One of the more underrated characters in the DC universe is Hawkgirl. She's someone who has both a great and unique backstory, even if it's a bit muddled at times. The fact she's essentially immortal due to her reincarnation curse is a great character quirk, particularly with how tied it is to Hawkman.
It's something that the cartoon managed very well, and various comic writers have had middling success with. The biggest issue with her is that her history is so jumbled that even the staunchest of fans might not understand certain things about the character. In some cases, this is due to continuity, and other times it's just questions that the comic itself didn't even bother to answer. Either way, there's plenty that doesn't make sense about Hawkgirl.
10 Her Muddled Origins
No character has ever undergone the array of changes that Hawkgirl has over the years. Her origin seems like it's changed every new age of comic. First, she was an Egyptian cursed to reincarnate every time she fell in love with Hawkman, then she was an alien police officer from Thanagar, and then it was some odd combination of the two. The multiverse allows DC to do this without much of an issue, however, it is rather jarring and confusing why this happens to her character as often as it does.
9 Why She Wears The Wings
This ties into her muddled origins and backstories as the golden age version never really explained this other than mentioning that Nth metal is what killed them during their initial lives. In the silver age version, it's explained that it was just part of the Thanagar police department uniform. This was because Nth metal was native to their planet and granted them the ability of flight. From there, the wings just seem part of the character because that's what everyone associates with her.
8 Retconning The Silver Age
Retcons are a fact of life and will always happen in comic books due to how long they've run. Usually, they crop up after major story angles or as a way to revert a character to how they were. The issue is they introduced what was essentially a completely different character and then tossed her by the wayside to go back to what they originally had.
It makes you wonder why they even introduced the character in the first place. More than likely it was an attempt at change for the sake of it, as is often the case in comics.
7 Her Time As Kendra Saunders Post-Crisis
Kendra took the character in a different direction, foregoing the reincarnation route, but instead having her assume the body of the recently deceased Kendra. Her soul entered Kendra's body as Kendra's was leaving, creating an odd storyline, to say the least. Shiera not knowing her past is one thing, having it result in her thinking she was Kendra is another. How could Shiera's soul not remember who she was? It was never explained how she could just hop into another person's body either. Just saying it was due to the family connection feels cheap.
6 Being Resurrected As Shiera Hall
During the Black Lantern saga, both Kendra and Carter were killed by Black Lantern versions of the Dibny's. They were both subsequently brought into the Black Lantern Corps, spreading death and destruction. The issue with this comes that once they are brought back as White Lanterns, Shiera is brought back in both body and spirit. While her spirit may have resided inside Kendra, it was still Kendra's body, so why wouldn't she be the one brought back?
5 Leaving Her On Earth-2 In New 52
This was a strange decision, even if you never really cared for her character. During the rebrand, they decided to leave Hawkgirl's character in the Earth-2 universe (only briefly touching on her in prime earth), reenvisioning her as Kendra Muonz-Saunders, a woman who's backstory isn't gone into as in-depth as you'd like.
To start the series, you don't even find out why she has the Nth wings, a recurring problem with the character. Far too often things are just hand waved with her rather than fully explained.
4 Effects Of Nth Metal
Nth metal's abilities seem to range a ton from Silver age to Golden age to the current run. Nowadays it seems like extended exposure to the metal can grant you some of its abilities innately, even without the wings. These abilities include acute vision, healing factor, temperature regulation, enhanced senses, and hearing. How that works is rather confusing, as Nth metal shouldn't inherently grant you special abilities as it's just metal.
3 Hawkwoman
Hawkwoman was Sharon Parker, an earthling woman who replaced silver age Hawkgirl during the story arc Millennium and Invasion! Her run was a short one that was rather pointless in the end. It wasn't even clear if she was the Hawkwoman that appeared in the Shadow War of Hawkman or if that story even has a place in continuity any longer. She got abolished so quickly that many fans don't even remember that she ever existed.
2 Her Relationship With John Stewart
In the cartoon version of the Justice League, they pulled a 180 in Hawkgirl's story and had John Stewart as her long lost lover rather than Hawkman. It made for an interesting plot twist, particularly since they'd built their relationship from the beginning. This is especially true once the reveal came, Hawkman so sure that he was her destined lover. It made for a good moment in a show that threw all of her different origins into a blender and came up with possibly the best version of her character. That said, straying from the established canon is always a head-scratcher.
1 Hath-Set's Jealously
Having love be the reason to turn to villainy can be an excellent plot point, one that leads to some great stories. That isn't the case with Hath-Set, who just comes off as a psychopath. It's one thing if he tried to kill Hawkgirl and Hawkman for being rejected by her. You could buy that, but why go through all of these extra measures? Why bother praying to the gods to ensure that they could never be together? It just seems so excessive and over the top. Killing them outright stops that.