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While on Earth, Paran met Cherokee woman, Naomi, who married Perry. Naomi Carter came back with Paran to Thanagar, where she gave birth to Katar and then was returned to Earth.

With Paran's invention, Thanagarians were able to spread not outward (as Thanagar has only a small land mass) but upwards, as citizens could own wings and fly between tall skyscrapers, which were supported by antigravity. They even had plans to build floating cities. Having conquered many other planets, Thanagar had a massive slum area, called the Downside, where natives of these other planets were forced to live.

Paran's son Katar Hol grew up to be a Wingman, though as an aristocrat, he could have had any job he wanted. Idealistic to the extreme, he was unprepared by the rampant corruption in the Wingmen. His partner hooked him on drugs. He met a woman named Shayera Thal, a petty-minded heiress who was killed in an explosion after he fell in love with her. His superior, Byth, told Katar that someone was selling arms to the Downsiders, trying to incite violence. This someone, Byth claimed, was one of the Wingmen.

Katar knew this had to be stopped, so he went willingly where Byth told him to go, and killed the hooded figure who was illegally doing business with the Downsiders. He then discovered that this figure was Paran Katar, his father, who had merely been delivering food and medicine to the needy Downsiders.

Byth's men then captured Katar Hol and banished him to a remote island from which there was no escape. Katar, disillusioned, saw one of the other island residents fashioning a pair of wings from feathers and decided that he must have these wings. He killed the robed man, only learning afterwards that these wings were being made for Katar; the robed figure had wings growing from his back and needed none for himself. Comforted by the dead man's brother, Katar dealt with withdrawal symptoms from his drug addiction, and made peace with himself. He spent ten years on that island. Sometime during these ten years, it seems that Thanagar was one of many races that invaded Earth during Invasion. After the Invasion, Thanagar began diplomatic relations with the Earth. Also, one assumes that Cosmic Idiocy, er, Odyssey occurred during this time period.

Eventually, a vehicle arrived to bring Katar back, but he was left abandoned in the Downside. He continued his father's work by dealing in food and medicine. Byth's men tried to find out who he was, but were unable to do so. However, one female Wingman learned what he was up to, and planned to arrest him, until he explained. He learned that she was named Shayera Thal! Apparently, Thal Porvis had found this young Downsider orphan who coincidentally looked like his dead daughter; he adopted her and gave her the same name. Incidentally, as a ten-year-old girl, she had witnessed Katar's partner Wingman kill the man who had been taking care of her, while Katar was reluctant to act with lethal force.

What was not yet revealed was that Shayera II was actually the daughter of Shayera I, who, at the age of thirteen, had given birth to Andar Pul's daughter, Shayera II. Shayera I's mother, Hyanthis, later would explain all of this to Shayera II. What connection, if any, that Hyanthis has to JLoA foe and pre-Crisis Thanagar conqueror Hyathis, is unknown.

Eventually, Shayera's trust in Katar allowed them to expose Byth's evil plan. Katar and Shayera were hailed as heroes and given wings on their helmets, while Byth was forced to flee.to Earth.

Eventually, despite Byth's use of the metamorphic Krotan drug, the Hawks captured Byth; during their stay, they were treated as diplomats, with Shayera pretending to be studying Earth police methods, where they met George Emmett (now a black man), and other supporting characters. They helped open a Thanagarian wing in a Chicago museum, where they met Mavis Trent (who tried to have a romance with Katar) and Konrad Kaslak (up to no good, just as he was pre-Crisis). As diplomats, they had a publicist, Joe Tracey, and often met with the official ambassador from Thanagar, Darl Klus. Shayera and Katar were given the names Hawkwoman and Hawkman.

During Byth's stay on Earth, he provides the Shadow Thief with a new origin. Carl Sands, ninja supreme, already known as the Shadow Thief, is given a shadow generator, standard Thanagarian technology used in working on their spaceships.

Much of Hawkman's story dealt with politics. Essentially, Hawkman was Captain America for the 90s. He was an aristocrat from an oppressive society who'd been brought down and seen the dirty side of Thanagarian culture, as mentioned. Then he came to Earth, specifically the United States, and was exposed to the dream of a democratic society with freedoms for its citizens. The series did not sugarcoat the difference between the dream and the reality, making it more powerful as Katar became a true, but somewhat pragmatic, patriot of the American ideal, particularly since he was an immigrant, something Captain America has never been able to approach things from but which is integral to the American culture.

At one point, a Hawkman Corps was created on Thanagar. The reason for the existence of the Corps was simple: Thanagar needed heroes (from a publicity viewpoint). Katar spent much of his time on Earth, and was unreliable. Thus, a group of Hawkmen were created, the richest and most high-ranking members of the Wingmen became Hawkmen, with wings on their helmets to signify their great honor.

