrander had produced Grimjack among other works), began trying in earnest to lure Truman to DC.
“That was about the time that Eclipse started having a lot of trouble, and I was still thinking of Hawkman, and I pitched Hawkworld to him,” Truman says. “The story didn’t come out quite as romantic as Gar would have done, and it wasn’t my intention to mimic Gar’s style by any means – I wanted to address some themes that the original Hawkman had brought up, for instance, the fact that Hawkman was a policeman who comes from a utopia. I wanted to get into my ideas of what a ‘utopia’ is built on, and the racism that existed on Thanagar, which was supposed to be this perfect planet.”
In essence, Hawkworld hit virtually all of the marks Truman was aiming for – it recreated Katar Hol and Shayera, their archenemy Byth, the winged Wingmen, a planet-wide police force, as well as enriching Katar’s character with a few more layers of complexity. An aristocrat by birth, Katar was cast down to the lowest levels of the Downtime thanks to treachery, and had to climb back up to his former level.
“It was about him being redeemed,” Truman says. “He had his ideals shattered and everything he was working for was a front for a very oppressive society. He had to go through his own personal hell and then become one of the oppressed to be of any service to his world. That’s where that stood at the end of the series.”
So if Hawkworld simply retold Katar’s origin, then why are things such a mess now?
Watch closely.
Hawkman Comes to Earth – At the Wrong Time
Hawkworld sold well. Very well. Well enough to make DC think that turning it into a regular series – with Truman still attached – was a really, really good idea. Thing was, Truman wasn’t game for it.
“It’s really hard to do three, 48-page books back to back, especially when you’re writing and drawing them,” Truman says. “At the end of Hawkworld, I was totally exhausted, but I was very satisfied with the story and thought that I had said what I wanted to say. But they still wanted my name attached to it, and was asked to become part of the regular series, but I really wasn’t interested in it. Mike asked about if I’d come on if John [Ostrander] co-wrote it, and I figured it be a great book for John to do, so I said yes.”
Truman, Ostrander and Gold met in DC’s offices to hash out the plans for the regular series, and that’s when the problem started. “Mike’s stipulation at the meeting was that Hawkman had to come to earth in a ‘Year One’ type of format,” Truman says. “Mike wanted it set in modern day, which would have made the Year One story set in the present DC Universe. I was realty opposed to that from the beginning, because of the continuity aspects involved, and it really didn’t jibe with what I was trying to establish, that all this backstory could work with things that had gone before.”
In other words – in Truman’s mind, the events in Hawkworld were happening on Thanagar around the same time the Martian Manhunter came to earth, starting the modern age of heroes in the DCU. Just as Byrne’s revamped Superman, Perez’ Wonder Woman and to a lesser extent Frank Miller’s Batman stories were all revitalized origins of the characters, so too was Hawkworld. The Katar Hol who’d been around the DCU during the modern age was the same Katar Hol who was exiled to the Downside and fought corruption on Thanagar. The only niggling point in Truman’s version is why Katar went from wearing a paramilitary outfit in his past to the more feathered look he had in the then present ‘80s.
“My whole take on Hawkworld, and this is where the whole thing went wrong – my Hawkman, the whole Thanagar story happened before he joined the JLA,” Truman explains. “When I finished my story, I thought it worked pretty well with what Gar had established in his origin story years before. It’s got all the characters in it that work in the series – it had things in there that could fit within the DC universe. It was just a meatier background for him, not an entirely new one that would require all this mess.”
Despite his concerns, Truman ended up agreeing to go along and bring Hawkman to the present day DCU, opening a whole new can of worms. For instance – you now had characters who interacted with the first Katar Hol of Thanagar, the one who was introduced in Brave and the Bold. There was the short-lived Hawkman series which ran from 1986-1987 that threw some confusing irons in the fire (and later had large sections of it, such as Katar and Shayera’s public identities being exposed to the public) deemed imaginary. But even if you ignore that entire series, Hawkman still played a role in company-wide crossovers and other stories. Heck, even Superman teamed with Hawkman and Hawkwoman in a post- Byrne revamp Action Comics #588. Can ‘o worms.
“I figured that Mike knew what he was doing and the series was in good hands with John,” Truman says. “Basically, John came up with all the plots, and we’d talk for about ten minutes every month to talk it through, and he’d write it up. I’m not blaming John at all. I think it was a very bad editorial move in the beginning. Mike thought it would work, but it was a mistake. Mike’s certainly had done enough stuff in his career that had worked, but in this case, I don’t think it did. The continuity problems since really confused folks.”
