Katar Hol : The Winged Warrior HAWKMAN

“The bird hunting a locust is unaware of the hawk hunting him”--a Proverb
Lately he's been spotted flying around in Smallville its high time we learn more about this CBM Character - HAWKMAN. This feature answers the questions - Who he is? What are his abilities? What are the changes he underwent? Who has portrayed him in Comic Book Movies?

Who is HAWKMAN?
He is Carter Hall an archaeologist and museum curator. He is Prince Khufu who lived during the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt. He is Katar Hol an alien policeman from the planet Thanagar with access to advanced technology. He is many more. He is all of these because of a curse that reincarnates him throughout the ages. In all these lives he is a hero.

HAWKMAN is created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, and first appeared in Flash Comics #1. He carries archaic weaponries especially the mace and has a set of large artificial wings, attached to a harness made from the special Nth metal that allows flight. Most incarnations of HAWKMAN work closely with a partner/romantic interest named Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman.

What are his powers and abilities?
Note: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux.

Artificial Feathered Wings: His wings, which are laced with Nth metal, allow him to control navigation and guidance during flight.

Nth Metal Belt & Boots: HAWKMAN flies by way of an anti-gravity Belt & boots constructed from Thanagarian Nth Metal its abilities are controlled mentally.

Nth Metal Enhancement: The metal is psycho-reactive, responding to its bearer's thoughts and in its base form has a number of electromagnetic/gravitational properties.

Enhanced Strength: Carters strength level is increased by the Nth metal.

Enhanced Durability: HAWKMAN is able to withstand blows from superhuman opponents.

Enhanced Vision: observing objects at great distances or at speeds faster than can be perceived by the normal eye.

Enhanced Minor Healing Factor: capable of mending all but the most serious of wounds.

Temperature Regulation: exposure to the Nth Metal allows him to regulate his temperature to withstand extremely cold temperatures.

Flight: ability to fly at speeds up to at least 200 MPH.

Energy Disruption: It has been revealed that Nth Metal can disrupt the very force drawn from the fabric of space/time.

What are the changes in look he underwent?

1. Early Appearances
Flash Comics Vol 1 #1 (January, 1940)
HAWKMAN appeared in Flash Comics #1-104. This HAWKMAN was Carter Hall, a reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian prince, Khufu, who discovered that the mysterious "ninth metal" could negate the effects of gravity and allow him to fly. He donned a costume with large wings to allow him to control his flight and became the crimefighter, HAWKMAN. In his first appearance, he wore a mask very different from what we are familiar with, he has the wing harness strapped around his chest but no hawk logo yet. Like many of the superheroes then he had his boxers outside his trousers (thank you Superman... you truly are a trailblazer). The color motiff he had; yellow, green and orange sticks until this day.

On the next issue he changes the design of his mask. And change the color of the circular portion of his harness on his chest from yellow to red.

Further issues still we see HAWKMAN making more changes on his mask now looking more like a viking full helmet.

He later will trade in the hawk helmet with a ski mask and hawk logo displayed on the forehead. This gave him a more traditional looking superhero face.

2. All Star
HAWKMAN will also has adventures in All Star Comics from 1940 -1978. His costume resembles whatever he was wearing in Flash Comics during those times, as both these titles published concurrently.

3. Justice League
HAWKMAN also had some adventures with the Justice League of America of Earth 1 from 1963-1985. His costume still changes throughout the series. One of the notieceable change is the logo on his chest.

4. Own Series
In May 1964 HAWKMAN got his own series, it is in this series that he got the logo for his chest. This version of HAWKMAN is a policeman from Thanagar. The first volume of HAWKMAN's series lasted until until September of 1968.

5. All Star Squadron
By 1981 HAWKMAN is a part of the All Star Squadron he is in 63 issues which lasted until 1987. The design of his costume, and his look during this time has already been standardized, though he seems to be missing the hawk-head logo on his chest that he was wearing on his own series.

