Hawkman Finally Gives Katar Hol a Place in DC Continuity

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Hawkman #3 by Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch, on sale now.

As much as we talk about who Hawkman is, the character has usually been defined by who he once was. For a person who continuously reincarnates over and over throughout time, it's hard to say who Carter Hall is really supposed to be. Is he a prince from ancient Egypt, a knight from the Middle Ages, a gunfighter from the Old West, an alien space cop or an archaeologist? Carter Hall's investigation in Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch's Hawkman series has forced the reader to rethink their notions about the character and discover the truth right along with him.

Just three issues in, and Carter has already taken quite the trip down memory lane. At least, they would be memories if he could actually remember everything about his past lives. So far, he has: seen a vision of a dark future to come, learned that he may be much older than he thought and discovered that he loses memories each time he reincarnates. His adventures have also led him to physical confrontations against his former selves -- first Prince Khufu of Egypt and now Katar Hol of Thanagar. It's all led to a new understanding of Hawkman's most confusing pieces of continuity.

Discovery On Dinosaur Island

In Hawkman #3, Carter continues his mission to learn more about his past, and we finally see the clues start to fall into place. He gained possession of an ancient scepter that led him to his next destination following his fight with Khufu last issue. His next stop? Dinosaur Island. Carter quickly encounters a flock of Feitherans upon arrival, a tribe of birdlike creatures who have deep roots in Hawkman continuity. They have been tasked with guarding the secrets of the island, but, as it turns out, it was Carter Hall (or at least one of his past lives) who tasked these warriors with guarding said secret.

Memory can be a tricky thing and, as Hawkman learns in this issue, there is far more that he has forgotten over his many year of reincarnation. He discovers a cave filled with advanced technology once he is finally able to investigate the secret of the Feitheran Aerie. Carter finds is a symbol that matches the one on his chest and soon discovers that his Egyptian staff is somehow compatible with the tech in the cave. Hawkman uses the artifact to unlock a planetarium of constellations from Thanagarian mythology.

Based on the hawk symbols and the smooth architecture inside the cave, it's worth wondering if this is, in fact, where the Thanagarian ship that crashed in the Egyptian desert long ago has been stored all this time. Somehow, it's all connected, but before any more answers can be provided, Carter is whisked away to meet another one of his former lives.

The final page of the issue reveals that Hawkman has somehow been transported back to Thanagar, where he is confronted by wingman Katar Hol, who is there to arrest him at gunpoint. What this incarnation has to offer Carter has yet to be revealed, but it looks like Hawkman is about to delve head first into the most confusing era in the character's history.

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Welcome Back to Hawkworld

We all knew this was coming. If you're going to do a Hawkman series with the express purpose of reinventing and streamlining the character, the discrepancies between Carter Hall and Katar Hol would eventually have to be dealt with. When it comes to character inconsistencies, there is no one more confusing and impossible to follow than Hawkman, but Venditti and Hitch may have finally cracked the code.

When the character was first introduced back in the Golden Age of Comics, he was Carter Hall, the reincarnated Egyptian prince. Katar Hol was introduced as the Silver Age incarnation of Hawkman, and eventually the two became Earth 1 and Earth 2 counterparts. That is, until the 1980s, when continuity was condensed and the two were merged into one. Unfortunately, DC editorial only made matters worse when they relaunched the character under the Hawkworld title, re-merged every incarnation into a Hawk God avatar and even brought Carter Hall back from the dead.

Over the last 10 years, both incarnations of the character have been used without much explanation for how they fit into continuity. In the New 52, he was simply Katar Hol without mention of Carter Hall, but this new iteration of Hawkman coming out of Dark Nights: Metal is finally making sure that every version is accounted for and explained. As the creative team behind Hawkman has shown, sometimes the simplest explanation is really the best, so now we finally have our answer.

In keeping with the idea that Carter Hall is reincarnating over time and space, it makes sense that Katar Hol and Carter Hall are just different incarnations of the same guy. The series previously mentioned that Hall has finally realized that Katar was not a separate being, but just another piece of his life. In this month's issue, he recognized Thanagarian constellations, confirming that he has memories from living on Thanagar. Then, we finally get confirmation when Katar Hol appears before Carter, like Prince Khufu before him.

That would mean the bare-chested Hawkman we have now is the current hero of Earth, while the gun-wielding wingman was a space cop from a previous life. At some point, Carter lived on Thanagar before he died and was reincarnated again. It's hard to say how this decision will be received, because many loyal Hawkman fans prefer Katar over Carter, but at least we can finally put all the confusion about the character to rest. For all we know, DC has plans to further explore the adventures of Katar Hol and fill out the character's backstory.

This current Hawkman series may revolve around a character exploring his own continuity, but it's also about him learning how to embrace his past and live a better life. Whether Carter is really meeting his past selves or its all an illusion doesn't matter. Katar Hol will have something important to share with Hawkman, and it's something that is sure to keep the adventure going.