The Problems Begin…and Compound
So now that they had a new Katar Hol on earth, the problems really started rolling along at a good clip. No offense to Hawkworld and later Hawkman series writers Ostrander, Bill Loebs or Priest – each tried to do the best they could with what they had. Problem was, each little change required three more changes to explain it. Pretty soon, things were being altered left and right. A few examples of retcons since Truman’s Katar showed up on earth – (strap that helmet on tight…)
Paran Katar (Katar Hol’s father) came to earth and aided Carter Hall in his invention of ninth metal. Paran (going by the name Perry Carter) was on earth to dissuade the Thanagarians from attacking the planet.
The other Katar Hol never existed (think, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”) – basically, as it was explained, much of what readers thought was done by Katar was actually done by Carter – remarkably youthful as he was.
No wait – the antigravity metal was actually an artifact from ancient Egypt. Yeah, that’s it. And Paran was a sorcerer as well as a scientist. To generate the power he needed to activate the metal, he (you may want to sit down) threw an angel into Hell – the angel in question happened to be the Hawkgod, who was responsible for the powers of all the hawk avatars through time.
Paran met and married a Cherokee woman named Naomi. He took her back to Thanagar, where she gave birth. Later, she was returned to earth sans her bundle o’ joy. Talk about an alien abduction.
And as for that Hawkman we all thought we remembered being around while Carter was in Ragnarok (say, Action #588)? Well, there actually was a Hawkman – he claimed he was Carter Hall’s son, and had even conned an earth woman into posing as Hawkwoman. Thing was, he was actually a Thanagarian spy preparing the planet for an invasion. Um, yeah</I>. That’s why he took Superman to Krypton in a Superman storyline, saving him and bringing him home, and even deactivated a Thanagarian bomb during the Invasion storyline. Real spy-like stuff to do. Thankfully, he was returned to Thanagar and promptly swept under the rug, probably because he was such a bad spy.
Paran formed the Wingmen on Thanagar, basing the costume on Carter’s Hawkman costume. Thanks to Paran’s anti-gravity discoveries while on earth, Thanagarians built their cities up, not out.
Hawkman (now oddly looking more and more Native American) found his mother and she taught him aura reading and other mystical talents. This wasn’t Katar Hol, science fiction hero anymore – this was Katar, the avatar of the Hawk, much like the Swamp Thing was the essence of the plant life on the planet. We never said it made sense.
Into this growing mess, the Hawkgod escapes and destroyed Thanagar, and headed toward earth. Right around the time of Zero Hour, Katar was gearing up for his final battle against the Hawkgod. To defeat it and send it back to its own dimension, Katar was “merged” with Cater and Shiera Hall, as well as the spirits of all the other hawk avatars who had gone before – many of which, such as the Silent Knight and Nighthawk, were probably quite surprised to find out that they were suddenly avatars of the hawk, whatever that meant. Katar was the only one left – but he was different than before.
The merging (or mooshing) of all the Hawks into one has frequently been attributed to the favorite whipping boy of some continuity-conscious fans, Dan Jurgens, who wrote and drew Zero Hour. Jurgens denies the claims.
“We know Hawkman’s origin, what he was like in 1966, 1976 and years later, though that too was eventually changed,” Jurgens says. “Since we can't make the existence of those comics and stories disappear, I've always thought it best to make them work whenever possible. I felt the Hawkman who emerged from Zero Hour should have reflected that.
“When I pitched Zero Hour, I had hopes of fixing some specific continuity problems. No one exemplified that more than Hawkman. The solution that saw print [mooshing] was not at all what I suggested, nor was one I was happy with. The Hawkman editor and creative team dictated that particular solution at the time. That was their prerogative, for they were the ones who'd have to deal with whatever pieces were left on the ground. Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem or get the job done.”
For better or worse, Hawkman was now “the” hawk avatar – a seven foot tall guy with hawk-like eyes, wings that grew out of his back at will, and a cache of mystical powers. All in all, a far cry from Truman’s science fiction hero of Hawkworld.
As the hawk avatar Hawkman, Katar fought against mostly threats of a spiritual nature, such as avatars of other animal spirits. The series lost a little of its focus, and finally, another company-wide crossover made a significant alteration in the character, and this time, the changes sent him down the road toward limbo.
The crossover in question was 1995’s Underworld Unleashed. The demon Neron awakened the souls of all the hawk avatars in Katar’s head. The souls told Katar that, with the exception of Cater and Shiera, and a few others; Vandal Savage had killed them all. Yeah, it was a surprise then, too.
Turns out that the hawk avatars were some pretty rotten bastards, for some reason, and they committed several murders while possessing Katar’s body. The only thing Katar figured to do – jump into the same dimension as the Hawkgod until such a time when his murderous desires could be controlled. And the series was cancelled in 1996.
And that’s where he rests – a fairly ignoble end for the reinvigorated Katar Hol from Hawkworld.