6. Volume 2
1986-1987 HAWKMAN got another shot on a solo series.

7. Justice Society of America
In the 9-Issue run of the first volume of Justice Society of America (1991). HAWKMAN was present on the last 5 issues. His back again in wearing the mask with the spreaded wing hawk on his forehead.

8. Zero Hour
The Zero Hour event happened in Vol. 3 of the HAWKMAN series, here we have a HAWKMAN who is a host for a mysterious "hawkgod", that merged the Carter Hall museum curator and reincarnation of Khufu, with Katar Hol the Thanagarian police.

The first HAWKMAN we see in this series is Katar Hol the Thanagarian police, this series started in '93, by now you should know that the 90s gave us the coolest character designs. So when we Katar he is sporting a Thanagarian Metal wing, a kickass red hawkhead logo on his chest, wearing a black suit all over (no showing of unnecessary skin) and of course sports a long black hair.

Katar Hol and the fashion in Hawkworld(these are costumes he wore while a policeman in Thanagar):

Below we see Carter Hall before he has merges with Katar Hol, notice that his costume is a yellow sleeveless shirt instead of the yellow bands crossing on his chest.

After the merger, we have the new Katar Hol with the fashion sensibility of the old Carter Hall who just likes to show some skin. Though the color choice is the muted black of the Thanagarian Hol.

9. JSA
Currently HAWKMAN is a member of the JSA, Justice Society of America. Where he returned wearing his old costume and its color scheme. I need to mention that he is no longer wearing the red trunks outside his trouser (if only he could tell Superman to wear his trunks properly as well).

10. Black Lantern
HAWKMAN, because of his history with death, was one of those heroes who was transformed into a Black Lantern during the Blackest Night event.

11. White Lantern
During the Brightest Day event, HAWKMAN was given a task that if he could fulfill it, returns him back to the state of living. We see him briefly donning the White Lantern outfit.

Who has played HAWKMAN in live media?
1. Bill Nuckols
HAWKMAN was featured in the Legends of the Superheroes TV Specials in 1979, portrayed by Bill Nuckols.

2. Actor in a Baby Ruth Commercial
A 1997 commercial (I don't know who the actor is, but I didn't really tried searching for him.)

3. Michael Shanks
HAWKMAN was in the TV series Smallville, in the two-parter episode "Absolute Justice" where he is joined with other members of the Justice Society. He died in the show battling a supervillain and was buried in Egypt.

sources: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1465917.html : http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/niven/142/opinion/opi09.html : http://www.superheroes-r-us.com/2009/hawkman-and-hawkgirl-convention-reference/ : http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/19/

Article requested by:

JohnTom88
TheWitness/Pollmaster Do Thing sea-fearing buddy Namor next. Or HAWKMAN if you want to put DC stuff next.
[@JohnTomm88 I'll make a featurette on Namor, when we get to see a movie about him.]

Oreos
HAWKMAN NEXT! PLEASE! STOP IGNORING MY MESSAGES! >:(

This is the 20th article in my Know Your CBM Character series. Any requests and suggestions for an article for this series write it down in the comment section BELOW.

Message to the CBM community:To those who are making requests, check first [here] because I might have done an article on the character already. If I have not please be patient, I will get on it as soon as possible (but consider the fact that I spend hours writing one of these articles). Try to limit your request to characters that already have been adapted to live media, so that the feature will at least be relevant to the site – Comic Book Movie(though I include TV characters). Characters in Manga or Anime’, I am not particularly familiar of, I am not discounting these characters but it will probably take some time before I write a feature on them because I have to read up on these characters. Thank you for reading these articles! If there are errors on the feature article above, blame it on my age, humanity and ignorance. Just be sure to check the comment section for the corrections, any error I made will surely be pointed out and corrected by much bigger geeks (because there will always be a bigger geek out there). -This has been PollMaster inviting you to the geekside. MABUHAY CBM and Godspeed!

And for die hard Hawkfans here's a couple of his incarnation, which I know would be easy for you to identify:

P0llMaster
5/5/2011
DCMU

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