In a few months, DC Comics will evidently have a new origin and backstory for Hawkman. But for the moment, this is where his history and continuity stand.
It began when the planet Thanagar, a humanoid culture that worshiped birds and the power of flight, sent out scout ships. One such ship crashed on Earth during the days of Ancient Egypt and its power source, the gravity-defying Nth metal, was discovered by Prince Khufu Kha-Taar. Khufu discovered that this metal allowed him to fly and believed the scout ship had been a chariot belonging to Horus, the hawk-god of light. Later, Khufu and his love Chay-Ara was killed by a knife made of Nth metal. It’s unique psycho-reactive properties bonded their souls together and so Khufu and Chay-Ara were reborn time and time again, always finding each other, always fighting for justice in some way while wearing the symbol of the hawk.
In the early 20th century, they were reborn as Carter Hall and Shiera Sanders. Upon discovering the Nth metal knife of old, Carter now remembered his first life on Earth and was driven to become a warrior again. With the Nth metal and a wing harness, he became the superhero Hawkman. Shiera (who also became his wife later on) took on the identity of Hawkgirl. Carter became a founding member of the Justice Society of America and later served as its chairman for many years until he, along with most other costumed heroes, finally retired in the 1950s.
During his career as Hawkman, Carter met a man named Paran Katar from the planet Thanagar, a scientist who had traced the journey of the lost scout ship that had crashed in Egypt centuries before. Inspired by Carter’s exploits, Paran returned to Thanagar with his half-human son Katar Hol and he started a new police force known as the wingmen, each member being armed with wing-harnesses, hawk helmets and Nth metal. Eventually, the wingmen became a militaristic arm of an increasing corrupt, totalitarian government. Katar Hol became a wingman but learned the truth of how far his planet had fallen. After coming to Earth with his partner Shayera Thal, Katar decided to remain on Earth and was hailed as the new Hawkman while Shayera was labeled Hawkwoman.
A series of strange events later led to Carter dying and Katar absorbing his essence. Then Katar died and Carter was later reborn, young and vital again and now having access to all the memories of all his past lives. Since then, he’s acted as a hero full-time again, working with the modern-day incarnation of the JSA and helping protect Earth during many crises. Since his initial debut in the 1940s, he (and Katar) have worn a few variations of the Hawkman suit. So let’s take a look.
Now for this part, we’ll be focusing on mainstream reality and really what was meant to be the status quo. Although Katar and Carter have, at times, added extra weaponry for an issue here and an issue there, it’d be a little insane to track every single time this happened and it also would become more about nitpicking rather than examining the basic style of the character. And we’re sticking with the comics rather than the cartoon interpretations (many of which are pretty close to what’s pictured below anyway). So that’s our criteria this time around.
Hawkgirl and Hawkwoman are fantastic characters and deserve their own article, so we won’t be discussing them here. But they will be talked about, rest assured. So let’s start the action, shall we?
ARCHEOLOGIST HERO
Carter Hall, the original Hawkman, was introduced to readers during the Golden Age of comics in Flash Comics #1, published in 1940. He was the creation of writer Garnder Fox and artist Dennis Neville. A rich guy with an interest in archeology touched an ancient dagger that reawakened knowledge of a past life, when he had been Prince Khufu. With his experimental “ninth-metal” belt and wing harness, he became a modern day Horus and started a career as the superhero Hawkman.
Now here’s a fun bit of trivia you can use to wow people at parties and social events. Creator Dennis Neville actually modeled Hawkman’s appearance and costume on the society of alien “hawkmen” featured in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon comic strips. These characters, renamed “Dactyls” in the recent Flash Gordon SyFy Channel series, lived in the floating Sky City that was held aloft by “gravity rays.”
These aliens were a winged people who wore red and green outfits and were very much like romanticized Vikings of old who prized food, wine and the honor of battle above all else. The most famous of their number was their leader King Vultan, an overweight hawkman who aided Flash Gordon on many occasions.