“Hey, I knew the rules going into the game – it’s a corporate character,” Truman says. “But for the amount of sweat and toil that was involved with someone – it’s just really hard to look at something when it’s become so far removed from what you’d intended to begin with.”
And let’s not forget 1998’s Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant that highlighted a Hawkman/Hawkwoman story pitting them against the Manhawks. Great little story, except that the Manhawks didn’t exist in the revised origin of Katar Hol. Mark Waid hinted that there was something in this issue that had to do with Hypertime (back when Hypertime was cool, unknown and mysterious rather than now where it’s confusing, known and frightening), which would explain the Manhawks…as well as Hypertime explains anything, that is.
Longing for the Hawk
Since Hawkman’s departure, hardcore Hawk fans have joined with more casual readers in wondering just when Hawkman will return, while others have joined in wondering why some people are so wrapped up in wondering when Hawkman will return. In either case, Hawkman still has a strange hold on fans, both serious and casual.
According to Truman, Hawkman speaks to something below the surface of us all. “When you look at him, he’s totally mythic,” Truman says. “He has one of the most mythic designs that was ever created for comics. It’s a dream of flight personified, and with a mace. You can fly, but you can also right wrongs.
“When you’re dealing with that stuff, it will strike a very primal spark in you. The thing is with Hawkman, he looks the part – that mask and that wings - the very early origins that with him associated with the Egyptians really fit. You could almost see an image of Hawkman carved in a hieroglyph somewhere and it would look totally at home with any other hieroglyph or pictogram that was there. He has a mythic, god-like presence.”
Like Truman, many creators have commented over the years about Hawkman’s appearance, and they’re right – there’s something about a good image of Hawkman (especially drawn by Joe Kubert). “Visually, he's very cool,” Jurgens says. “There's no excuse for a boring page as long as Hawkman's on it. With that wingspan and sense of flight and power, any Hawkman book should be visually strong with dramatic composition and an economy of panels to take advantage of that dramatic impact.”
Anticipation for Hawkman’s return to the mainstream DCU has been high for the past few years, continuing from his disappearance in Hawkman #32, right through Grant Morrison’s run on JLA, where the Angel Zauriel had to be created from whole cloth because Hawkman was in too much of a continuity mess to be used.
There have even been out and out teases over the years that while he may be gone, Hawkman is not forgotten. For example, when first seeing the winged angel Zauriel, Aquaman murmurs, “Katar?” And of course, David Goyer and James Robinson introduced a new Hawkgirl into the JSA, the grandniece of the original, Shiera Saunders (pr Sanders if your prefer) Hall. No, while Hawkman may be gone from the DCU, his presence is still felt.
The Return of the Hawk
Hawkman’s return became a given sometime last year when rumors began circulating that somehow, he’d return to the DCU. Feeding the fires of speculation that a return was coming was Dan Raspler asking fans at a JLA panel at last year’s Comicon International how [i]they’d bring Hawkman back. It also kinda suggested that DC creators and editors could end up scratching their heads as much as fans when it came to Hawkman’s continuity.
But a return is coming. “Thing is, there has never not been a groundswell in the character’s popularity since Hawkman ‘disappeared,’ it’s always been there,” Carlin says. “It just felt like the time to try again. He is a part of the DCU, and we never intended for him to be gone forever.”
Given the characters strong ties to the Golden Age characters, Goyer and Geoff Johns opted to bring Hawkman back in the pages of JSA. What’s that line about fools rushing in…?
“On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say that Hawkman ranks a 10 in terms of continuity intimidation,” Goyer says. “We're definitely going to piss off some fans and we're bound to make mistakes. The whole character is just a minefield. Hopefully, by the time we're through, though, we'll have a relatively clean slate with which to draw from and on.”
While stopping short of using Truman’s Hawkworld as a bible for the new character, Goyer did admit that the new version of Hawkman will be somewhat true to the classic Silver Age Hawkman.
“In my opinion, Hawkworld is definitely one of the more interesting takes on the Hawk mythology,” Goyer says. “As far as I'm concerned, everything that came after it was a complete mess. Tying Katar into American Indian ancestry just made matters even worse. All that Hawk avatar bulls*** -- ugh! But the single biggest mistake was not allowing Truman to date the Hawkworld mini as ‘some time ago.’ The best decision DC made was putting a moratorium on the character for a while. Having done that, they've now creating some real excitement and a sense of expectation for his – or their - return.”
Muddying the waters of a clean return a little is the Legends of Hawkman miniseries b Ben Raab and Michael Lark. While the story looks to be a fun time with beautiful art by Lark, it obviously goes against…you guessed it…previous continuity.
