Hey, remember that JLU episode titled ‘The Once And Future Thing: Weird Western Tales’ where a couple of JL members ended up stranded in the old West thanks to time travel?
Well, turns out there was a comic book very similar to it written by Gerry Conway with art by Don Heck but starring a different set of JL members which may or may not have been the inspiration for the episode:
The episode was written by the late Dwayne McDuffie who was no stranger to writing in references to older comics. For instance, the two parter ‘Brave and the Bold’ Flash’s hallucinations were references to various Silver Age Flash comic covers and he was also very open about the fact that the line up for the Terra Beyond two parter was based on Marvel comics Defenders (no not the Netflix team, the one with Namor and Dr Strange). Even the episode title itself, ‘Weird Western Tales’ is a reference to the long running anthology series of the same name featuring DC’s western characters.
The story arc in the comics ran from Justice League of America Vol 1 #198-199.
While it’s hard to conclusively say that the episode was inspired by the comic, there are some interesting similarities like Batlash’s introduction here:
I posted Zatanna’s meeting with Cinnamon earlier in another post but here is a little excerpt:
Interesting to note that one of the goons calls her an ‘Eastern Filly’ (is it because of the way she was dressed or a subtle hint that she is not 100% Caucasian?). The heroes and their new Western cowboy friends all meet at a Saloon:
Then they all ride off on horses out of town to confront the villain and of course, faces robot cowboys:
The differences begin with the choice of the time travelling villain, the comic went with classic JL villain: the Lord of Time:
JLU went with David Clinton, aka Chronos. He’s a different villain who is primarily the enemy of the Atom/Ray Palmer but has also fought the JL on occasion.
The Lord of Time on the other hand, is a conqueror from the future who travelled back in time with future technology to conquer the past and rule the future. Sound familiar? He was Kang before Kang. Since JLU’s version of Chronos comes from the future, you could make a case that version is a combination Chronos and Lord of Time.
Then of course, there is the line up, the comic features Zatanna, Elongated Man, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan whereas the show features Wonder Woman, Batman and Green Lantern. Superman also appears trying to thwart the Lord of Time in the present day.
On the Western heroes side, we got Diablo instead of Cinnamon and Scalphunter is replaced by Pow Wow Smith (and it only takes a cursory glance at the characters wikipedia pages to see why the socially conscious Dwayne McDuffie made that choice).
The plot of the JLU episode involved a corrupt sheriff using future technology to take over the town but the plot of the comic is a little different. The Lord of Time sent the heroes back in time, erased their memories, because an anti matter meteor was set to strike earth on that day. The LoT is counting on the heroes to stop the meteor so he can have it for himself so he can use it to conquer the world. (Why he doesn’t just get the meteor himself? Maybe he didn’t have the technology to?)
Anyway, the heroes learn about the anti matter meteor heading towards them, Zatanna is reluctant to leave her new found cowgirl girlfriend with her friends to fight the robots:
But she ends up going anyway:
Can I just say, I really like this shot of Zee and Green Lantern flying together? Even though she is depowered during this period, they never really stuck strictly to the ‘she can only manipulate the elements’ ethos. Having her flying alongside GL and being unabashed powerhouse is really cool and shows her place among the DCU. There is no ‘she has to be taken out so someone else can shine’ bs here. Also, reading these comics, I have felt that GL makes the most sense as the field leader of the JL; power based on creativity and will power and they are specifically trained to work together and take on strange extra terrestrial or otherwise threats. I think any of the human GL’s (except maybe Guy) can lead the team.
Zatanna and GL manage to stop the meteor. But in present timeline the Lord of Time ends up defeated by Superman (early on he got in a kryptonite trap set by the LoT but managed to escape) just as the time trapped Leaguers make their way back.
Awww, a krytonite waterfall wasn’t that bad, Clark.
Overall, the issue was alright. It does feel like placeholder (albeit a fun one) before the big #200 celebration issue (I posted some scans from that here). Come to think of it, the episode came off as filler as well, with the Western parts feeling like a fun romp and ultimately inconsequential to the arcs of the main heroes but the follow up portion set in the Batman Beyond timeline was more impactful and memorable.
~1700 B.C. Chay-Ara is born
Chay-Ara meets Prince Khufu and Priest Hath-Set.
Chay-Ara and Khufu discover a crash Thanagarian ship. They repurpose most of the Nth Metal inside to create harness that allowed them to fly.
Hath-Set kills Chay-Ara and Khufu with a dagger made of Nth Metal left over from the crash ship.
Powers and Abilities
Reincarnation: Upon her death, Chay-Ara is reincarnated into a newborn girl born shortly after her demise. Her memories and skills as Chay-Ara are dormant until her new life interacts with someone or something from her past life. Chay-Ara will continue to reincarnate into different women for centuries.