The hawkmen who worked with Flash Gordon occasionally wore helmets that were decorated by wings, just like Carter Hall’s helm. But Vultan’s people did not cover their faces. By contrast, Carter Hall tried his best to seem like a massive bird if you looked at him and squinted.
The original mask looked more like a decorative hood at first but quickly evolved into a beaked, winged helmet. Pretty soon, the helmet became standardized into a full hawk-face mask that resembled something you’d wear to Mardi Gras. In some comics, it even had a tongue sticking out of the beak.
This left Carter’s true face a complete mystery. It’s good for hiding a secret identity, but it also makes it very difficult for an artist to convey his emotions to the reader. Is Carter angry? Happy? Shocked? Flirty? Hungry? Who can tell? That beak doesn’t change expression. Some artists would play with the eyes a bit, but that was as far as you could go.
And as a reader, this kind of mask always made me think that Carter’s voice must have been seriously muffled as Hawkman. When he later became a founding member (and later leader) of the Justice Society of America, history’s first superhero team, I can just imagine him shouting out orders and the other heroes thinking, “Wait, what did he say? Coffee? Is he asking for coffee? Does Carter drink coffee?”
Let’s look at the costume itself. During the Golden Age, you tended to get a lot of primary colors of red, yellow and blue. Sometimes blue would be replaced by green. Starman, Mr. Terrific and Hawkman all seemed to enjoy the same color combination. He’s certainly bright, letting you know this is a high-flying adventure rather than some dark, gritty story.
Apart from the wings, Carter’s harness makes him stand out. He’s got no shirt, just a simple harness that resembles straps capable of holding weapons. And this makes him resemble more of a pulp hero or an adventurer from older adventure novels. Someone like John Carter, the warlord of Mars who met strange civilizations. That was the kind of guy Carter was. He didn’t just fight criminals, he discovered hidden civilizations and strange, secret societies. So the muscled, shirtless adventurer in a harness definitely fits into that style.
Yeah, that sword isn’t hanging in a strange and overly-phallic way. Not at all. Anyway…
The costume’s not bad but I’m not crazy about the shorts. They don’t add anything really. Yes, they match the color of the boots, but so does the harness clasp. The shorts can be tossed aside, green pants would’ve been fine. The yellow line down the shorts (and sometimes extending down the pants, depending on the issue) don’t really add anything either. There’s enough yellow already with the harness, helmet, boots and belt. The harness clasp/medallion would sometimes be gold, sometimes be red.
The boots are a bit interesting. Those aren’t simply yellow lines. They’re meant to imply a bird’s feet. But it might be a bit too subtle, because many can look at these boots and just think that Hawkman’s footwear happens to be decorated by golden crosses. On occasion, artists would add edges to the boot to make it clear that those were symbolic of a hawk’s talons.
One thing to note about Hawkman’s outfit was that it lent itself to accessories. At various times, Carter would add a small pouch or a sword or a dagger. And they all seemed fine, since the bare chest already gave him the look of a survivalist or a warrior from a bygone era. It also made him stand out as a hero who knew that different adventures would require different types of gear. It allowed some writers to have fun with him in various comics, adding minor touches such as pouches, weapons and even spiked gloves and have it be accepted as normal mode of operations rather than be seen as a radical new change for a costume.
NEW HEADGEAR
Years later, Joe Kuber began illustrating the adventures of Hawkman and had begun adding changes to the helmet. In Flash Comics #85 (1947), he removed the bottom half of the hawk-mouth and shortened the top beak considerably, leaving more of Carter’s face visible. At last, we could see Carter’s expressions when he went into battle.
Depending on the issue, it was either a full top beak, still giving a strong bird impression, or it was molded to fit much more closely to the face, making it really a simple mask decorated with wings and feathering over the skull.