“One of the basic problems with Hawkman is the even the Powers That Be at DC are completely confused as to which Hawkman continuity still works,” Goyer says. “Another problem with DC in general, though, is the constant, knee-jerk reaction to re-boot characters. If you do it too many times, you're left with a big mess. Just look at the Legion of Super Heroes, Hawkman, or even lesser books like Fate -- you can't just completely re-boot a character in mid-stream, every one, two, or three years. It's confusing to newer readers. Alienating. Sometimes, I think it's best just to make-do with what you've got -- ignore the previous elements that were idiotic and forge on in a new direction. I'm generally not a fan of reboots.”
That said, the new Hawkman is set to make a debut somewhere in the storyline running from JSA #17 - #25, and both writers are looking to make their version of Hawkman one that will stick. Geoff and I really don't want to reveal much about where we're going,” Goyer says. “I will say that there are elements of both the Golden and Silver Age Hawkmen that we both like. Keeping that in mind, it would be a shame to completely jettison one back-story or the other. Some clues will begin to trickle in as early as JSA #17, with the big revelations happening from #21 onward, culminating in issue #25. We will also definitely be coming up with a reason for why Hawkman uses all those medieval weapons.”
And as for Extant (who was formerly the her named Hawk), whom the team is currently fighting against playing a role in the return and perhaps even becomes the new Hawkman? “Sometimes, a name is just a name.”
So there we have it. One way or anther, Hawkman will be back in the DCU within a year’s time. Hopefully, everyone at DC has learned their lesson and will be taking notes on just where this Hawkman came from, how he’s been used, what he stands for and how he can be used in ways that don’t contradict his origin. If that happens, we’re looking at a Hawkman that we can al be proud of, one that will last for many, many years.
Here’s hoping.
Originally published last year and a website ago, the following article outlines Hawkman's convoluted past and the dangers inherent to any creator that wanted to touch him. Enjoy.
He’s flown from the loftiest heights only to have his wings clipped by muddled continuity and confusion. Yeah, if you’re looking for a character that perfectly shows the problems that not going with continuity can bring, there’s no one better than Hawkman.
“Honestly, Hawkman is the character we have collectively done the most disservice to,” says DC Executive Editor Mike Carlin. “Too many completely new starts just set the continuity on a spiraling tailspin. There was a wave of ‘rebooting’ that DC went through in the late eighties, and Hawkman unfortunately had the most ‘rebooting’ done with his character and mythos, so much that we just decided to give the character a rest, and to let the ‘radioactivity’ die down.”
As Carlin says, reboot after reboot –each seen as being good for the character – only served to further obfuscate his story. Reboots contradicted one another to some extent, resulting in the need for further fixes, which set up a vicious circle that finally resulted in Hawkman being shunt into limbo. The comic book equivalent of “We have no idea what to do with you.”
How did things get to this point? And more importantly, how are things going to be pulled back together when Hawkman returns in the pages of JSA? Read on – but be careful. If you’re prone to dizziness or shortness of breath when presented with confusing storylines, you may want to wear a helmet when reading.
Life Was Simpler With Two Earths
Okay, starting from the Golden Age and making our way up, Hawkman made his first appearance in Flash Comics #1 as Carter Hall, a wealthy scientist/history buff/playboy (depending on who you believe) that realized he was the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian Price Khufu when he picked up a Egyptian knife. Khufu was a reformer and do-gooder in Egypt, and pledged, as he was being murdered that he and his love, Shiera, would be reunited in another lifetime. Soon after, Carter met Shiera Sanders.
Unfortunately for the reunited lovers, the guy who killed them, Hath-Set was reincarnated as Dr. Anton Hastor, and planned to conquer the earth. Hall donned a pair of wings, a hawk-disguise (in honor of the Egyptian god Ra) and a belt made of “ninth metal” that had antigravity properties and went into battle. Shiera later became Hawkgirl, and the two fought crime together. Later they joined the JSA, and had a son (Hector, once the Silver Scarab, once dead, and now the current Dr. Fate). Simple, right? Compared to what’s coming up, it sure is.
When Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox and others were re-imagining Golden Age heroes, Hawkman got the same treatment as the Atom and the Flash – a new origin, based more in science and science fiction than fantasy and mythology. Debuting in Brave and the Bold #34, this new, Silver Age Hawkman was an alien by the name of Katar Hol, who went by the alias of Cater Hall while on earth. Hey – it was the Silver Age, okay?
This Hawkman could fly thanks to antigravity metal of his father’s design, and was a policeman on his homeworld of Thanagar – a virtual utopia. Katar was accompanied by Shayera Thal (you guessed it, Shiera Hall on earth), who went by the name Hawkwoman, as using “girl” in a character’s name was as accepted as it used to be. These Hawks joined the JLA and served with the likes of Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, etc.
