Carter Hall

Hawkman

Carter Hall

## Biography

### Early Life

Carter Hall was born on January 1st, 1982, as the first child of construction worker Irwin Hall and public defender Rachel Hall. Unbeknownst to the family, Carter had been born as the latest reincarnation of the Thanagarian soul Hol.

The Hall Family lived in Midway City. While at first it was a nice enough town, following the 1987 Veidt Attacks, the city fell into financial ruin, and became a hub of low-income housing. Subsequently, the school system was flooded with juvenile delinquency and gangs. Despite Mr. and Mrs. Hall having better jobs than most in the district, they still couldn’t afford to send Carter to private school. So, Irwin and Rachel tried to convince Carter to keep his head down and stay out of trouble.

However, Carter struggled to obey his parents’ wishes. He was tall for his age, so in elementary school, when he saw kids being picked on, he felt compelled to stand up for them. Although rather than tell the teacher, Carter preferred to solve problems with his own two fists. He became a regular in the detention hall and quickly made himself enemies within both of the rival gangs within the schools; the Blackouts and the Blue Seals.

Things changed for Carter when his twin brothers were born, and he became fiercely loyal and protective of them. Rachel recalls that Carter once saved up his chore money and gave it to his mother, begging her to put the twins in a private school and save them from the path he had seen many friends walk down. Carter spent his summers teaching the boys, both in academics and in street-smarts. By age six, Hank and Don both knew how to throw a punch.

After a round of standardized testing, Hank and Don ended up in a private Catholic school, and Carter felt like he could finally exhale. However, he found himself stepping to the plate for his family again after Irwin hurt his back on the job site. Carter falsified his birth certificate and got hired with the construction crew, working nights and skipping school to help his family make ends meet. In secret, Carter also started working as muscle for the Blackouts, for which he was paid a pretty penny.

It was in these teenage years when Carter was plagued by vivid dreams of angelic winged creatures and a beautiful red-headed woman calling out to him. The dreams began to change into what felt like distinct memories of being a cowboy, a knight, and an alien police officer. At the same time, Carter was growing muscle with minimal effort, he gained nearly six inches in height, and his senses were heightened. His memory retention also improved, as he seemed to know whole lessons he hadn’t learned before.

One of Carter’s teachers took notice of his developing skills and convinced him to enroll in an AP History course, which was lucrative due to its three day long field trip to the world famous Stonechat Museum in St. Roch, Louisiana. Carter enrolled and ended up on the field trip. While at the museum, Carter was overcome with a piercing headache while reading an exhibit on Egyptian deities. He stumbled backwards, bumping into the red-headed girl from his dreams. In that moment, both found themselves profoundly affected and overwhelmed with a flood of memories of countless lifetimes spent together. He and the girl - who he learned was named Shiera Saunders - agreed to meet that night.

### Hawkman

Carter waited on the hotel balcony for his classmates and teacher to fall asleep so he could scale the building. However, as he went to climb down, he fell, but rather than fall to his death, large feathered wings sprouted from his back and carried him into the night sky to the clock tower where he found Sheira waiting for him. The two shared a passionate kiss before recounting all of their shared lives together.

Shortly thereafter, they crept back into the museum, planning to steal a Thanagarian absorbascon from the display case, but found the museum owner - William Everett - waiting for them instead. Everett was not angry, but rather he explained how he had known them in their past life as Joseph Gardner and Sharon Parker. He sat with them until the Sun came up, recalling memories of the JSA’s glory days, and then he offered to show them more if they came with him to Gotham City. Carter said yes without a moment’s hesitation.

After passing through a magical doorway, the trio found themselves in the JSA Brownstone, where they went to their old quarters and found the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl costumes on display. In addition, Carter found a detailed journal that Gardner had left. It was at this point that Carter and Shiera realized neither of them could remember their most recent life.

Everett sent them on their way, leaving them with a job offer and a phone number. Upon returning to Midway City, Carter dropped out of high school, took his GED, and then started packing his stuff. He didn’t even think to alert the Blackouts when he skipped town, and only offered a vague answer to his family. He returned to St. Roch, where he started living with William and his grandson Markus. He and Shiera studied with professors from the local college, all friends of Everett’s, and worked at the museum as docents part-time.

