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Hawkman is undoubtedly one of the more confusing characters in the DC Universe, which is saying quite a bit considering the whole comic universe has dealt with a number of reboots and retcons that has made everyone's history a little confusing.

Even with recent attempts to clarify the confusing continuity of Hawkman, the character is not the most approachable hero for newcomers to comics, so today we'll be taking a closer look at~~Katar Hol~~ Carter Hall/Hawkman.

10 PRINCE KHUFU

Hawkman's story dates all the way back to ancient Egypt when he was known as Prince Khufu, who was aided by the wizard Nabu (later responsible forDoctor Fate) and Teth-Adam (who would becomeBlack Adam) in studying a crashed alien ship.

That ship was Thanagarian and contained an element known as Nth metal. It had mysterious properties that began to transform Khufu and his love, Chay-Ara, while also teaching them about the planet Thanagar.

9 NTH METAL

The Nth metal is woven throughout Hawkman's wings and armor, and it allows him to fly and greatly enhances his strength. The alien metal was also melted down to make various weapons like the Claw of Horus that he would continue to use as a modern-day hero.

Nth Metal also has various magical properties that allow it to affect spirits and other magical beings, and it even has rejuvenating qualities that act as a healing factor. It is also one of the divine metals of the DC universe that opens the door to the Dark Multiverse, as fans learned inDark Nights: Metal.

8 CURSED LIVES

Khufu and Chay-ara were slain with an Nth metal dagger by Hath-Set and cursed to live on, reincarnated after each death until they again found each other and fell in love, though Hath-Set also reincarnated, cursed to kill them across generations.

Khufu lived many different lives throughout the DC continuity, including old west gunfighter Hannibal Hawke/Nighthawk or Brian Kent/Silent Knight, with the current Carter Halldiscovering even more lifetimes in his most recent series.

7 ARCHAEOLOGIST

Khufu's current reincarnation is as Carter Hall, an archaeologist whose limited knowledge of his past lives has driven him to explore the world trying to learn more about his various lifetimes, resembling a modern-dayIndiana Jones.

EvenBatman has recognized Hall as one of the world's greatest detectives, after his investigation into Nth metal and its connection to his resurrections revealed the Dark Multiverse and helped save the DC Universe in Dark Nights: Metal.

6 HAWKMEN

Carter Hall isn't the only person to call himself Hawkman, as the Silver Age version of the character was given an alternate origin as an alien named Katar Hol, a Thanagarian cop who decided to remain on Earth with his wife Shayera/Hawkgirl.

This version would get another reboot after Crisis on Infinite Earths before being merged with the Carter Hall version in Zero Hour to further muddy the water. A Thanagarian spy named Fel Andar was also ordered to impersonate Hawkman in order to infiltrate theJustice League.

5 THANAGAR

Thanagar is a planet in the DC Universe that was a peaceful advanced alien civilization, but was forced to create a police force of winged warriors using the powerful Nth metal after the planet was invaded by another alien race.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Thanagar's police force was given a gritty and corrupt makeover in Hawkworld, which also altered the Katar Hol version of Hawkman. Thanagar has also been at war with other planets in the DC universe, including Earth, who they attacked along with the Dominators during the Invasion storyline.

4 LEAGUE & SOCIETY

While Hawkman first joined the Golden Age team back in 1964's Justice League of America #31 and more famously during the "satellite era" of the team in the 70s, he joined with theJustice Society of America first way back in 1940's All-Star Comics #3.

Hawkman was later re-introduced into the post-Zero Hour thanks to his former allies in theJSA, and he continued to work alongside that teamtraining new heroes until the New 52 reboot brought the character back to his Thanagarian roots.

3 HAS SUPERHERO CHILDREN

The original versions ofHawkman and Hawkgirl actually had a child named Hector Hall, who himself would grow up to become the hero known as Silver Scarab and work alongside the Earth-2 team known as Infinity, Inc., before he also briefly took over the role ofSandman.

Hall would also later become Doctor Fate, and his son would go on to become the new Dream of the Endless. Fel Andar also had a son who used the name Charley Parker/Golden Eagle, though he himself would also briefly use the name Hawkman as well.

2 TEMPORAL ANOMALIES

Hawkman and his related characters have an incredibly confusing history, which became a story point in the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time event that attempted to clean up DC's messy timeline. Unfortunately it really just made things more confusing.

During the event, a number of versions of Hawkman appeared, and he was revealed as one of the chronal disruptions that had been created by the first Crisis. Zero Hour attempted to merge all of the versions of Hawkman (and Hawkgirl) to create a new version known as the Hawkgod who had organic wings, though he didn't last long.

1 DARK FORGE

Hawkman was given another failed origin with theNew 52 reboot that reintroduced the character as Katar Hol, however, this was again changed during the Dark Nights: Metal event, where it was revealed that Carter Hall had been lost to the Dark Multiverse after he discovered its existence.

There the demon Barbatos transformed Carter Hall into a giant dark Hawk entity that manned the Forge of Worlds, though he only created more nightmarish dark realities until he was freed to again become Hawkman and explore his mysterious past in the pages ofHawkman.

NEXT: 10 DC Events That Need A Sequel