Thanks to “The Flash of Two Worlds” in 1961’s Flash #123, the Golden Age Hawks were relegated to Earth-2, while the Silver Age Hawks were shown to be (along with the rest of the “modern” heroes) on Earth-1.
See? Simple – Carter and Shiera Hall, Earth-2. Katar and Shayera Hol, Earth-1. Easy, right?
Yeah, right.
Then Came The Crisis
The sad thing is that the idea behind Crisis on Infinite Earths was a good one – mush all the multiple Earths that had sprung up over the years into one, destroying several along the way, as well as a few characters that were, continuity-wise, too awkward to keep around. It was a simple idea, designed to give the DCU one continuous line of continuity from prehistory through to the future.
Unfortunately, the execution suffered here and there, leaving a few problems. Originally, Hawkman wasn’t a problem of the Crisis. Both Carter and Katar called themselves ‘Hawkman,’ Carter served with the JSA, Katar with the JLA. To make things even simpler, and not detract from the JLA, the JSA were sent into Ragnarok for a period of time (beginning in Last Days of the JSA) where they fought an eternal war. Talk about your sucky retirements. But it was a move that allowed Katar and the rest of the JLA to shine as the DCU’s modern-day heroes.
Still pretty simple, right? Hold on.
Enter Hawkworld
Then comes Hawkworld, a lush, three-issue prestige format miniseries by Tim Truman that gave Katar Hol a meatier origin on Thanagar than he had previously. Hawkworld was for Hawkman what the John Byrne revamp of Superman was for that character, George Perez’ relaunch of Wonder Woman for that character and what The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One were for Batman. In essence, Hawkworld was a retelling of the hero’s story in a more modern format.
For instance, in the Brave and Bold telling of Katar Hol’s origin, Thanagar was a utopia that was menaced by the Manhawks, giant birds of prey that wore human masks (as if being a bird of prey isn’t cooler than being a human..). In Truman’s version, Thanagar was a utopia on the surface only – the heavenly towers of Thanagar were built on the backs of the downtrodden masses, lining in the Downside, the bottom levels of the cities. Yep, those Regan-era comics were a fun time.
Interestingly, while many fans take issue with Hawkworld as the beginning of the Hawkman mess, the creator of the Silver Age Hawkman himself, Garner Fox, blessed the series in a sense.
“I was in communication with Gar for a number of years, and he was always fascinated by what had happened with comics in terms of creators rights and work for hire, and royalties and foreign reprint compensation and all that stuff,” Truman says. “We had talked about doing a John Carter of Mars fantasy type of book, and in one of his letters he told me about envisioning these mile-high towers with men jumping between them. All at once, for some reason, I started thinking about his old Hawkman stores, and the fact that if people had wings, they’d probably live in mile high towers, so I wrote back to him and proposed doing a Hawkman story together. He loved the idea. I think he even did a little work on some sketches and story ideas, but I never got to see those.”
At the time, Truman was finishing some projects with Eclipse. When his schedule finally cleared and he was able to write back to Fox about pitching Hawkman to DC, it was too late for collaboration. Fox had died the very night Truman wrote the letter to him proposing the project.
But Hawkman wasn’t dead just yet. Mike Gold, an editor who’d recently come to DC from First Comics (where Truman and John Ostrander had produced Grimjack among other works), began trying in earnest to lure Truman to DC.
“That was about the time that Eclipse started having a lot of trouble, and I was still thinking of Hawkman, and I pitched Hawkworld to him,” Truman says. “The story didn’t come out quite as romantic as Gar would have done, and it wasn’t my intention to mimic Gar’s style by any means – I wanted to address some themes that the original Hawkman had brought up, for instance, the fact that Hawkman was a policeman who comes from a utopia. I wanted to get into my ideas of what a ‘utopia’ is built on, and the racism that existed on Thanagar, which was supposed to be this perfect planet.”
In essence, Hawkworld hit virtually all of the marks Truman was aiming for – it recreated Katar Hol and Shayera, their archenemy Byth, the winged Wingmen, a planet-wide police force, as well as enriching Katar’s character with a few more layers of complexity. An aristocrat by birth, Katar was cast down to the lowest levels of the Downtime thanks to treachery, and had to climb back up to his former level.
“It was about him being redeemed,” Truman says. “He had his ideals shattered and everything he was working for was a front for a very oppressive society. He had to go through his own personal hell and then become one of the oppressed to be of any service to his world. That’s where that stood at the end of the series.”
So if Hawkworld simply retold Katar’s origin, then why are things such a mess now?
Watch closely.
Hawkman Comes to Earth – At the Wrong Time
Hawkworld sold well. Very well. Well enough to make DC think that turning it into a regular series – with Truman still attached – was a really, really good idea. Thing was, Truman wasn’t game for it.
