History

  Katar Hol is the son of the Thanagarian inventor Paran Katar and a Cherokee Earthwoman called Naomi. Naomi had accompanied Paran to Thanagar but having seen the horrors of Downside, combined with feelings of being out of place on Thanagar, she asked to be returned to Earth. However when Katar was born Paran refused to let him go as well (Thanagar was a very sexist society) and Naomi was sent back to Earth where she became a medicine woman. Katar would be raised in the traditions of Thanagar learning about the crafts, ways and heritage of his own people that had been wiped away by the culture raped from other worlds. He was a student of history and Kalmoran was his hero. He also learned to use the ancient weapons of his people. Eventually he would become an ensign in the Wingman corps his father had created. On his first mission to Downside he encountered a young girl he would later learn was the daughter of Shayera Thal I, the daughter of Administrator Thal Porvis and woman Katar was romancing at the time. The girl, Shayera Thal II, had been left in Downside by her then 13-year-old mother Shayera Thal I shortly after she was born to avoid a scandal. [Hawkworld Vol. 1 #1 (1989): "Flashzone"]

  Horrified by the way that the Downsiders were treated Paran Katar started a secret smuggling operation using his resources to pass medicines and food to the slaves. His activities were noticed by the commander Byth of the Wingmen who was also running his own smuggling operation shipping weapons to the Downsiders and shipping the narcotics that they produced to the rich Thangarians in the floating cities. Katar became increasingly depressed with what his people had become, and took to using the narcotics that Byth was shipping into the Highside. While on a recreational hunting trip with Shayera I and their fathers they came across a band of animals, Shayera shot and wounded one forcing Katar to move in on his own and end the poor beast's life. He tracked it to a burrow and found that it dead in front of its mate and child, to his horror he saw cave markings on the wall. The creatures were not beasts, but rather intelligent - if primitive - life forms. Leaving the creatures alive, Katar returned to the hunting party horrified at what he had seen done. [Hawkworld Vol. 1 #1 (1989)]

  The continuing horrors changed Katar, he developed an edge both morally and professionally as a Wingman, developing skills and contacts that made Byth realise how dangerous he really was. Byth then conspired to eliminate father and son. In a staged event Katar was tricked into killing his father, and sentenced to ten years imprisonment on the remote island known as the Isle of Chance. Meanwhile Byth exposed his own smuggling as Paran's and was declared a hero. On the island Katar hit withdrawal symptoms of the drugs that he had been using and in a crazed rage he stole the wings a hermit was making and in the process killed him. The hermit's brother, a priest, revealed that the wings were to have been a present to Hol. Katar learned a lot from the Priest and his time on the island in solitude after the priests natural death. He learned to survive and slowly the narcotics worked their way from his system. [Hawkworld Vol. 1 #2 (1989): "Freefall"]

  Having served his ten-year sentence Katar Hol found himself returned to the Downside of Thanagar where he used the skills that he had learned on the island to set up a clinic to help the other Downsiders taking up where his father had left off. Operating in secrecy he made use of smuggling operations run by Byth (who had become a decadent Highsider) to get medicines. His clinic and operations where however noticed by Wingman Shayera Thal II, the daughter of the lady he briefly dated. Forming an uneasy alliance they cracked the gun running operation of Byth. Katar Hol then confronted Byth, but the criminal escaped by using a shape shifting drug called Kortan. Katar Hol's record was cleared and he was reinstated as a Wingman. Both he and Shayera were allowed to wear special winged helmets as a sign on honour. [Hawkworld Vol. 1 #3 (1989): "Phoenix Flight"]

  Eventually Byth fled to Earth. Following their unsuccesfull participation in the Invasion, Thanagar had established diplomatic relations with Earth and on the request of Darl Klus, the Thanagarian Ambassador on Earth, it was decided to send Katar, the greatest hero of Thanagar, and his partner Shayera to Earth to accompany a Thanagarian cultural exhibit on a goodwill tour. While away Shayera was ordered to spy on Katar and report back to her superiors who feared Katar's increasingly independent nature. [Hawkworld Vol. 2 #1 (June 1990): "Predators"] When they actually reached Earth they found a society very different to that which they had just left. After an initial encounter with Byth they discovered that Earth police had very different limitations and powers, a solution was found by where Katar and Shayera would be allowed to operate legally but without their Thanagarian weapons.

  Byth killed a policeman than Shayera was dating and then framed Shayera for his own murder after she persuaded him in a rage. Katar was forced to hand over Shayera to Earth authorities to preserve diplomatic relations before he was ordered back to Thanagar himself. Katar disobeyed orders to return home and exposed Byth's plan and in the process proved Shayera's innocence. Katar was once again a hero in the eyes of the masses. [Hawkworld Vol. 2 #9 (March 1991): "Hawkwoman Caged"] While Shayera returned back to Thanagar with the captured Byth, Katar was the subject of a public relations campaign that saw him identified with the name Hawkman. [Hawkworld Vol. 2 #11 (May 1992): "Eight Miles High"] The title meant little to Hol until he was forced to travel into the past by a villain known as the Fiddler who was trying to kill the Golden Age Flash. Along the way he encountered his father and discovered the existence of a prior Hawkman in the shape of Carter Hall. Upon returning back to his own time Katar threw himself into the Hawkman role and in the process became more liberal and idealistic. [Hawkworld Annual Vol. 2 #1 (1991): ""]

  Katar grew increasingly distant from Thanagar until the point where he actually started helping refugees from Downside escape to Earth to a community in Chicago called Netherworld where meta-humans, mutants and aliens formed their own society away from the normal world. When they were discovered Shayera and Katar applied for diplomatic refuge on Earth. Initially they were accepted but Thanagar offered the secret of Nth Metal in exchange for them. Eventually they withdrew the offer and Ambassador Klus applied for refuge himself. After a battle in Netherworld with Count Viper, Shayera was seemingly killed and Katar was badly injured. Meanwhile due to the help of Waverider the Justice Society had returned from limbo including Carter Hall. Carter found the badly injured Katar and took him to Naomi (Katar's mother) to be healed. From her Katar learned about her people and their traditions. He learned much about himself and his abilities as the next Hawk Avatar after Carter Hall, began to develop. He learned to see the emotional state of other people in their auras and to communicate to an extent with certain animals.