Eventually, in Flash Comics #98 (1948), Kubert ditched the bird helm entirely and went for a simple cloth cowl that was more reminiscent of standard superhero wear. The only thing hawk-like about this mask was the bird silhouette emblazoned on the forehead.
This made it easier to show Hawkman’s expressions and reactions to people and events around him. It also humanized the character rather than making him resemble some freakish man-bird hybrid. On the other hand, it also killed one of the character’s unique traits. Now, apart from the wings, he really didn’t seem that different from most masked mystery-men of the era. Just another guy in a colorful mask.
In later years, when we saw flashback stories of Carter’s adventures during the 1940s, artists had trouble remembering which helmet or cowl he had worn during what year. So sometimes in comics you’ll see Carter’s cloth mask seen in an adventure taking place in 1942, then having his open-faced helmet in 1944, then wearing the full beak mask, etc. Some artists and writers have explained this away as simply saying that Carter had a collection of headgear and simply grabbed whatever he felt like wearing that day. Hey, I’ve heard sillier ideas in comics, so why not?
ALIEN LAW ENFORCEMENT
In the mid 1950s, DC began relaunching its superhero comics practically from scratch, beginning what would be called the Silver Age of comics. There was a new Flash with a new secret ID and origin, a new Green Lantern, a new Atom and others. The new Hawkman and Hawkgirl were introduced in 1961 in The Brave and the Bold #36. This story was tackled by creator Gardner Fox and classic Hawkman artist Joe Kubert, so he actually just re-imagined the original characters in a new context rather than giving them completely new costumes or secret identities.
The new story introduced Katar Hol and his wife Shayera as two police officers of the planet Thanagar, which orbited the star Polaris. On this world, the police force were called “wingmen”, since all were equipped with wing harnesses and anti-gravity belts (made of Nth metal rather than “ninth metal”) that had been invented by Katar Hol’s father Paran Katar. The two law enforcement agents came to Earth to chase down a criminal named Byth and basically decided to stick around, earning the nicknames Hawkman and Hawkgirl (though Shayera would later change her title to Hawkwoman).
While the Golden Age Carter had been blonde and the Golden Age Shiera had been a brunette, Katar was black-haired and Shayera was a redhead. Other than this, their costumes were nearly identical to their Golden Age counterparts. Not too surprising, since Joe Kubert was drawing them again. Same trousers, same shorts, same boots, same wing harness. The main differences were the masks. In Katar’s case, he didn’t have the wing decorations that Carter had always had. The explanation for this was that wings on a helmet denoted a special kind of service and honor in the wingmen force. After a few adventures, Katar did earn his wings, making his outfit now identical to the Golden Age Hawkman’s half-mask standard look.
Another difference was that Katar had a hawk head silhouette on his harness clasp/medallion, starting with his first adventure (although this wasn’t consistent, especially on the covers, and so half the time it was still just a red circle). This finally gave the “winged warrior” a striking symbol, something that’s been a talent of many DC Comics heroes.
Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Woman. All these folks have a symbol or emblem (sometimes multiple versions) that when a person sees that on a comic or a card or spray painted on a wall, they know who was there. It is, frankly, pretty cool.
One last fun fact about Katar Hol’s Silver Age costume. Katar didn’t just wear it beneath his normal clothing like many other heroes. Instead, he either had it at the ready in a special closet hidden in his place of work (and another at home) or he actually had the whole thing compressed so that it fit inside his chest medallion. Yes, the entire costume, boots, trousers, wings and all, were fitted into a simple disc and expanded when he needed to suit up. This was very similar to the Flash’s signature costume which he chemically treated so it would shrink and fit into a hollow ring.
Katar wore this version of the mask much longer than Carter ever did, and his had a more exaggerated beak, but it’s become associated with both of them. Still not crazy about the shorts, but you can’t say Katar wasn’t visually striking. And like Carter, he wasn’t really a grim and gritty avenger as much as he was an adventurer. He would face dire threats and dark menaces, but he was also a guy who could speak to birds and was astounded by the people of Earth for having invented the sandwich. I’m not kidding, there was actually a scene where he just talked about how brilliant the sandwich was.