“It’s really hard to do three, 48-page books back to back, especially when you’re writing and drawing them,” Truman says. “At the end of Hawkworld, I was totally exhausted, but I was very satisfied with the story and thought that I had said what I wanted to say. But they still wanted my name attached to it, and was asked to become part of the regular series, but I really wasn’t interested in it. Mike asked about if I’d come on if John [Ostrander] co-wrote it, and I figured it be a great book for John to do, so I said yes.”
Truman, Ostrander and Gold met in DC’s offices to hash out the plans for the regular series, and that’s when the problem started. “Mike’s stipulation at the meeting was that Hawkman had to come to earth in a ‘Year One’ type of format,” Truman says. “Mike wanted it set in modern day, which would have made the Year One story set in the present DC Universe. I was realty opposed to that from the beginning, because of the continuity aspects involved, and it really didn’t jibe with what I was trying to establish, that all this backstory could work with things that had gone before.”
In other words – in Truman’s mind, the events in Hawkworld were happening on Thanagar around the same time the Martian Manhunter came to earth, starting the modern age of heroes in the DCU. Just as Byrne’s revamped Superman, Perez’ Wonder Woman and to a lesser extent Frank Miller’s Batman stories were all revitalized origins of the characters, so too was Hawkworld. The Katar Hol who’d been around the DCU during the modern age was the same Katar Hol who was exiled to the Downside and fought corruption on Thanagar. The only niggling point in Truman’s version is why Katar went from wearing a paramilitary outfit in his past to the more feathered look he had in the then present ‘80s.
“My whole take on Hawkworld, and this is where the whole thing went wrong – my Hawkman, the whole Thanagar story happened before he joined the JLA,” Truman explains. “When I finished my story, I thought it worked pretty well with what Gar had established in his origin story years before. It’s got all the characters in it that work in the series – it had things in there that could fit within the DC universe. It was just a meatier background for him, not an entirely new one that would require all this mess.”
Despite his concerns, Truman ended up agreeing to go along and bring Hawkman to the present day DCU, opening a whole new can of worms. For instance – you now had characters who interacted with the first Katar Hol of Thanagar, the one who was introduced in Brave and the Bold. There was the short-lived Hawkman series which ran from 1986-1987 that threw some confusing irons in the fire (and later had large sections of it, such as Katar and Shayera’s public identities being exposed to the public) deemed imaginary. But even if you ignore that entire series, Hawkman still played a role in company-wide crossovers and other stories. Heck, even Superman teamed with Hawkman and Hawkwoman in a post- Byrne revamp Action Comics #588. Can ‘o worms.
“I figured that Mike knew what he was doing and the series was in good hands with John,” Truman says. “Basically, John came up with all the plots, and we’d talk for about ten minutes every month to talk it through, and he’d write it up. I’m not blaming John at all. I think it was a very bad editorial move in the beginning. Mike thought it would work, but it was a mistake. Mike’s certainly had done enough stuff in his career that had worked, but in this case, I don’t think it did. The continuity problems since really confused folks.”
The Problems Begin…and Compound
So now that they had a new Katar Hol on earth, the problems really started rolling along at a good clip. No offense to Hawkworld and later Hawkman series writers Ostrander, Bill Loebs or Priest – each tried to do the best they could with what they had. Problem was, each little change required three more changes to explain it. Pretty soon, things were being altered left and right. A few examples of retcons since Truman’s Katar showed up on earth – (strap that helmet on tight…)
Paran Katar (Katar Hol’s father) came to earth and aided Carter Hall in his invention of ninth metal. Paran (going by the name Perry Carter) was on earth to dissuade the Thanagarians from attacking the planet.
The other Katar Hol never existed (think, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”) – basically, as it was explained, much of what readers thought was done by Katar was actually done by Carter – remarkably youthful as he was.
No wait – the antigravity metal was actually an artifact from ancient Egypt. Yeah, that’s it. And Paran was a sorcerer as well as a scientist. To generate the power he needed to activate the metal, he (you may want to sit down) threw an angel into Hell – the angel in question happened to be the Hawkgod, who was responsible for the powers of all the hawk avatars through time.
Paran met and married a Cherokee woman named Naomi. He took her back to Thanagar, where she gave birth. Later, she was returned to earth sans her bundle o’ joy. Talk about an alien abduction.
And as for that Hawkman we all thought we remembered being around while Carter was in Ragnarok (say, Action #588)? Well, there actually was a Hawkman – he claimed he was Carter Hall’s son, and had even conned an earth woman into posing as Hawkwoman. Thing was, he was actually a Thanagarian spy preparing the planet for an invasion. Um, yeah</I>. That’s why he took Superman to Krypton in a Superman storyline, saving him and bringing him home, and even deactivated a Thanagarian bomb during the Invasion storyline. Real spy-like stuff to do. Thankfully, he was returned to Thanagar and promptly swept under the rug, probably because he was such a bad spy.
