Confusion about Shayera Thal and Kendra Saunders

[Bored at 3:00AM]

It also means they could potentially have both Hawkgirl and Hawkwoman at the same time. Which was previously impossible, right?

Hawkgirl and Hawkwoman have been separate characters for decades now. While Carter & Katar got merged post-Crisis, Shiera & Shayera have managed to remain distinct entities even after the Hawk avatar stuff got introduced.

[Digifiend]

That doesn't make sense with the current storyline...

[MajorHoy]

That doesn't make sense with the current storyline...

Welcome to DC comics . . .

[Ascended]

I think we can largely pretend that the New52 Savage Hawkman stuff didn't happen, outside of maybe an oblique mention here or there in a "it all counts!" effort.

Far as I can tell, they're basically using the old school differential; Kendra is the reincarnated Egyptian royal (Golden Age origin) and Shay is the Thanagar space-cop (Silver Age origin). Kendra first appeared in Metal working with a group of immortals to prevent Barbatos' rise. Shay first appeared in Snyder's JL, though I guess maybe she had an "oblique mention" with the Savage Hawkman appearance. The Earth-2 version of Hawkgirl isn't in the mix at all.

Perputa, or however you spell her name, split Kenda's soul in half and invested half of it in Shay, in an attempt to weaken the Hawks (who're tied to the world forge and all that stuff now, and thus a threat to Perpeuta's plans). As of the last issue or two, Kendra got the missing part of her soul back and is now "whole" and Shay is fully her own individual person (and ruling Thanagar).

I'm not sure if they're trying to establish two versions of Hawkman (split along similar Golden/Silver Age lines) or not. I havent been able to catch up with the Hawkman title yet, but from what I've heard about his "reincarnated across space-time" stuff, I'm guessing they're trying to keep Carter with one foot in each origin.

[Flash Gordon]

I'll have to go back and check but I'm almost certain Kendra isn't mentioned at all in the HAWKMAN title (which is a solid book, just saying). So it's weird that she says they're on the outs in JL.

Maybe I'll reread HAWKMAN FOUND, the HAWKMAN book, and recent JL issues and see if I can't work it out. Sounds fun!

[darud]

Welcome to DC comics . . .

I wonder if they are planning this on purpose, or they simply lose tracks of some characters histories or some there are just fans of one or the other characters and want to bring them in regardless.

Personally I like way more Shayera however, and one that combine the one from JLU cartoon with the one from Hawkworld comics should have been enough and Kendra should be retired

[JSAgent]

Nah.. both characters are great. No need to retire.

I have a reasonable handle on what happened.... highlights as follows:

-Carter and Sheira premier in golden age with reincarnation angle
-These characters eventually get regulated to Earth-2 and with the rest of the original JSA, stuck in some repeating realm fight for eternity,
-Earth-1 emerges with Katar/Shayera who are posing as the original Hawks but really are the space versions. This goes on with some tweaking from Hawkworld
-Hawkworld eventually leads to Shayera retiring and becoming a cop in Chicago. This is her status quo for quite awhile and she is out of the mix.
-Earth-1 and Earth-2 merge and eventually the old JSA escape the realm. This means Carter, Sheira, Katar are all around.
-Zero Hour merges Carter and Katar, revealing later that Sheira is killed during that process. New merged Hawk avatar eventually goes away.
-Jump to JSA relaunch and intro of Kendra. Revealed she is reincarnated Sheira. Carter returns with Katar’s memories.
-Shayera still a cop in Chicago through all this and shows up to interact with Carter / Kendra during Geoff’s Hawkman run. She leaves for Thanagar.
-Blackest Night happens which kills Carter / Kendra but brings back Carter / Sheira.... this point has been lost in Rebirth.
-New 52 brings back Katar (Savage Hawkman) and a totally different character in Lady Hawk (note - not specifically indicated as Shay or Kendra). She doesn’t last long though and gets killed.
-Katar gets killed at end of New 52
-Rebirth rewrites a bit further to bring back Carter with Katar now being one of his former lives as established in the new Hawkman series. Savage Hawkman Katar version shows up but revealed not to be real. Carter is now simplified to have Katar as past life.
-Kendra is back as if Blackest Night didn’t happen and Shayera continues her story of former Chicago cop who now is in New Thanagar. Still separate characters.
-New rewrite in JL establishes that when Sheira died - Perpetua splintered Sheira’s soul to weaken Hawkgirl (as she has some mysterious power to use against Perpetua). In doing so, that splintered the cycle which created Shayera as an off-shoot. Kendra is the true reicarnated version. This is flat out acknowledged and the essence from Shayera is pulled from her and given to Kendra. Kendra is now “whole” and Shayera is now severed from the cycle to just be a separate being on New Thanagar.
-Note Shayera is not using any codename but just using Shayera (similar to the JLU series)

Whew... Writing it down does show how complicated it got... but hope that helps. Ha!