CARTER RETURNS
Eventually, DC thought it would be fun for their Silver Age heroes to meet the Golden Age heroes. The original explanation was that Carter Hall, reincarnated Egyptian warrior, and the Justice Society of America all lived on the parallel universe of Earth-2 whereas Katar Hol, alien cop, and the Justice League of America all lived on the mainstream reality designated Earth-1. Carter was wearing the cloth mask he’d last been seen in, but now he also had a chest emblem, though one markedly different from Katar’s. From this point on, it became a frequent practice of artists to draw this symbol on Carter during flashback tales to the Golden Age even though he hadn’t actually worn it then.
Later on, Carter got himself a new helmet. This once again gave him a look that stood out from standard superhero masks, but maintained a different design so that he wouldn’t look like a clone of Katar. It’s not a bad helmet and, to my mind, signifies that this is now an older, more seasoned version of Carter Hall, a man who isn’t as active now that he’s older and who represented a brighter, more optimistic age of yesteryear.
On the other hand, by making it orange and gold (as it was usually represented), it actually did look a little too close to Katar. And when some artists gave him the exact same chest medallion as Katar, fans wound up confused, especially if it were during JLA/JSA team-ups. The smaller beak and bird silhouette on the forehead just isn’t enough of a difference in my mind. Eventually, Carter went back to his cloth mask.
In the 1990s, Carter Hall returned to being a superhero after an absence of several years. He grabbed his second standardized helmet that Katar wore during the Silver Age. And he also got a new shirt that had no decorative emblem on the medallion. The shirt is an interesting change from the harness. It seems to work just as well. And hey, Carter was older now. Maybe he was getting a gut and figured it wasn’t a great idea to be shirtless all the time now. Just saying. I miss the emblem, though.
HAWKWORLD
In 1989, the mini-series Hawkworld was published, redefining Katar Hol’s origin and reimagining Thanagar. The wingmen were now people who wore padded armor with metal, seemingly inflexible wings. They were now much more of a military force, evocative of many post-apocalyptic and/or totalitarian authority characters that were running rampant in 1980s science fiction.
In this story, Katar’s training outfit that he wore during exercise periods greatly resembled his Silver Age costume. But his uniform was standard wingman wear. Along with the obvious differences in design, this new version of Katar had large goggle lenses on his helmet and a new chest medallion with the hawk facing his right instead. Just like the original Silver Age stories, his helmet was plain at first and it was a while before he earned the wings that marked him as a warrior of accomplishment.
The initial view of the Hawkworld mini-series was that it was a new prequel to Katar’s already-established career, modernizing him in the way that common amongst DC superheroes in the late 1980s. Following the continuity-altering crossover called Crisis on Infinite Earths, many heroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had been having newly revised origins published. But soon afterward, DC started publishing a new ongoing Hawkworld series that depicted Katar and his partner Shayera arriving on Earth for the first time and it was clearly taking place in the modern-day. So Katar’s life had been rebooted and now he was starting his heroic career from scratch. Just as before, he wore his standard wingman uniform as “Hawkman”, but now it was the modern version of the outfit. And unlike the Silver Age suit, there’s nothing about this outfit that really says superhero.
Hawkman, both Carter and Katar, had always been known for using ancient weaponry. Maces, spiked gloves, flails, nets. Katar did occasionally use alien tech, but now that became his standard practice. With rare exception, Hawkman was now about ray guns rather than maces. And in one adventure, he even wound up in an outfit that greatly resembled his classic look.
For the most part though, he stuck with the wingman gear during these initial adventures, occasionally accessorizing when he needed extra gear. Since he was already wearing a military-style uniform, it didn’t seem strange or clashing for him to throw extra gear on. Except for this one time where he put on some red, rocket armor that is pictured above. What the Hell is that? That collar is awful.
