Shayera Hall

Shayera Hall was Carter Hall's wife. She was also known as Hawkgirl, a member of the Justice Society of America.

Physical Appearance[]

Shayera had dark brown eyes, long dark hair and her features were delicate and soft. Shayera was of Indian descent.^[1] While drinking with Lois Lane, Carter Hall, possibly because he was drunk, or because he was seeing a vision of his dead wife, saw her looking at him mournfully, while dressed in a silk robe of white and blue.

In a painting depicting the original Justice Society of America, Shayera is painted in her Hawkgirl costume. During that time, she wore a yellow and green sleeveless tunic that exposed her arms, as well as bronze bracelets on her arms similar to the kind Carter wore. She wore a bronze helmet shaped like a hawk's head. Like Carter, she had massive brown artificial wings that allowed her to fly.

Powers and Abilities[]

Reincarnation: Shayera is cursed to come back to life again and again.
Flight: Like her husband, she possessed wings.

Early life[]

"Hard to believe. What would someone like me know about love? When I only know it ends and it always ends. In every one of my lives, past and present. Shayera and I were born a thousand years ago. We were cursed by one of our enemies, destined to fall in love with each other only to watch each other die lifetime after lifetime." – Carter Hall, Absolute Justice

Shayera and her husband Carter Hall, were cursed thousands of years ago so that they would live to see each other die lifetime after lifetime. In the 1970s, Carter and Shayera found their way back to each other and became the super-hero duo of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They would later join the Justice Society of America, where Carter was their leader and Shayera acted as his conscience, keeping his short temper in check. During a battle with the JSA's foe, the original Icicle, Shayera was killed, which devastated Carter and ultimately pushed him over the edge.

Consumed by revenge, Carter tracked down and located Icicle, placing Icicle in a catatonic state. Almost immediately after, Carter and most of the other JSA members were taken into custody because of the organization known as Checkmate, but they eventually were released, leaving Carter to mourn his deceased wife.

Season Nine[]

Several decades after the JSA were forced to disband because of the Checkmate agency, members of the old team were targeted and murdered by the son of Icicle, Cameron Mahkent.

911Smallville1139 — The memorial trophy case for Hawkgirl.

When Clark, Oliver and Chloe began investigating deeper into the murders of the ex-JSA members, Clark encountered Doctor Fate, who transported him to their headquarters/museum the old Brownstone, where he found all the old memorabilia belonging to all the members of the JSA team in which Carter had preserved in a glass case. Amongst them, he discovered Shayera's old helmet, which was damaged, as well as her mace. Upon meeting Carter, Clark learned of Shayera's death at the hands of the original Icicle and used her memory to convince Carter to take up the mantle of Hawkman again.

Season Ten[]

1002Smallville1340 — Shayera's love letter to Carter.

Carter, under Clark's orders to keep an eye on Lois, met with her in Egypt during an archeology dig. After listening to her go on about Clark's secret, he revealed to her that he was already aware of Clark's abilities and offered to listen to her troubles. Over drinks, Carter proceeded to tell Lois about his life-story of falling in love with Shayera, trying to make it sound as if the story was also mythology. However, due to their drinking, Carter hallucinated that Lois was his deceased wife and attempted to kiss her, for which he received a firm slap across the face and the threat of worse if he attempted it again. Before Lois left, Carter gave her a book that Shayera had written which told the story of their multiple lives together.

ShayeraShieldCap — Shayera in Carter's vision.

Later on, Lois confronted Carter about the fact that his "story" was actually an autobiography. Lois was then saddened to learn that Carter's hallucination was in truth a vision, which meant that he would be with Shayera once again in death, so that they would be allowed to be reborn in a new life together. Carter then urged Lois to return to Clark, as she was the only one that could keep Clark's purpose focused to fulfill his destiny as the world's greatest hero.

When Carter died protecting Lois, he was buried next to Shayera in Egypt.

Notes[]

Sahar Biniaz had portrayed several other characters on Smallville, before playing Shayera Hall. Her first was as Amy Paris in the Season Seven episode Fierce.

Appearances[]

Season Nine: Absolute Justice, Part 1, Absolute Justice, Part 2
Season Ten: Shield, Icarus

In the Comics[]

Brightest Day Vol 1 8 Textless — Hawkgirl as she appears in the comics.

There have been many versions of Hawkgirl over the years. All of whom have been reincarnated from Chay-Ara and reborn as Shiera and Kendra Saunders or the Thanagarian Shayera Thal/Hol.