Leadership: As a princess, Chay-Ara is able to inspire people and lead them.
Equipment
Nth Metal Harness: After discovering a crashed Thanagarian ship, Chay-Ara had the Nth Metal reforged into a harness that gave her hawk wings and allowed her to fly.
Name: Katherine Manser
Nickname/Alias’: Cinnamon
Species: Metahuman
Ethnicity: Biracial (½ Latino, ½ Caucasian)
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Red
Height: 5’ 4”
Weight: 110 lbs
Gender: Female
Orientation: Bisexual
Birthday: October 19th, 1876
Timeline
1876- Katherine Manser is born. She is a reincarnation of Princess Chay-Ara
1881- Katherine Manser’s father, a sheriff, is killed during a robbery.
1894- Katherine leaves the orphanage after turning 18, beginning her quest of vengeance for her father.
1898- Katherine kills the last of her father’s killers with assistance from Nighthawk
1900- Katherine Manser and Nighthawk begin a romance, but never marry.
1917- Nighthawk is killed by a woman named Matilda Dunney Roderic for stopping a man from being lynched. Katherine vows vengeance again and they kill each other in a stand off.
Katherine is reincarnated into her next life.
Powers and Abilities
Reincarnation: Katherine Manser is a reincarnation of the Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara. During her quest for vengeance for her father, she awakened some of the memories of her previous lives. Katherine can access these memories to ‘channel’ her previous lives and use their skills, such as sword fighting. While her reincarnation is a blessing, it is also a curse as once she or Khufu’s reincarnation die, the other shortly follows suit.
Markswoman: Katherine is an accomplished markswoman, able to quickly draw and aim her six-gun faster than most.
Knife Expert: Katherine is an expert knife fighter.
Throwing: Katherine is trained in knife throwing and shurikens. Though she is able to throw a fully grown man around with little difficulty.
Equestrianism: Katherine knows how to ride a horse and care for it.
Equipment
Colt Revolver: Katherine inherited her father’s pistol and is her main weapon in combat.
Nth-Metal Vest and Jacket: When Katherine’s memories reawakened, she found her old equipment and reforged it. Her vest and jacket have thin sheets of Nth Metal inside their lining, allowing her some protection against attacks and regulating her body temperature in extreme environments.
Throwing Knives and Shuriken: Katherine carries throwing knives and shurikens with her on her travels
Rifle: Katherine has a rifle to use when she needs precision shots.
Name: Shayera Thal
Nickname/Alias’: Shiera Hall, Hawkgirl
Titles: Police Officer
Species: Thanagarian
Skin Color: Tan
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Red
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 120 lbs
Gender: Female
Orientation: Bisexual
Birthday: June 24th, 1917
Timeline
1917- Shayera Thal is born. She is a reincarnation of Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara of Earth
1941- Shayera enters the Peace Force and is partnered with Katar Hol, much to his annoyance.
1943- Shayera and Katar remember their past lives
1951- Shayera and Katar marry
1961- Shayera and Katar are sent to Earth to arrest criminal Byth Rok. After arresting him, they decide to stay on Earth, taking the names Shiera and Carter Hall. The public calling them Hawkman and Hawkgirl, much to Shayera’s annoyance.
First public sighting of Hawkgirl
1965- Hector Hall is born to Shayera Thal and Katar Hol
1981- Shayera changes her superhero name to Hawkwoman
First public sighting of Hawkwoman
1993- Shayera Thal is killed during the Zero Hour Crisis. Her equipment is taken by Fel Ander.
Powers and Abilities
Reincarnation: Shaerya Thal is a reincarnation of the Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara. During her time in the Thanagarian Peace Force, she and her partner Katar unlocked the memories of their past lives. Shayera can access these memories to ‘channel’ her previous lives and use their skills, such as sword fighting. While her reincarnation is a blessing, it is also a curse as once she or Khufu’s reincarnation die, the other shortly follows suit.
Temporal Awareness: Due to how many times she’s been reincarnated, Shayera is somewhat temporally aware. She will realize a change in the timeline if her memories vanish or change.
Thanagarian Physiology: A member of the Thanagarian race, a race of hawk-like humanoids. Their planet is the only known source of pure Nth Metal.
Wings: As a Thanagarian, Shayera has a pair of wings on her back, allowing her to fly and glide around. She can ‘fold’ the wings on her back, somehow making them disappear.
Enhanced Strength: Thanagarians are stronger than most Earth humans. Shayera is considered the strongest woman in the Thanagarian Peace Force due to her taking the time to work out and build muscle.
Enhanced Stamina: Thanagarians have more stamina than most Earth humans. They’re able to fly for several days straight without tiring much.