Eventually, Katar decided he enjoyed the U.S.A. and its ideals of democracy and liberty. It wasn’t a perfect country, but it made a lot more sense to him than the militaristic rule of Thanagar. After disavowing his world and walking away from his own society, Katar declared that he was seeking asylum on Earth and considered it his new home. To signify his new status and that he was no longer an agent of his government, he tossed aside the wingman uniform and wore a newly designed Hawkman outfit.
We’ve kept the color combination of old, but we’ve now got a lot more black and the talon lines are on the gloves as well as the boots. Like the wingman outfit, this covers Katar’s whole body rather than leaving him shirtless. He’s still got metal wings like the wingmen, but now they’re divided into “feathers” to make him more closely resemble his older visual style. We’ve also got a new feather design across the shoulders.
And you know what? I hate it. I think the bright yellow helmet and the green lenses clash, I think the bright red and gold wings are too garish, and I think the feathering decoration on the shirt is lame and unnecessary. The gloves are a nice touch. Also, metal wings just add a sense of weight that I don’t think should be there. They seemed okay with the wingmen uniforms because they were supposed to be a military force, but now that Hawkman was trying to look like a streamlined superhero again, it looks to me like it’s going to slow him down in flight (even though I logically know that his anti-gravity Nth metal should take care of it). And the green chest emblem just doesn’t look as striking as the former red medallion.
The Hawkworld series ended and afterward, Katar got his own title again. In the new Hawkman series, he debuted a new black uniform that had a touch of military to it and definitely stood out as pretty realistic in a world of spandex and colorful tights. He also apparently took the time to make sure his weaponry matched his new wings. He had a gold katar blade and a gold bracer equipped with a set of three blades that acted as claws. This was definitely a sign of the times, since it was the 1990s now and this was the age where it seemed that every other character needed claws, blades, padding or extra pouches if they were going to be taken seriously.
It’s actually not a bad look. Nicely balanced colors. Looks slightly militaristic but it’s not as bulky or dated as the wingman uniform. I prefer the older style chest medallion though since it’s a simple decoration. This one looks as if Katar really took the time to find a large piece of metal and then shape it into a giant symbol, which just seems a bit silly and vain. I’d also loose the shorts, since the trousers would work as they are and you don’t need it to look as if Katar excessively armored his crotch.
And then Zero Hour happened, a crossover that featured time and space collapsing. And for Hawkman, it had unique results. While fighting an extra-dimensional hawk-god of sorts, Katar was joined by Carter and Shiera. A temporal event occurred and Shiera was killed, while Carter had his essence and most of his memories fused into Katar’s being. Katar was now the only Hawkman around. His shirt was torn apart during these events, so he basically kept his trousers and boots and even his gloves, but now wore the classic harness decorated by a chest medallion.
The process that fused him with Carter also transformed Katar physically. He was a taller man now. He had hawk-like eyes and could perceive a person’s aura. And he now had actual wings made of organic Nth metal. He could retract and summon these wings at will, so Hawkman was now truly a super-powered being rather than someone who had the same abilities as many other athletic man and had to strap equipment when evil was afoot. Being able to call forth actual wings was not a bad ability, although it now made the straps across almost purely decorative.
This is a pretty good modernization of the classic Hawkman look. It maintains the basic idea of the old outfit but tosses out the colorful costume in exchange for simple combat gear. This is definitely a “winged warrior” and now Hawkman truly looks like someone you do not want to mess with. Unlike many other heroes of the era who were wearing extra belts and such for now reason, Katar’s were used to hold weapons such as maces, morning stars and katar blades. For the most part, I’m good with this.
The major things I would change was that I’d prefer the gloves to be matching and, again, the trousers don’t need the padded shorts siting over them. And while I get that long hair can imply a slightly savage warrior, in this case I’m not too crazy about it. Hawkman’s helmet is already visually interesting and I think having long black hair sticking out of it just becomes a distracting visual element. It also contradicts what I’m seeing as Katar going for a more practical, military look, which means that I think he’d cut his hair pretty short so it would fit under the helmet and an enemy couldn’t pull on it during a fight.