Paran formed the Wingmen on Thanagar, basing the costume on Carter’s Hawkman costume. Thanks to Paran’s anti-gravity discoveries while on earth, Thanagarians built their cities up, not out.
Hawkman (now oddly looking more and more Native American) found his mother and she taught him aura reading and other mystical talents. This wasn’t Katar Hol, science fiction hero anymore – this was Katar, the avatar of the Hawk, much like the Swamp Thing was the essence of the plant life on the planet. We never said it made sense.
Into this growing mess, the Hawkgod escapes and destroyed Thanagar, and headed toward earth. Right around the time of Zero Hour, Katar was gearing up for his final battle against the Hawkgod. To defeat it and send it back to its own dimension, Katar was “merged” with Cater and Shiera Hall, as well as the spirits of all the other hawk avatars who had gone before – many of which, such as the Silent Knight and Nighthawk, were probably quite surprised to find out that they were suddenly avatars of the hawk, whatever that meant. Katar was the only one left – but he was different than before.
The merging (or mooshing) of all the Hawks into one has frequently been attributed to the favorite whipping boy of some continuity-conscious fans, Dan Jurgens, who wrote and drew Zero Hour. Jurgens denies the claims.
“We know Hawkman’s origin, what he was like in 1966, 1976 and years later, though that too was eventually changed,” Jurgens says. “Since we can't make the existence of those comics and stories disappear, I've always thought it best to make them work whenever possible. I felt the Hawkman who emerged from Zero Hour should have reflected that.
“When I pitched Zero Hour, I had hopes of fixing some specific continuity problems. No one exemplified that more than Hawkman. The solution that saw print [mooshing] was not at all what I suggested, nor was one I was happy with. The Hawkman editor and creative team dictated that particular solution at the time. That was their prerogative, for they were the ones who'd have to deal with whatever pieces were left on the ground. Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem or get the job done.”
For better or worse, Hawkman was now “the” hawk avatar – a seven foot tall guy with hawk-like eyes, wings that grew out of his back at will, and a cache of mystical powers. All in all, a far cry from Truman’s science fiction hero of Hawkworld.
As the hawk avatar Hawkman, Katar fought against mostly threats of a spiritual nature, such as avatars of other animal spirits. The series lost a little of its focus, and finally, another company-wide crossover made a significant alteration in the character, and this time, the changes sent him down the road toward limbo.
The crossover in question was 1995’s Underworld Unleashed. The demon Neron awakened the souls of all the hawk avatars in Katar’s head. The souls told Katar that, with the exception of Cater and Shiera, and a few others; Vandal Savage had killed them all. Yeah, it was a surprise then, too.
Turns out that the hawk avatars were some pretty rotten bastards, for some reason, and they committed several murders while possessing Katar’s body. The only thing Katar figured to do – jump into the same dimension as the Hawkgod until such a time when his murderous desires could be controlled. And the series was cancelled in 1996.
And that’s where he rests – a fairly ignoble end for the reinvigorated Katar Hol from Hawkworld.
“Hey, I knew the rules going into the game – it’s a corporate character,” Truman says. “But for the amount of sweat and toil that was involved with someone – it’s just really hard to look at something when it’s become so far removed from what you’d intended to begin with.”
And let’s not forget 1998’s Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant that highlighted a Hawkman/Hawkwoman story pitting them against the Manhawks. Great little story, except that the Manhawks didn’t exist in the revised origin of Katar Hol. Mark Waid hinted that there was something in this issue that had to do with Hypertime (back when Hypertime was cool, unknown and mysterious rather than now where it’s confusing, known and frightening), which would explain the Manhawks…as well as Hypertime explains anything, that is.
Longing for the Hawk
Since Hawkman’s departure, hardcore Hawk fans have joined with more casual readers in wondering just when Hawkman will return, while others have joined in wondering why some people are so wrapped up in wondering when Hawkman will return. In either case, Hawkman still has a strange hold on fans, both serious and casual.
According to Truman, Hawkman speaks to something below the surface of us all. “When you look at him, he’s totally mythic,” Truman says. “He has one of the most mythic designs that was ever created for comics. It’s a dream of flight personified, and with a mace. You can fly, but you can also right wrongs.
“When you’re dealing with that stuff, it will strike a very primal spark in you. The thing is with Hawkman, he looks the part – that mask and that wings - the very early origins that with him associated with the Egyptians really fit. You could almost see an image of Hawkman carved in a hieroglyph somewhere and it would look totally at home with any other hieroglyph or pictogram that was there. He has a mythic, god-like presence.”
