DC History Club March 2022 Hawkgirl

Hawkman and Hawkgirl
Reading Order
(4 years ago)

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Unfortunately
Hawkgirl’s comic book history is mainly tied to Hawkman’s, which is very messed up

This topic is on Hawkgirl, not Hawkman.

So this is the important series that explore the various Hawkgirls

1940 Flash 1 Carter Hall, Shiera Sanders. Reincarnated

1941 All Star 5 FIrst appearance of Hawkgirl

1961 The Brave and the Bold 34 Katar and Shayera Hol, married police officers from the planet Thanagar

1989 Hawkworld Reboot of Thanagar. Katar Hol, Two Shayera Thal (fFirst, Rich Heiress, Second, Orphan adopted by father of first, who becomes a Cop)

1999 JSA: Secret Files and Origins 1 First Kendra Saunders

1999 JSA 3 Kendra Saunders

2001 Justice League Animated Shayera Hol Thanagar

2002 Hawkman Kendra Saunders Reincarnated

2004 Justice League Unlimited Shayera Hol Thanagar

2017 Dark Nights: Metal Lady Blackhawk Kendra Saunders Reincarnated

2018 Hawkman Carter (and later Shiera) reincarnate in Time and Space, not necessarily in time sequence, totally revised origins for both

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Link to polls of
Favorite Hawkgirl episodes

Justice League Animated

Justice League Unlimited

At

All polls remain open

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This post’s Links and Images are at the bottom

This is the transition from the Animated version of Hawkgirl Shayera Hol to Comic Book Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders.

Part of the Hawkgirl timeline in a previous post is:

1999 JSA
Kendra Saunders

2001 JL Animated
Shayera Hol

Why is Hawkgirl in JL?

Why isn’t Hawkgirl the Kendra version?

At the time, DC Superheroes were infrequent on TV or Movies

So when the TV series Lois and Clark went into production

DC management ordered that the planned Lois and Clark wedding be abandoned, which resulted in the Death of Superman issues.

Why was the Kendra version created for the JSA series?

The previous attempts at reviving Hawkman, never a best seller, was so messed up; that DC gave up on the character.

Kendra in JSA was a young, fresh new character, with no other series to limit her use.

Shayera could kick butt, but Kendra could be more aggressive.

The Justice League was most successful with seven characters, the latest being the original Big Seven by Grant Morrison.

That group was largely used
Except for

John Stewart as Green Lantern

Hawkgirl replaced the Peter David version of Aquaman, who guest starred in a few episodes.

Hawkgirl was much more versatile in action sequences

With her ironic mask and wings, her mace smashing through many obstacles.

John and the two female heroes increased much needed diversity in the JL.

Jonn Jonzz was vital to the JL Origin Story, which was the first three episodes.

Only Batman and Superman had appeared previously, so five new characters had to be quickly introduced.

Saying Hawkgirl was from the planet Thanagar was easy to explain, especially with the alien origins of Superman, Jonn Jonzz and the Green Lantern Corp.

Kendra’s origin became that of Reincarnation, which took two episodes of JLU in Season 3 and required the use of Hawkman.

Kendra was not in the Justice League until 2007 JLA, by Brad Meltzer.

Shayera was a JLA member

Real Reason

Paul Levitt wanted one member to die or betray the team.

Which required

An expendable character

A plot that character could easily be used in

The planet Thanagar was drastically revised in the

Hawkworld series

From a nice, friendly planet to a

Violent fascist one, who conquered other planets

Which is the main plot of the final JL episodes Starcrossed

So the Hawkgirl in Justice League Animated

Though called
Shayera Hol

Is a combination of characteristics of

Silver Age Shayera Hol, including her costume

Kendra Saunders

Shayera Thal of Hawkworld (Cop daughter)

Kendra vs Shayera Thal
Hawkman 2002
Issue 15

Links

Secret Origin History of DC Comics (Death of Superman 1 hour 14 minutes in)

Messed up Hawkman
Hawkworld

https://dailysuperheroes.com/tops/top-tv/10-reasons-hackman-is-terrible-as-explained-by-a-guy-who-likes-hawkman/9

Why Shayera in JL Animated

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1999

JSA Secret Files 1

Kendra Saunders

Hawkgirl Origin

Complete

Short

Simple

No talk of reincarnation

Just use
Grand Aunt’s
(1st Hawkgirl 1940s
Shiera Sanders Hall)
Uniform
Nth Metal Belt
Wings

First flight of Hawkgirl

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JSA 2

Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders

First Appearance in JSA Title

Again Simple

(Except for the dreams of Ancient Egypt)

(And that the
Original Hawkman
Carter Hall
Is her Grand Uncle
By marriage, not blood

Makes a later relationship between the two

Very … Problematic)

JSA 25

But that is later

Back to JSA 2

JSA Series

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JSA
Issues 21 22

Origin of Hawkgirl

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JSA
Issues 24 to 27

The Return of Hawkman

And a Complicated Relationship

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JSA
Issues 43 44

Kendra
Mr Terrific
Captain Marvel

Time travel to
Ancient Egypt

And meet

Prince Khufu
Lady Chay-ara

Black Adam

Nabu (Dr Fate)

And fight

Vandal Savage

A Metamorpho

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Kendra is a co star in

The Hawkman 2002 Title
By Geoff Johns

My favorite pages are Carter as an Indiana Jones professor and Kendra’s entering his class room

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Hawkmam 2002
Has everything
A Hawkman fan would want

Dynamic Art

An Akward Relationship

Exotic Lands

Doctor Fate (Their Son)

Old Friend

Frenemies

Old Enemies

Past Lives

Thanagar

Spacecraft

Hawkwoman

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Hawkman 2002 ends with issue 49

Issue 50 is renamed Hawkgirl

The summary for issue 49 is

It is one of those
“End of everything”
Issues

And has no impact on current DC Continuity

Here are the final pages
Of issue 49

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Hawkgirl 50
Summary

Non Random Sample Pages of this series

Hidding pages

Why?

You’ll know why
If you look

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Hidden Pages

Review: Hawkgirl: The Maw trade paperback (DC Comics) ~ Collected Editions

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Warning recieved, and ignored, looked anyway.

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Added a review of first part of series at end

Agree with review?

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As to the over sexualization, yes just about every scene not in costume is in lingere, as to being well written it was not up to either of Simonson and Chaykin best. Though the art itself was good as was the basic story.

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The Solo Hawkgirl Title was the high (or low) point in her comic book history

Afterwards, Kendra would only appear in team books or crisis events

One team up was

Birds of Prey 104 108

By Gail Simone

Who was also writing

Secret Six
At the time

In these issues
The two teams clash
(Including Harley Quinn)

The Birds of Prey recruited new members so the odds would be more equal

One was Kendra, who does her mace and fists thing.

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Kendra also is in Justice League of America 2006

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Meltzer only wrote issues 0 and 1 to 12

Having 10 members did not allow them all to be explored

Emphasis was on Red Tornado, Vixen, and Black Canary

Roy and Kendra left the series in issue 31

By then
Their only sub plot
Was their romance

The series added an unseen daughter, Mia

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2009
Blackest Night

The End of
Kendra Saunders

At least this version

The last page
Is my favorite

Since I started reading Hawkman in 1961

I felt 11 years old again
At least for a moment

As the lady bird said
“Oh how I’ve missed you.”

I am not crying
Okay a little

And then came

The End of Brighest Day
Flashpoint
New 52

And this
Eternal Love
Was gone again


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