Alas, Katar’s new status quo was very confusing and his adventures weren’t quite riveting. And so, the series was canceled and DC decided that the character of Hawkman was now “radioactive”, meaning that writers were not allowed to use him or really make any major references to him. And this state of affairs lasted for years. At one point, Grant Morrison created a character named Zauriel who was a fallen angel and the intention was that he would become the new Hawkman. There would be no connection to Carter or Katar beyond the fact that he also had wings and would have the same alias, giving readers an entirely new version of Hawkman that they could discover from scratch and who wouldn’t be bogged down by any previous continuity. But DC was too nervous about putting that name on another character, so it didn’t happen. Zauriel stuck around though, first wearing basically trousers and a bandanna and then quickly adopting “angelic armor.” Fun character, actually.
CARTER HALL REBORN!
As we entered the 21st century, a new Hawkgirl was introduced and this led to a storyline where Carter Hall was rescued from seeming death. Apparently, Katar had died in that other dimension and Carter had been reborn, now younger and suddenly with brown rather than blonde hair. He had a few of Katar’s memories and now also had the memories of all his past lives. His new outfit was the classic look with a few tweaks. The shorts over the trousers were gone and the lines on the boots were not raised pieces, truly giving them the look of talons. There was also the addition of bracers that gave a hint of his Egyptian roots without becoming a distracting element.
Since his return, Carter has made a habit of accessorizing as much as possible. It might be with an Nth metal glove. it might be with a spiked harness. It might be with bracers decorated by talon designs. Sometimes he’s got pouches added to the belt, sometimes it’s just plain. Sometimes it’s the old school harness, sometimes it’s more “realistic” where you can see where the straps connect to the metal disc.
The emphasis on Carter has been that he’s an ancient warrior operating in the modern day, so things like this make sense for different adventures. He’ll even break out chain mail at times. None of these have really become part of the standard look, with perhaps the exception of new knee pads he sported in several adventures. I think Hawkman’s strong enough he doesn’t really need knee pads (the Nth metal increases his strength, resiliency and healing), but they don’t ruin the look either.
Whatever he’s wearing, whatever armored pieces he’s added, and whatever weapons he’s decided to use, Carter has kept the same basic look so that you never confuse him for another hero. The wings, the helmet, the harness, the green trousers. They all immediately tell you “this is Hawkman,” and that’s very key considering how many comic book characters wind up accidentally resembling each other. Although sometimes I do think he goes a little far. Just saying, having a giant belt buckle with your emblem on it seems a little repetitive when you already have a big medallion with your emblem hanging on your chest.
In the upcoming DC Comics relaunch, DC has shown that Carter will have a new costume and evidently a new origin that involves him being an expert in alien archeology. I’ve already said my piece on what his new outfit looks like. That was a general impression, of course. I can’t fully judge how good the look is for him until I see how his character has (or hasn’t) changed in the new continuity.
And that brings us to a close. As stated before, there will be an upcoming piece on the many Hawkgirls and Hawkwomen, so don’t think I’m only focusing on the boys here. And before we go, let me say that I will be at San Diego Comic-Con so if you see me, you should come say hi. Unless you’re a hater, in which case you’re mistaken, that’s not me. Until next time, this is Alan Kistler, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E., signing off. Cheers!
Alan Kistler writes the comic book history/fashion column Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. He is an actor and freelance writer living in New York who has been recognized by Warner Bros. Films and major media/news outlets as a comic book historian. He is also a creator/host of the web-show and podcast “Crazy Sexy Geeks: The Series.” He knows entirely too much about the history of comics, Star Trek, Doctor Who, time travel, and vampires that don’t sparkle.
You can find him on Twitter: @SizzlerKistler
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