Plot summary: A Hawkgirl enthusiast insists the two of them are reincarnated ancient lovers, taking her to an Egyptian tomb to try and prove it.

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 28 (S3.E2)

Original Air Date: September 17^th, 2005

Directed: Dan Riba (14)

Written: Dwayne McDuffie (16) (story) and J.M. DeMatteis (6) (teleplay)

Animation: DR Movie Co., LTD (15)

Music: Michael McCuistion (10)

Up to now our two series directors, Dan Riba and Joaquim dos Santos have exclusively worked with specific animation studios, with dos Santos paired with DR Movie and Riba with Dong Yang or DongWoo… until now! They’ve switched dance partners for a few episodes.

The team of villains from the opening scene are The Extremists, a comic team of obvious pastiches of Marvel characters Doctor Doom, Sabretooth, Dormammu and Doctor Octopus. The Magneto copy is missing from the episode.

Carter Hall’s birth name in the episode is given as Joseph Gardner, a tribute to Hawkman’s creators, Gardner Fox and Joseph Kubert.

The random generic baddie Shayera fights in the archive footage looks a lot like The Adversary, created by this episode’s writer, J.M. DeMatteis.

Hawkman’s wings in this episode are technological rather than an organic part of his body. In the comics Thangarians originally did not have wings either, having genetically modified themselves to have them in more recent generations.

DCAU Debuts

You may recall they originally wanted Hawkman to be in ‘Starcrossed‘ but DC Editorial didn’t want a hero portrayed as a villain so they created Hro Talak as an obvious stand-in. Well, here’s the original! Hawkman and Hawkgirl have annoyingly varied origin stories, which this episode admirably attempts to merge. Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville created Carter Hall all the way back in 1940 as an archaeologist who turns out to be reincarnated from the Egyptian prince, Khufu, who along with his lover, Chay-Ara, were murdered by a jealous priest. Regaining memories of his past life, he used Nth Metal to craft a gravity-defying belt and wings, adopting the persona Hawkman and became a founding member of the Justice Society, soon joined by Shiera Sanders as Hawkgirl.

This was all well and good for decades, and then DC rebooted their continuity, with Hawkman becoming a cop from Thanagar named Katar Hol who got sent to Earth on a case alongside his partner (in both senses), Shayera Thal. Since then DC have flip-flopped between the two versions repeatedly, and then much like this episode decided to split the difference and claim Katar Hol is one of the many reincarnations of Prince Khufu, with Carter Hall being the latest version. Yet they both existed at the same time for a while, and there’s a bunch of other contradictory bullshit. Comic continuity is exhausting and you should not care about it!

There have been several characters to bear the name Shadow Thief, none of which have too much in common with the one appearing in this episode. The original, Carl Sands, debuted in 1961, created by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert, was a recurring antagonist to Hawkman and gained shadow powers from an alien device, but nothing to the extent of what we see here.

Recap

The League dispatch The Extremists. Carter Hall approaches them in the aftermath, showing Shayera a Thanagarian sword he claims to have excavated in an archeological dig in Egypt.

Batman verifies the blade is 8,000 years old, but warns that Hall is a stalker, pulling up multiple pieces of footage showing him as a bystander to a number of Hawkgirl’s battles.

Shayera goes with Carter anyway, heading into the trap-filled tomb he found the blade in, unaware Batman is following them and listening via a surveillance bug.

Carter dons an elaborate costume complete with functional wings, claiming he and Shayera are re-incarnated lovers from Ancient Egypt and that she should call him Hawkman.

He claims his past life was unlocked by ‘The Absorbacron’, but Shayera insists the device merely showed him a damaged ship’s log and he misinterpreted it as his own memories.

Before the debate can be settled they are attacked by The Shadow Thief, who wants to sell the Thangarian artefacts, so tortures Shayera to get Carter to help him reach the inner sanctum.

Batman intervenes and in the chaos of the ensuing brawl the tomb collapses. Carter tries to fly back for the Absorbacron so Shayera punches him and drags him back to safety.

In the aftermath Carter refuses to let J’onn untangle his mind, flying away. Shayera confesses her doubt to Bruce as we see a sarcophagus bearing their vague likeness in the remains of the tomb…

Best Performance

Poor James Remar having to talk at length about the logistics of an ‘Absorbacron’ and deliver all that convoluted backstory. Nobody could make that work, I’m afraid. Luckily he’s bolstered by getting to also play Shadow Thief, a character that suits his frankly already creepy natural speaking voice, so him leaning into the whispery villain persona really cooks. That aforementioned organic shiftiness actually fits well with Carter Hall, as you’re predisposed to be suspicious of him from the jump, but he’s also able to sell the naïve innocence of a man who is perhaps a little unwell but genuinely believes everything he’s saying.

Maria Canals-Barrera puts in her usual shift, a little spicy flirting with John and Carter, some fiery defiance in the face of Shadow Thief’s torture (as well as all the men warning her off earlier), laughing at Carter’s wild claims, and even trying to let him down gently when he seems to have proof. She repeats those opposing moods at the end when she gives Batman shit for monitoring her, and then vulnerably confesses she’s unsure what to make of what just happened. Without the awkward exposition scene to hamper her, I think she might just pip Remar. Sorry, bro.

