Thanagarian vs Egyptian: how do you like your Hawkfolk?

[Comic-Reader Lad]

No fence straddling? Unfair!

I went with Thanagar, but really that's not enough for me. Thanagar just makes the Hawks like any number of other aliens on earth. I love Thanagar and its history and mythology and all of that, it's a great resource, but "alien space cop" is too common a theme.

The reincarnated Egyptian royalty concept is far more unique in comics and lends itself well to a ton of great mythology and concepts that also folds in characters like Dr. Fate and Metamorpho without completely absorbing all their individual agency.....but you lose out on all the fantastic Thanagar stuff!

I voted for Thanagar and I played by your rules Bomma, but I really think at this point the Hawks benefit more from combining the two origins.

I agree that the Egyptian royalty concept is more singular than the Thanagar version. I remember years ago in the comic store, a guy was saying to his friend that he just can't get into DC because all their heroes are aliens.

Of course, that's not exactly true, but a lot of the big guns like Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter are alien or from wacky comic book lands -- far different than Marvel where basically only Thor falls into that category among their A-listers.

So, I like the idea of a regular guy and gal off the street discovering they are reincarnates of ancient Egyptians. I also agree that it allows writers to connect them to Dr. Fate and Metamorpho as mentioned above, but also to Shazam, Black Adam, Ibis, Isis, and immortal characters like Vandal Savage.

The Justice League series did a good spotlight episode on Hawkgirl and John Stewart sharing a past in Ancient Egypt. Quite frankly, I never found any Thanagar stuff compelling, and once the post-Crisis reboot made Thanagar yet another rich-oppressing-the-poor place, I was even less interested.

Reincarnation and Ancient Egypt have more of a mythic romance feel to them, while Hawkworld-Thanagar only feels derivative.

[ComixMaven]

I prefer the Egyptian Hawks, because they were the first version and had a completely unique origin story - and it made more sense for Iron Age souls to be familiar with and think first of using Iron Age weapons. (This always seemed a little odd for a pair of alien space cops - why wouldn't they think first of space-age weapons?)

Well, if DC interpolates the space cops into the resurrection pattern - it looks like they're going that way - maybe the anomalies can be reconciled.

[Anodyne]

I can't decide because I liked when there were two sets of Hawks -- one more science-based and another more mythological based.

I agree. IMHO DC's mistake was to call the Silver-agers Katar and Shayera: names that were close, but not identical, to "Carter" and "Shiera." It made them too similar to be viewed as different characters from their Golden-age counterparts (like Jay and Barry or Alan and Hal), but not similar enough to be seen as older and younger versions of the same character (like the two Clarks ,two Bruces or two Dianas). And it didn't help that AFAIK the two Hawk couples never teamed up, in the JLA/JSA crossovers or anywhere else.

I've got nothing against Carter Hall, but Hawkman will always be Katar Hol to me. He's my favorite and I want him to be a separate entity to Carter.

Me too. Katar and Shayera were the first Hawks I met, and I've never warmed up to their earlier counterparts. IMHO in the annual team-ups the JSA Hawkman's helmet made him look more like a canary than a hawk.

I managed to get my hands on 'Shadow War of Hawkman', 'Hawk World 1 & 2', 'The Legend of Hawkman', all of which featured the alien Hawks. All of this started thanks to the JLU version of Hawkgirl. There is a lot of interesting lore surrounding the Thanagarian Hawks.

I loved the Shadow War, especially because it showed Shayera with a spiritual side that distinguished her personality from Katar's.

I want Katar and Shayera to be husband and wife; ditto Carter and Shiera.

[MajorHoy]

No surprise I guess, but I'd choose the Golden Age Egyptian side over the Silver Age+ Thanagarian side.

But I'd personally prefer two separate versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl/woman so we could get both.