Like Truman, many creators have commented over the years about Hawkman’s appearance, and they’re right – there’s something about a good image of Hawkman (especially drawn by Joe Kubert). “Visually, he's very cool,” Jurgens says. “There's no excuse for a boring page as long as Hawkman's on it. With that wingspan and sense of flight and power, any Hawkman book should be visually strong with dramatic composition and an economy of panels to take advantage of that dramatic impact.”
Anticipation for Hawkman’s return to the mainstream DCU has been high for the past few years, continuing from his disappearance in Hawkman #32, right through Grant Morrison’s run on JLA, where the Angel Zauriel had to be created from whole cloth because Hawkman was in too much of a continuity mess to be used.
There have even been out and out teases over the years that while he may be gone, Hawkman is not forgotten. For example, when first seeing the winged angel Zauriel, Aquaman murmurs, “Katar?” And of course, David Goyer and James Robinson introduced a new Hawkgirl into the JSA, the grandniece of the original, Shiera Saunders (pr Sanders if your prefer) Hall. No, while Hawkman may be gone from the DCU, his presence is still felt.
The Return of the Hawk
Hawkman’s return became a given sometime last year when rumors began circulating that somehow, he’d return to the DCU. Feeding the fires of speculation that a return was coming was Dan Raspler asking fans at a JLA panel at last year’s Comicon International how [i]they’d bring Hawkman back. It also kinda suggested that DC creators and editors could end up scratching their heads as much as fans when it came to Hawkman’s continuity.
But a return is coming. “Thing is, there has never not been a groundswell in the character’s popularity since Hawkman ‘disappeared,’ it’s always been there,” Carlin says. “It just felt like the time to try again. He is a part of the DCU, and we never intended for him to be gone forever.”
Given the characters strong ties to the Golden Age characters, Goyer and Geoff Johns opted to bring Hawkman back in the pages of JSA. What’s that line about fools rushing in…?
“On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say that Hawkman ranks a 10 in terms of continuity intimidation,” Goyer says. “We're definitely going to piss off some fans and we're bound to make mistakes. The whole character is just a minefield. Hopefully, by the time we're through, though, we'll have a relatively clean slate with which to draw from and on.”
While stopping short of using Truman’s Hawkworld as a bible for the new character, Goyer did admit that the new version of Hawkman will be somewhat true to the classic Silver Age Hawkman.
“In my opinion, Hawkworld is definitely one of the more interesting takes on the Hawk mythology,” Goyer says. “As far as I'm concerned, everything that came after it was a complete mess. Tying Katar into American Indian ancestry just made matters even worse. All that Hawk avatar bulls*** -- ugh! But the single biggest mistake was not allowing Truman to date the Hawkworld mini as ‘some time ago.’ The best decision DC made was putting a moratorium on the character for a while. Having done that, they've now creating some real excitement and a sense of expectation for his – or their - return.”
Muddying the waters of a clean return a little is the Legends of Hawkman miniseries b Ben Raab and Michael Lark. While the story looks to be a fun time with beautiful art by Lark, it obviously goes against…you guessed it…previous continuity.
“One of the basic problems with Hawkman is the even the Powers That Be at DC are completely confused as to which Hawkman continuity still works,” Goyer says. “Another problem with DC in general, though, is the constant, knee-jerk reaction to re-boot characters. If you do it too many times, you're left with a big mess. Just look at the Legion of Super Heroes, Hawkman, or even lesser books like Fate -- you can't just completely re-boot a character in mid-stream, every one, two, or three years. It's confusing to newer readers. Alienating. Sometimes, I think it's best just to make-do with what you've got -- ignore the previous elements that were idiotic and forge on in a new direction. I'm generally not a fan of reboots.”
That said, the new Hawkman is set to make a debut somewhere in the storyline running from JSA #17 - #25, and both writers are looking to make their version of Hawkman one that will stick. Geoff and I really don't want to reveal much about where we're going,” Goyer says. “I will say that there are elements of both the Golden and Silver Age Hawkmen that we both like. Keeping that in mind, it would be a shame to completely jettison one back-story or the other. Some clues will begin to trickle in as early as JSA #17, with the big revelations happening from #21 onward, culminating in issue #25. We will also definitely be coming up with a reason for why Hawkman uses all those medieval weapons.”
And as for Extant (who was formerly the her named Hawk), whom the team is currently fighting against playing a role in the return and perhaps even becomes the new Hawkman? “Sometimes, a name is just a name.”
So there we have it. One way or anther, Hawkman will be back in the DCU within a year’s time. Hopefully, everyone at DC has learned their lesson and will be taking notes on just where this Hawkman came from, how he’s been used, what he stands for and how he can be used in ways that don’t contradict his origin. If that happens, we’re looking at a Hawkman that we can al be proud of, one that will last for many, many years.
Here’s hoping.