Carter Hall

Prince Khufu lived during the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt. Khufu believed that his ka, or soul, would not journey on to the land of the afterlife. Rather, his soul and that of his betrothed, Chay-Ara, were fated to remain in the mortal world.

As prophesied by the wizard Nabu, a space ship landed in Egypt. Prince Khufu, Nabu, and the champion Teth Adam searched the desert, finally coming across the remains of a Thanagarian ship styled with a hawk-like motif. Nabu cast a spell translating the strange language of the female space traveler. Just before dying, she whispered the words, "Nth Metal", the name of the substance that powered the downed ship.

Teth-Adam lifted the ship back to Khufu's palace, where it was studied inside the Temple of Horus at Erdu. The remaining Nth metal was examined, and its most obvious property proves 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 imprinting them with the collective knowledge of Thanagar. Although the villainous priest Hath-Set murdered the two with the knife of Nth metal, their souls lived on in the mortal plane. They were reincarnated over many lifetimes, always finding true love in each other. However, they were cursed to be repeatedly killed at the hands of a reincarnated Hath-Set.

After his death, Khufu's soul was reincarnated countless times in markedly different eras and locations, including: Detective James Wright, Hannibal Hawkes, John Smith, Koenrad Von Grimm and Brian Kent (also known as the Silent Knight). Eventually, the soul of Prince Khufu was reborn as Carter Hall, an archaeologist active during the 1940s. After regaining the memories of his first and early 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 archaeologist Shiera Sanders. After the two met, she became Hawkgirl, fighting at Carter's side. They became founding members of the Justice Society of America, and Hawkman took the role of chairman. The pair reduced their activities in the early 1950s but became fully active again decades later when first Carter and then Sheira joined the Justice League of America (while continuing to also work with the revived JSA). The two had a son, Hector Hall, who eventually became a founding member of Infinity Inc. as the Silver Scarab, and later adopted the identity of the Sandman before becoming an incarnation of Doctor Fate. Following the event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hawkman and the JSA became trapped in a battle in an ever-repeating Ragnarok. The Norse god Odin tried unsuccessfully to give a crystal sphere containing this repeating Ragnarok to Dream, lord of the Dreaming as a trade, knowing that Dream had by this time selected Carter's grandson, Daniel Hall, as his successor. Back on Earth meanwhile, others took up the mantles of Hawkman and Hawkwoman, first Thanagarian spy Fel Andar and his human wife, and then a more benevolent pair of Thanagarians.

Years after they vanished, Hawkman and the JSA returned to the modern day when a primitive but super powered tribe volunteered to substitute themselves in the Ragnarok cycle. Soon after, however, death seemingly found Carter once again during the events of Zero Hour. He and his wife Shiera seemingly merged with Katar Hol, a Thanagarian police officer who had succeeded Carter as Hawkman in his absence, as a new incarnation of Hawkman who briefly acted as host to the mysterious "hawk god" creature. This individual was active for a short time but soon lost his sanity and was banished to Limbo (it was eventually revealed that Shiera's soul had actually migrated to the body of her great-niece, Kendra Saunders, who had committed suicide).

Years later, JSA member Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) was transported to a ravaged Thanagar by the High Priests of the Downsiders. Seeking a champion to stop the evil Onimar Synn from enslaving the planet, the priests used Kendra's centuries-old connection to Carter to bring him back to the mortal plain. Following this unorthodox resurrection, Hall retained all the memories of his past lives, as well as those of Katar Hol, the Thanagarian Hawkman. It has since been stated that the soul of Katar Hol has passed on from Limbo and that Carter no longer retains his memories, though his current form still retains some of Hol's physical characteristics (notably his dark hair).

