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Katar Hol was the son of prominent
ornithologist Paran Katar, who was training his son in the science. Paran
Katar was also an inventor, and had created sets of artificial wings for
them both, in order that they might observe bird-life in its most natural
and inaccessible state. When the Manhawks attacked, Thanagar was helpless;
it had never before had the need for a police force. Katar decided that he
was best equipped to infiltrate the Manhawks' flock, and he did so,
managing to make off with some of the bird-beings' humanoid masks for his
fathers' study. Paran Katar fitted his son with a hawks' head containing
circuitry designed to nullify the effects of the Manhawks' eyebeams, and,
armed with another of his father's inventions, Katar did overcome them, and
sent them fleeing into space.
Had not some Thanagarians taken up the idea of thrill-stealing, this would
have been his last flight, but the government decided to establish a
standing police force of their own. As a mark of honor to Paran Katar, the
hawk cowl and wings were adopted as the official uniform, and Katar Hol
became the force's first (and most decorated) officer.
"By the time of his arrival on Earth, Katar had ten years' experience in
the organization which would be dubbed the Wingmen by later writers. (This
would make Hawkman now no older than his mid-thirties. ...) Sometime after
the establishment of the police corps, Katar Hol was assigned duty with
rookie officer Shayera Thal in tracking down the Rainbow Raiders [no
relation to the Flash foe]. The stalwart, though initially uncertain
Shayera accidentally saved Katar's life during the case, and the couple
subsequently fell in love and were married (a state marked by Thanagarian
custom with the earrings worn by Hawkgirl in her costumed identity).
Ten years after Katar Hol fought the Manhawks on Thanagar, an inventor
created a pill which allowed the taker to become a metamorph with a[n]
ability to alter the molecules of his body to any form of animal life he
can envision...it was stolen by Byth Rok and used as a means to plunder
Thanagar. His ease in doing so bored him quickly, and stealing a
spaceship, Byth fled the planet to find new vistas of thrills. As
Thanagar's most prominent policemen, Katar Hol and Shayera were dispatched
to follow him in one of the newly built star-cruisers equipped to travel
through hyperspace, allowing the ship to exceed the limitations of the
speed of light. Tracking the criminal to Earth, they placed their ship in
orbit, activating invisibility and anti-detection devices which shielded
its presence from Earth, then donned metal headbands connected to a device
called the Absorbascon. This electronic brain absorbed impulses from the
minds of all thinking creatures on the world at which it was directed,
allowing its users to absorb all knowledge from every resident of the
world over a span of many hours. Thus equipped with full knowledge of all
languages, customs, and mores of the people of Earth, Katar and Shayera
felt ready to follow Byth's trail and to sneak him out, while remaining
undercover."
They eventually tracked him to Midway City, where they, "as any law
officers entering an area out of their jurisdiction would do, ...
contacted the local authorities to fill them in on their identities, their
quarry, and to arrange for extradition. In this case, ... they met Midway
City Police Commissioner George Emmet, an elderly but open-minded man with
enough faith in their fantastic story ... that he aided them in
establishing their Earth cover identities. Emmet's brother Ed was retiring
as curator of the Midway City Museum, and the commissioner arranged to
have Carter [Katar] replace him, and for the couple to take over the lease
on his apartment. ... Following the trackdown [of], battle with, and
capture of Byth, with the criminal sent back to Thanagar for
incarceration, the police officers applied for and were granted an
indefinite stay on Earth for the study and practical application of
Earth's police methods by their police chief, Andar Pul.
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