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The history of Hawkman is long, and there have been several versions of the heroes over the years. I've made several attempts at making guides and flowcharts of their history to make it easie to navigate through their history. I thought I would try another chart to take a look at their history. I believe this is called a Gantt Chart (using time bars) but I'm not an authority on charts so if this style has another name, please let me know. Anyway, it's a Gantt Chart for now.
Since the 80s, you can see that DC has become reboot/restart/rebirth happy, and only one era (Carter Hall II/Kendra Saunders I, 1999-2011) has lasted over ten years. The Golden Age era lasted the longest, even though there was about a decade where they did not appear anywhere. Carter and Shiera's run ended with The Merge during the Zero Hour event in 1994.
The Hawkworld era lasted only eight years, and the era didn't even get a mention in that New History of the DC Universe series, which was a shame. It's one of the best.
Carter "Stalker" Hall and Kendra "Schizo" Saunders had a pretty good run, but that ended when they were killed during the Blackest Night event. Carter did manage to come back, but killed off right away in the Brightest Day event, which I consider one of the worst series endings in Hawkworld history.
Then we got the shortlived Savage Katar/Hunter Saunders era but it didn't go over well and really petered out at the end. Just a slooooooooowwww march to the ominous Death of Hawkman series. This version of Hawkman and Hawkgirl never ran into each other which was a real waste, even though they were both in the extremely odd The Futures End series. It lasted all of seven years.
Now we're in the Rebirth/All-In era. To be honest, histories and timelines have been flipped more that the pancakes at IHOP so everything is canon. Until it isn't. I think. For now, I'm sticking with Hawkman (Carter Hall III), Hawkwoman (Shayera Hol II), and Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders II) who all emerged from the Metal series and the following Justice League/ Hawkman series during the Rebirth era. I haven't seen enough to make me think the current Hawks appearing sporadically in the current comics have been rebooted again, so I'm sticking with them for now.
I hope this gives readers a hawkeye view of how the eras have started, ended and overlapped over the years. The current era has been going for eight years now, so I hope DC sticks with it for a while.
If you really want to dive into their history, here's my full history of the hawks.
For those who like pictures, here's a chart I made a few years ago. Enjoy!
Your work is truly amazing. There’s something I’ve always been very curious about, and it might even serve as a suggestion for you (or, if you’ve already done something like this, I’d love to read it): the personalities of the Hawks. I’m genuinely curious to know the details of their personalities and the differences (if any) between Carter and Katar (in their various versions, both pre- and post-Crisis), as well as between Shiera, Shayera, and Kendra. I also wonder whether the DCAU’s Shayera is more of an original interpretation in that regard or if she was inspired by any specific comic version. Things like that.
ReplyDeleteFor me, a character’s personality is just as important as their story, and it makes me a bit sad to think that, over the decades, writers might eventually have stopped distinguishing the Hawks at least in that aspect. I can clearly tell apart the personalities of the Robins, Flashes, and Green Lanterns, and I’d love to be able to do the same with the Hawks if possible.
Thanks for the comment. I've never focused soley on each Hawks' personality exactly, but I have wrote some articles about specific versions, such as the current Carter Hall or Hawkworld's Shayera Thal. Comparing the personalities would be interesting, but also a challenge because it always changes a bit when the writer changes.
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