The first incarnation of Hawkgirl (making her debut in the Golden Age), was once Chay-Ara, an Egyptian princess, married to the Egyptian prince Khufu. Together they found a crashed shipped which gave them their powers. Both she and her lover died fighting an Egyptian sorcerer, Hath-Set, who killed them with a knife forged from Nth metal. The properties of the metal and the strength of the duo's love created a bond between them, resulting the two to be repeatedly reincarnated for centuries, destined to meet and fall in love, but cursed to die at the peak of their relationship.

1269651-hawks of the damned — Till Death do us part.

In the early 20th century, Chay-Ara was reborn as Shiera Sanders while Prince Khufu was reincarnated as the archaeologist Carter Hall a.k.a. Hawkman. After meeting Carter, Shiera was kidnapped by Dr. Anton Hastor (reincarnation of Hath-Set), but subsequently rescued by Hawkman. Shiera became the hero's frequent ally and love interest. Eventually, she was granted a costume of her own and a belt of gravity-defying Nth metal, as well as joined him at his side as Hawkgirl. The Hawks became members of the All-Star Squadron and while Hawkman was a member of the Justice Society of America, Hawkgirl was not, only assisting the group on occasion. Eventually, after the Justice Society disbanded in 1950, Carter and Shiera married and they later had one son, Hector Hall. In more recent times, both Shiera and Carter (who aged at a far slower rate than normal humans) both came out of retirement and joined the Justice League of America as well as serving on occasion with the Justice Society, which had likewise returned to active duty.

Hawkgirl later got revamped into the Thanagarian version of the character, who first appeared in the Silver Age. She was Shayera Hol, a member of the winged police force on the alien planet of Thanagar. Her husband and partner on the police force was Katar Hol. They tracked a shape-shifting criminal named Byth to Earth. After Shayera and Katar captured Byth, they sent him into Thanagarian custody. They decided to stay on Earth to study police techniques using the aliases, Shiera and Carter Hall. In these civilian identities, they established themselves as husband-and-wife curators of the museum in Midway City which was also their base of operations on Earth as police officers. The uniforms of Thanagarian police officers had feathered wings and a belt made of Nth metal, an element native to Thanagar, which gave the wearer the power of flight. While in uniform, the Halls became known to the residents of Earth as Hawkman and Hawkgirl and later joined the Justice League. Hawkgirl changed her name to Hawkwoman in World's Finest Comics vol 1 #274.

With the establishment of DC's multiverse system, the Golden Age Hawkgirl was said to have lived on Earth-Two and the Silver Age Hawkgirl on Earth-One. Following the events of DC's miniseries, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the histories of Earth-One and Earth-Two were merged into one single Earth with a consistent past, present, and future. As a result, both the Golden Age and the Silver Age versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl live on the same Earth. In the Last Days of the Justice Society one-shot, the Justice Society, including Hawkman and Hawkgirl (Golden Age), were trapped in another dimension, called Limbo.

Shayera Thal 003 — The Thanagarian Hawkwoman.

The 1989's mini-series, titled Hawkworld, featured the debut of the revised Hawkwoman called Shayera Thal II. She was raised in the Downside ghettos of Thanagar by her grandfather. Shayera was abandoned by her father and her mother, Shayera Thal I, died in a bombing set by Thanagarian rebels. She became a successful Wingman in the Thanagarian police force and a partner of the veteran, Katar Hol. She was not married to him but they were partners. Shayera Thal II and Katar Hol arrived on Earth in 1990 for a Thanagarian goodwill tour, where they had a mission to capture Thangarian shape-shifting criminal Byth. Shayera and Katar stopped Byth's drug smuggling activities and captured him. Shayera and Katar eventually became romantically involved with each other and decided to stay on Earth instead of going back to Thanagar. They became known as Hawkman and Hawkwoman and fought crime with the local police. Shayera started her professional career as Hawkwoman and never used the name of Hawkgirl. Together Shayera and Katar also fought against the corrupt system that existed on Thanagar.

Soon information about an earth-woman, Sharon Parker, as well as a Thanagarian spy, Fel Andar, revealed that they had assumed the identities of Hawkwoman and Hawkman prior to the arrival of Shayera and Katar on Earth (that was an effort to fix continuity errors caused by the Silver Age Hawkwoman's removal from this continuity). When Andar infiltrated the Justice League International in the guise of 'Carter Hall Jr.', the second Hawkman, a brainwashed Sharon became his partner, Hawkwoman. She eventually uncovered Andar's deception and he fatally injured her to stop her giving him away. Sharon lived just long enough to inform Maxwell Lord and the Martian Manhunter of Fel Andar's true identity, then died.

Shiera and Carter (Golden Age) are eventually returned from Limbo, but during the Zero Hour miniseries Shiera dies when she is merged with Katar Hol (the current Hawkman) and the Golden Age Hawkman (Carter Hall) into a "Hawk God" creature.