After defeating Onimar Synn, Hall once again became a member of the JSA. Operating both with the JSA and with Hawkgirl, Hall embarked on a wide variety of exotic adventures. His quest as a hero took him from the streets of St. Roch to exotic dimensions and even into outer space as he fought in the Rann-Thanagar War. Following this event, Carter stayed in space for some months in order to help mediate the truce on Rann and avenge the murder of Shayera Thal, who as Hawkwoman had been the partner of the late Katar Hol.

As a result, Hawkgirl was left by herself to patrol and protect St. Roch.

Returning to space to help during the Rann-Thanagar Holy War, Carter was approached by the Demiurge, a nameless god who inspired Plato into describing his namesake. The Demiurge denounced the cycle of incarnation and rebirths of Khufu and Chay-Ara as lies, simple grafts of the alternate versions of Carter and Shiera residing in the different worlds of the multiverse that existed before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He informed Carter that there were "Six Aberrations" in total, including Hawkman, whose origins were muddled and damaged by the the destruction and recreation of the universe. Carter was moderately impressed, until the Demiurge inexplicably began addressing him as Katar Hol. Nothing appears to have come of this though, and it has since been stated that these events were not as they seemed.

Carter and Kendra were reunited, only to be attacked by Black Lanterns Ralph and Sue Dibny, who were recently resurrected by Black Power Rings, before having their hearts torn out from their bodies, and becoming undead Black Lanterns themselves.

However, by the end of the horrific crisis, Carter and Shiera Hall (no longer looking like or believing herself to be the deceased Kendra), along with ten other people, were reanimated by the power of the White Lantern.

In the Brightest Day, Carter and Shiera follow Hath-Set, who has collected the bones from all of their past bodies, and created from them a portal to Hawkworld. While there, Carter is told by the Entity to "stop the Queen Khea" from leaving. While Hawkgirl is held by Hath-Set and his Queen Khea, Hawkman and his group of the panthera attack the Manhawks homeworld. Hawkman hears Hawkgirl's cries and charges toward to rescue her. His arrival leads to a confrontation with Queen Khea, who turns out to be the mother of Shiera Hall. During the fight, Queen Khea controls his Nth metal mace and armor, and Hawkman is tied together with Hawkgirl. Queen Khea opens the gateway and enters the portal to the Zamaron homeworld. When she arrives on the Zamaron homeworld, Star Sapphire (Carol Ferris) frees them both to stop Queen Khea's invasion. The two attack Queen Khea as Hawkgirl wants to face her, but the Predator Entity bonds with the Queen.

Shiera and Carter manage to eventually separate both of them by stabbing Khea at the same time with weapons made of Zamaronian crystals. The bones of the past lives of Hawkman and Hawkgirl separate from the gateway, and, animated by the violet light of love, grab Khea and imprison her in the Zamaronian Central Power Battery. Shiera and Carter, with both of their missions accomplished and lives returned are teleported back to St. Roch by Carol. Carter and Shiera are interrupted by Deadman, whose white ring tells the two of them that they should lead separate lives. Carter refuses and says they are not going to live apart again, the ring responds "So be it" and unleashes a blast of white light that kills Hawkman and Hawkgirl, turning them into dust. Deadman orders the ring to resurrect both Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but the ring refuses, saying that Hawkman was brought back to life to overcome what held him back in his past life because he was essential in saving Earth.

When the "Dark Avatar", made his presence known, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are revealed to be part of the Elementals, guardians of the forest located in Star City. They were transformed by the Entity to become the element of air and protect the Star City forest from the "Dark Avatar," which appears to be the Black Lantern version of the Swamp Thing. The Elementals are then fused with the body of Alec Holland in order for him to be transformed by the Entity into the new Swamp Thing and battle against the Dark Avatar. After the Dark Avatar is defeated, Swamp Thing appears to have brought the Elementals back to normal; however, as Hawkman looks around for Shiera, he discovers that she was not brought back like he was. He is later told by Swamp Thing that Shiera is everywhere, revealing that she was still the elemental of air. Afterward, Hawkman returns home yelling "Shiera."