Eventually, Thanagarian politics became too much for Katar, who (along with Shayera) applied for political asylum from Thanagar. It was initially granted. The Hawks switched to their red costumes, to suggest a split with Thanagarian ways and customs. The Thanagarian embassy closed, and the Thanagarian ambassador planned to return to Thanagar; before leaving, he told the American diplomat that Thanagar would trade anti-gravity technology for the two wanted criminals Katar and Shayera. Betrayed, the Hawks fled for the Netherworld, an area of Chicago where the police would not go, it being a refuge for all the metas who chose not to be part of the superhero/supervillain community.

The Hawks were seen as heroes again, and the Thanagarian offer was therefore dismissed. Realizing that returning to Thanagar without Katar and Shayera would not be wise, the Thanagarian ambassador also applied for political asylum.

The Hawks struggled, learning to fit in in the Netherworld. Eventually, they met Count Viper, and fought a losing battle. When Hawkman was seen next, he was wearing a black costume reminiscent of his Thanagarian uniform. This was six months after this battle.

Eventually, despite some setbacks, Hawkman and Hawkwoman defeated Viper. It was revealed that after the fight, Carter Hall had arrived, and brought Hawkman (III) to his mother, Naomi Carter, who taught him much Native American mysticism, enabling him to see the emotions of others, communicate with certain animals, to see through their eyes, and to call upon the abilities of his spirit animals.

Then Ostrander left the series, and everything that made Hawkman interesting was trashed and continuity was screwed.

Hawkwoman stopped being a hero. Thanagar was destroyed by the Hawkgod. Thal Porvis seemed to be the only survivor of Thanagar. Shayera oddly chose to blame Porvis for Katar being set up to kill Paran Katar (which, you'll recall, was Byth's plan alone). Katar lost his old personality. He became a conservative-bashing liberal, which is almost understandable as the only conservatives he met were poor stereotypes, such as a shameful parody of Rush Limbaugh. Bleah.

The Hawkgod came to Earth. Hawkman III fought it, with unexpected help from Hawkman I and Hawkgirl I, during Zero Hour. Somehow, the Hawkgod was enabled to return to his home dimension, but in the process passed through the three Hawks. The result was that only Hawkman III was left. Supposedly, he had absorbed all who had ever worn the wings, past, present, or future. This is malarky. Also, he became more hawk-like, having become a hawk avatar. This meant that his eyes were hawkish and his wings were now part of him, which he could absorb back into his body at will. These wings were made of ninth metal, of course. It is implied that all other nth metal was destroyed without the Hawkgod there to power it.

What is meant by Hawkman having absorbed all others who wore the wings, is unknown and imprecise. Shayera, for example, was not absorbed, though the Halls were, as were other DC heroes of the past, like Nighthawk and the Silent Knight.

During this incarnation, Hawkman III began to go shirtless. Hawkwoman, however, was devastated by the fact that she could no longer fly, as no Thanagarian anti-gravity would function any more. She left to Detroit, becoming a non-powered crime-fighter. Of course, should she find another set of Ancient Egyptian night metal wings, she could become a superhero again.

Hawkman was maneuvered into battle after battle with other animal avatars by Count Viper, who had just recently entered the body of a snake avatar. Somehow, Katar managed to defeat Viper (neither the combatants nor the readers were to learn how or why). These avatars that Katar met all had vast, incredible powers, though he would later claim that even wimps like the Silent Knight and Nighthawk were hawk avatars; maybe the Hawkgod is much stingier than the beargod, barracuda god, bull god, or snake god.

After fighting Viper, Hawkman visited Thanagar on a JLA mission spearheaded by Guy Gardner: Warrior. He discovered that of all the people on Thanagar, only one thousand Thanagarians lived. Apparently, none of the three billion (according to Who's Who) offworlders living in the Downside survived. None of the culture of Thanagar (such as it was) survived, nor did any of the formerly major characters, apart from the previously seen Thal Porvis.

Later, Neron awoke all the souls in Hawkman's head. Suddenly, all the previous (and future?) hawk avatars began to overwhelm him with their own murderous desires. They revealed that they had all (with the exceptions of Khufu, the Halls, and Gabriel) been killed by Vandal Savage through the years, even the first hawk avatar who was Vandal's brother. Katar battled Vandal in an attempt to get the voices to shut up, but chose not to kill him when Vandal revealed that he had merely acted in self-defense each time. This murderous streak of the avatars shows up again in a vision of the future seen by Deathstroke's daughter Rose, who envisioned a future in which Deathstroke was still alive (being unable to die), but who was sought by at least two Hawk avatars, one that he mentioned having killed in passing and a new one that the Hawkgod newly creates; however, though it was Deathstroke's body, his mind may belong to someone else (Vandal Savage?).

Finally, Priest took over the series only to have it cancelled out from under him. He at least managed to inject back some of the classic Hawkworld elements that had been previously eliminated. The murderous intentions of the hawk avatars proved to be uncontrollable; they killed several people in an attempt to discredit or kill Katar. Katar had no choice but allow himself, along with all the minds of all the hawk avatars, to be banished by Arion to the realm of the Hawkgod.