After Katar Hol became the living avatar of a Hawk God and terminated his relationship with Shayera Thall II, she retired from being Hawkwoman to become a policewoman in Detroit. She eventually returned to Thanagar and her former life, joining the Army.

After the Hawk God creature lost his sanity and was banished to Limbo, Shiera died but Carter managed to avoid the cycle of death and rebirth. Afraid and unwilling to be separated from her lover, Shiera's spirit found a way to remain on Earth by fusing with that of her grandniece, Kendra Saunders, who committed suicide. An unfortunate side effect was that Kendra had all the drive and skill to be a heroine that Shiera had, but had no access to the memories of Shiera's past lives.

HKaHW — Hawkwoman (Shayera Thal II) and Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders).

Rann-Thanagar War 05 Page 11 Image 0001 — Shayera Thal II/Hawkwoman dies in Hawkman's hands.

Shayera Thal eventually teamed up with Animal Man and the latest versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders), against the Thanagarian criminal called Byth. Back in her Hawkwoman uniform, she fought alongside Hawkman and Hawkgirl as trusted friends. She was murdered by the Tamaranean Queen Komand'r during the Rann-Thanagar War. Hawkwoman's body was discovered by her true friends and allies, who sent it into Polaris, the sun of Thanagar, believed to be the resting place of heroes in Thanagarian culture.

Later Shiera Sanders' soul left Kendra's body and moved on to the afterlife. Shiera hopes her passing on will finally remove the curse of Hath-Set.

During Blackest Night, both Kendra and Carter were killed and then transformed into Black Lanterns.

Hawkman-and-hawkwoman — Carter & Shiera are reunited in Brightest Day.

During the final battle of the Blackest Night, Hal Jordan and the other heroes are temporarily made into White Lanterns used white power rings to sever the connection to the Black Lanterns. This brought many of the slain heroes and heroines back to life one of which was Hawkgirl. Upon her rebirth she remembers all the past lives. Where Kendra once stood, Shiera physically and mentally now stands.

1353368-white lantern hawkgirl of earth — Shiera is back from the dead.

With the two Hawks reunited, they are manipulated - like the others given back their lives - by the White Lantern effect in Brightest Day. Hath-Set in his current incarnation has recovered the skeletal remains of the previous versions of the Hawks and has constructed a planar gateway to a place called Hackwork. The two are captured by opposing humanoid races, Shiera by the bird-like race, Carter by the other mammal-like race. Carter confronts Queen Khea and finds out that her daughter is Hawkgirl. It is quickly revealed that Hath-Set is working with Hawkgirl's mother, Khea, who is the queen of Hawkworld. Shortly after this, Carter rallies the mammal race to help him rescue Shiera. Shiera manages to kill Hath-Set by breaking his neck, however Queen Khea is able to manipulate Nth metal and thus defeats Carter, adding him alongside Shiera. After defeating Queen Khea, they were transported back to St. Roch with their missions accomplished. Deadman interrupts the Hawks, moments after arriving and tells them they must live apart. Hawkman says he will never live apart from Sheira again. Suddenly the white ring turns them into dust and Deadman screams at the ring to turn them back but the ring responds to him that Hawkgirl was brought back to overcome what she could not in past incarnations and that it was essential in saving the Earth. Shiera's essence was primarily used to bring Carter back to life again and resume his identity as Hawkman while she was brought to restart her life cycle again in a new body, leaving Carter more than ever enraged at losing his wife yet again.

2575826-7753471562 22bd9a9d98 o — Shayera Thal in the DCnU.

In the new 52, Shayera Thal is the princess of Thanagar in Prime Earth, former lover of Katar Hol and sister of the Emperor Corsar. She debuts in Savage Hawkman #9 as a mysterious woman from an incoming transmission from Katar's Nth metal armor.

Savage Hawkman Vol 1 13 Textless — Shayera versus Hawkman.

Initially, she is depicted as a villain, seeking revenge against Katar, after erroneously believing her lover has killed her brother. Katar who escapes to Earth, then loses his memory, but Shayera is able to locate him. But after she arrests Katar Hol, she discovers that Corsar is alive and was actually manipulating the situation in an attempt to part Katar from the Nth metal and own it for himself. Shayera has no choice but to comply to her brother's orders as he is the Emperor but later she sabotages the machine that was to transfer the Nth metal from Katar to Corsar. After rescuing Katar from being killed, Shayera leads Katar and his human girlfriend, Emma Ziegler, to an escape pod but she remains in the ship to face Corsar. While Katar and Emma escape to Earth, Shayera and Corsar are left alone to confront each other as the ship drifts off into the Sun, leading them to their deaths.

On Earth-2 an archaeologist, named Kendra Munoz-Saunders, is also known as the superheroine Hawkgirl.