When they finished their courses, Everett hired both of them as museum curators - which allowed Carter to send home a sizable check that permitted the Hall family to move to a safer neighborhood. Carter also decided it was time to go back home. That Thanksgiving, Carter and a wedding-ring-sporting and two-months-pregnant Shiera turned up to the Hall household. The family all sat together and watched on the TV as the Justice League assembled for the first time. All of the recent revelations in Carter’s life combined with seeing seven heroes come together filled him with inspiration.

Seven months later, their daughter Kendra was born. Shortly after the birth, Shiera proclaimed she felt off, before disappearing one night and returning with a teenager, Ch’al Andar, their son from their most recent past life. After catching up with Ch’al, he took them to the underground base he had created out of the husk of his escape pod, and opened up a cache of Nth Metal weaponry and armor.

These were the final pieces Carter needed to be inspired, and shortly thereafter the couple took to the skies as Hawkman and Hawkwoman, superheroes of St. Roch. Their actions gained the Justice League’s attention, who inducted them in 2004. Shortly after their induction, Carter was visiting home when he discovered that his younger brothers had become hosts to the Lords of Balance. Carter, now well-versed in the Lords of Order, gave them a history lesson before introducing them to the Titans.

Aside from the superheroes, Carter and Shiera lived a happy and simple life. They worked as curators, lived in an apartment building owned by JSA alumnus, went on archaeological expeditions with their coworkers, gave Ch’al the childhood he never got, and raised their daughter (and then sons) together. The strength of this schedule helped get Carter through a dark mourning period when Don died.

Don’s death made Carter question the necessity and effectiveness of the Titans, and so he asked Ch’al to join the team and keep an eye on them for him. Ch’al, now going by Charlie Parker, made regular reports to Carter. Batman eventually uncovered this and reprimanded Carter for not trusting his teammates. Shortly after this, William Everett died, leaving the museum and his home to Carter and Shiera, so they moved in.

Carter’s grief was compounded a few years later when Hank also perished while in the field. Ch’al decided to take some time off the Titans to be with Carter, and the two decided an expedition to explore Carter’s Thanagarian roots would do them some good, especially since much of that history remained foggy. The trip ended up doing just the opposite, as Carter discovered that the Thanagarian spirit Hol had been known as the Deathbringer on the planet.  He had been banished from the society after slaughtering a village of innocent people, which is what led him to die on Earth in ancient Egypt.

Now, Carter was left questioning the purity of his soul and returned to Earth in an even deeper existential crisis. He decided to go on leave from the Justice League as he confronted the reality of this knowledge and grappled with it. He ended up staying with Doctor Fate in Salem for a few months, where he learned how to astral project and began partaking in meditation. During this time, he also visited Feithera, the secret city of Manhawks, where he met Norda Cantrell, a child of Hol and Thal in another life. Carter returned to his family feeling at peace and rejuvenated.

When the Justice League shut down, Carter and Shiera devoted their lives to being “normal” parents. They took the kids on road trips, worked, had movie nights, and game nights and for a period of time it was totally blissful. Kendra took up archery, while Rex and Hector grew and enjoyed the company of their uncle Charlie.

Near the end of the League’s shutdown, Carter and Kendra were playing catch when Kendra suddenly sprouted wings and leapt through the air to catch the ball. Despite Carter’s insistence, Kendra was fascinated by this newfound ability and begged her father to teach her to master it. Carter decided to indulge the girl, and they spent many nights sparring on the grounds of their estate.

With the return of the League came the return of the Titans, and Kendra begged to join up. However, after what happened to his brothers, Carter was hesitant to let her join and was incredibly overprotective. Eventually, he promised his daughter that when she turned sixteen he would sponsor her membership.

Carter almost changed his mind about this following the OMAC Crisis, but Kendra saw this coming and refused to let her dad go back on the promise. So, they spent the year of the League’s reorganization training and sparring, Shiera even took her for a month long training session on the Paradise Islands, until Kendra was a fighter that rivaled her father. They then decided to take Kendra to visit Feithera, where the Manhawks taught her flight techniques. When the Titans accepted nominations for the Young Justice Academy, Carter and Shiera sponsored her admission, and Kendra joined the Titans as Hawkgirl.

## Notes

* Carter's physical appearance is inspired by Aldis Hodge who portrayed him in Black Adam (2022).
* Rex Hall was Warhawk in Batman Beyond.
* In the comics, Hector Hall was his godson.
* Kendra Hall was his wife in the comics, but she has been reimagined here.
* The Blackout Gang and the Blue Seal Gang were minor gangs in the comics that have been reimagined.