  Returning to Chicago Katar designed and wore a new costume leading many to think that it was a different Hawkman in the skies. This was a careful play to lure these enemies to him because he suspected that Shayera was still alive and being held by them. The plan worked and with due course Count Viper made his move. It turned out that Viper was actually possessing Shayera's body while she languished in a mental asylum in his last body. During the course of the battle Viper switched bodies with Katar who found himself in the body of Shayera. Freeing his partner, he with the help of the Wonder Woman and the Justice League managed to capture Viper. Then in a spiritual quest the two Hawks defeated Viper and returned to their own bodies. Viper meanwhile leapt into the body of the current Viper Avatar and would return later to plague the life of Hawkman.

  The existence of two Hawk Avatars at the same time (Katar Hol and Carter Hall) combined with the over use of Nth Metal weakened the prison of the Hawkgod, allowing it to escape. It headed straight to Thanagar homing in on the Nth Metal in the process destroying all floating cities and ravaging the planet leaving millions dead. With that dealt with it felt the pull of the Nth Metal across the void to Earth and set out to punish those that would have enslaved it. All those wearing Nth Metal felt it approach as both Carter and Katar suffered hallucinations and lost control at times forcing them to battle each other at one stage. Shayera was saved this by Naomi rituallly burring her wings and harness. Carter Hall possessed by the Hawkgod ran amuck during the temporal anomalies in the run up to the Zero Hour. Hawkmen from dozens of different timelines kept fluxing in and out of existence. Katar confronted the Hawkgod in an effort to stop the killing, he was joined in battled by both the Hall's. With the help of the New Blood Mongrel they managed to drive the Hawkgod back to its own dimension. However as they succeeded Katar, Carter and Shiera were fused physically into one being, a true fully awakened Hawk Avatar.

  The new being was patterned for the most part on the physical body and personality of Katar Hol, but he was more than that he was a fully awakened Hawk Avatar. He now no longer needed a Nth Metal belt and wings as he now possessed true wings sprouting from his back which he could withdraw inside him if necessary. Within him were the combined spirits of all the past Hawk Avatars including Carter and Shiera. The whole new world of Avatars was opened to him as he found that Count Viper had leapt into the body of the Viper Avatar. Viper played a deadly game with Katar playing him off against lesser Avatars. During this he learned much about his condition, Avatars like him are created when a normal person is exposed to dimensional rifts to the dimension where the Animal Gods live. This is what happened when he defeated the Hawkgod and sent it back into the dimension of the Animal Gods.

  The transformation of Katar was difficult for his friends to handle, particularly for Shayera who had become his lover. The change in personality that it caused in Katar alienated Shayera and she left for Detroit where she continued being Hawkwoman without the wings. Katar himself found that he was battling old foes in the form of Hath-Set, the Gentleman Ghost and the Shadow Thief. He also found himself joining the Justice League becoming more and more of a traditional superhero, perhaps under the influence of Carter Hall's memories that he now possessed. He accompanied the JLA into space and while with them saw the devastation of Thanagar first hand, he helped free the survivors from the aliens that sought to colonise the world but refused their offer to stay and lead them putting that part of his life permanently behind him.

  Trouble began to set in when the demon Neron awoke the spirits of all the past Hawk Avatars in Katar's head. The increasingly militant voices began to rule his life and like countless Hawk Avatars they pushed him after Vandal Savage who had killed many of them. Katar set out in a blood thirsty rage after Savage. He managed to beat Savage and would have killed him if it had not been for intervention of Rose Moon, a psychic from the Netherworld who reawakened the personality of Katar Hol and brought it to the fore. The vengeful spirits were angry at Katar for not killing Savage and decided to punish him by taking control of his body and murdering innocent people and leaving runes next to the bodies. Once he regained temporary control (he didn't remember the murders) he noticed the runes, they were text that only he had seen them before. They were the cave markings from the hunting trip on Thanagar that only he had seen.

  Katar sought the help of the Justice League and the Martian Manhunter but they wouldn't believe him that he was dangerous. When the Manhunter tried to telepathically help he was over whelmed by the Hawk Spirits before Katar brought him round. They sought the aid of Arion the Immortal but he refused his help. For his own safety Katar was locked up on the JLA refuge in a garment that restricted the growth of his wings. After a decent night's sleep he realised that he was different, the Hawk Spirits were gone. They had jumped into the Martian Manhunter and had taken him over in their bloody quest for vengeance.

  Katar managed to elude the JLA and sets out after the possessed Martian Manhunter. The Hawk Spirits seeking to get their revenge on Katar attacked Shayera but they were stopped by the intervention of Katar. Using the Martian weakness of fire he managed to get himself a breathing space as he tended to Shayera. As they declared their love Katar re-entered battle but was seriously injured. He was only saved by the intervention of Arion who used his magic (who had been researching the spell since they asked for his help) to allow Katar to reclaim the Hawk Spirits into himself. Knowing that the Spirits were too dangerous to be left on Earth he allowed Arion to transport him to the Realm of the Hawkgod with the Hawk Spirits. Shayera, Naomi and all of Katar's friends are then left to carry on their lives knowing that he is still alive, somewhere in some forgotten dimension and that one day he will return to those that he loves.

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