Kevin Conroy is always great, and his matter-of-fact handling of the awkward conversation with Shayera rules, as does his blunt “I’ve never been afraid of shadows”. Gina Torres’ catty encouragement for Shayera to go on a date with Carter is great too, but she’s only in the episode for a minute.

Episode Ranking

Honestly this episode’s opening isn’t far off my platonic ideal for how these things should go; The League quickly mop up a group of lesser villains in a relatively fun fight scene, an enigmatic figure approaches them with an intriguing premise, there’s a clear tease for character tensions, and somebody is not quite what they seem. Vixen being thrilled at the idea of Shayera going far away with another man while John is overly defensive and Shayera herself is torn was delightful attention to a plot thread they can’t decide if they want to keep up or not. Batman swiping the Thanagarian sword in a way only he would was fun too, and of course Carter’s shadow lingering on the wall after he walked off is instantly engaging. No notes!

The elevator interaction between Shayera, John and Bruce is great, with John tripping over his tongue when he sees his ex in a nice dress for the first time, Shayera fully toying with his lust and Bruce casually dropping the trivia that there are hundreds of Hawkgirl fan sites. That he quantified and memorised the number that are affiliated is every bit as much classic Batman shit as stalking his friend using a bat-shaped bug or casually avoiding dozens of spikes with perfect reflexes.

For as frustrated as I am that they’ve been so slow to follow-up on the John/Shayera story, I was pleased that Batman called John on his shit for staying in a relationship with Vixen when he is hung up on the fact they met his and Shayera’s son on their trip to the future. More people should point out what a dick John is IMO.

It’s a really nice looking episode, going big on the Egyptian imagery in the flashbacks, the big elaborate tomb full of traps (including a pair of big mecha-mummies) and even the little fights before they get to any of that. When I say the fights look good, I don’t just mean they’re well animated, but rather they’re also full of dynamic ‘camera’ moves like when Batman whips a Batarang at Shayera’s chains but Shadow Thief intercepts, or Shayera doing a full body crunch to avoid being cut in half and then uses the new positioning to give herself enough leverage to rip her shackles off the wall. Neat!

I really like the choice to not commit to whether Carter’s story is true or not. Shayera confirms Absorbacrons are real, but refuses to interact with it herself so we don’t know if she would have unlocked her own set of memories, but her comments also imply that his mind may have been fried by being incompatible with the tech on account of being human. What about those mummies though??? Why would she reincarnate all the way back on Thanagar while he did on Earth??? But who is to say reincarnation is bound by the confines of a single planet??? Did Carter refuse J’onn’s telepathic help because it would expose the truth or because he’s comfortable with who he (thinks he) is??? See! Questions! Much more fun than just dumping all the facts out.

When I first watched this episode years ago I didn’t think a huge amount of it, but as I sit down to review it now I’m struggling to come up with reasons for it to not be one of the better ones in the series so far. It has a lot of disparate elements going for it, but there is a certain something missing from the connective tissue, I suppose. The big info dump of Carter’s claims isn’t the smoothest, for example. The fight with Shadow Thief and collapse of the tomb is a little abrupt. The mummies holding hands at the end is very on the nose. But these gripes just knock it out of the top ten and I still think it’s really solid.

Double Date
For the Man Who Has Everything
Clash
Task Force X
Question Authority
Fearful Symmetry
Panic in the Sky
The Return
The Once and Future Thing, Part 1: Weird Western Tales
Epilogue
Shadow of the Hawk (NEW ENTRY)
Flashpoint
The Ties That Bind
The Cat and the Canary
The Greatest Story Never Told
Divided We Fall
The Balance
Dark Heart
Initiation
This Little Piggy
Kids’ Stuff
The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time Warped
Doomsday Sanction
Wake the Dead
Ultimatum
I Am Legion
Hawk and Dove
Hunter’s Moon

Rogues Roundup

Shadow Thief (James Remar) (first appearance)

You’re getting elements of Inque here in the way he can dramatically shift his body shape, even mimicking her big pointy spider trick, as well as splitting himself into two equal fighters and of course being able to hide in any shadow and become selectively intangible. He’s not quite as cool as Inque despite all these abilities, though he is an enjoyable dickhead, torturing, taunting and threatening. He actually borders on seeming too powerful, but they smartly established his weakness to light.

Having any personality whatsoever gets you into the top half, and when you combine it with his cool powers and whatnot he’s somehow knocking on the door of the top ten.

Lex Luthor
Steven Mandragora
Amanda Waller & Project Cadmus
Circe
Task Force X
Amazo
Galatea
Chronos
Mongul
Brainiac
Shadow Thief (NEW ENTRY)
Granny Goodness
Gorilla Grodd and The Legion of Doom
Dark Heart
Tobias Manning
The Jokerz
Felix Faust
The Annihilator
The Ultimen
Tala
Doomsday
Hades
Roulette
Solomon Grundy
The Thanagarians
Brimstone
Ares
Mordred (and Morgaine le Fey!)
Mordru
Virman Vundabar