Enhanced Durability: Thanagarians are heartier and have denser bodies than Earth humans. This allows them to be highly resistant to bullets and other forms of damage.
Enhanced Vision: Due to their hawk-like nature, Thanagarians have much better vision than Earth humans. They can see greater distances and in greater clarity than normal humans.
Enhanced Hearing: Due to their hawk-like nature, Thanagarians have much better hearing than Earth humans. They can hear soft and quiet sounds from much farther away than a human and even through some soundproofing.
Longevity: Thanagarians have much longer lifespans than humans, being much younger than people of similar age on Earth. Shayera appeared to be in her early 40s by the time she was almost eighty years old.
Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Shayera is a trained Peace Force officer, able to fight with or without a weapon.
Investigation: Shayera is as much of a detective as Katar, earning her a spot in Earth’s Detective’s Guild.
Equipment
Thanagarian Armor: A set of armor that contains Nth Metal. While it is not entirely composed of Nth Metal, it does offer much more protection than most other armors in the Universe.
Temperature Regulation: An odd effect of Nth Metal is how it reacts to heat and cold. The armor will keep the wearer warm in cold climates and cool in warm climates.
Regeneration: The armor will heal the wearer’s wounds, though it has limits.
Nth Metal Mace: A spiked mace with a head composed entirely of Nth Metal.
Energy Absorption: The Nth Metal in the mace will absorb most incoming energy and store it for later use.
Psychic Connection: Shayera can mentally summon the mace to her, though it tends to plow through anything and everything in its path to reach her.
Nth Metal Spear: A spear with a head composed entirely of Nth Metal.
Energy Absorption: The Nth Metal in the spear will absorb most incoming energy and store it for later use.
Psychic Connection: Shayera can mentally summon the spear to her, though it tends to plow through anything and everything in its path to reach her.
1993- Kendra Saunders is born. She is the reincarnation of Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara
2009- Kendra Saunders enters college early, studying archaeology and film directing.
2011- Kendra Saunders’s metagene activates when she discovers artifacts of Princess Chay-Ara. Kendra grows a pair of wings on her back.
Kendra takes up the Hawkgirl mantle after the death of Sharon Parker
First public sighting of Hawkgirl III
Powers and Abilities
Reincarnation: Kendra Saunders is a reincarnation of the Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara. Kendra woke her memories of her previous lives while excavating the tomb of Chay-Ara with her friend Khalid. Kendra can access these memories to ‘channel’ her previous lives and use their skills, such as sword fighting. Kendra uses this ability whenever she’s in combat, due to having little training. While her reincarnation is a blessing, it is also a curse as once she or Khufu’s reincarnation die, the other shortly follows suit.
Temporal Awareness: Due to how many times she’s been reincarnated, Kendra is somewhat temporally aware. She will realize a change in the timeline if her memories vanish or change.
Metahuman Physiology: An Earth Human with an extra gene that gives them unique power(s)
Wings: Kendra’s metagene granted her a pair of wings on her back, giving her the ability to fly, glide and hover. The feathers on these wings contain traces of Nth Metal
Enhanced Strength: Due to her metagene, Kendra is much stronger than she was before it activated.
Enhanced Stamina: Kendra’s metagene gives her enhanced stamina, she once flew around the equator of Earth without stopping, and she was simply out of breath when she finally landed.
Enhanced Durability: Like other metahumans, Kendra is much tougher than she once was.
Enhanced Vision: Due to her metagene, Kendra’s sight is magnified and enhanced similar to a hawk’s.
Enhanced Hearing: Due to her metagene, Kendra’s hearing is enhanced similar to that of a hawk’s.
Animal Empathy: Due to her metagene, Kendra can communicate and has limited control over birds.
Equipment
Nth Metal-Promethium Suit: Due to her inexperience in combat, Kendra was given an experimental suit that was made of a Nth Metal-Promethium alloy. It gave her an invisible force field around her entire body, even parts that aren’t covered by the armor.
Nth Metal Mace: A spiked mace with a head composed entirely of Nth Metal.
Energy Absorption: The Nth Metal in the mace will absorb most incoming energy and store it for later use.
Psychic Connection: Kendra can mentally summon the mace to her, though it tends to plow through anything and everything in its path to reach her.
Pistols: Kendra carries a set of pistols to help her in combat. Two are rapid fire pistols she typically dual wields, while she carries around a large revolver that fires enchanted armor piercing rounds.
Earth-96 Story
On the list of characters I knew very little about before starting this project is definitely the Hawks. The only things I knew about them were what happened in the DCAU, Injustice and the Arrowverse. So, mostly just their names, their ability to reincarnate and some of their powers. I decided to make a couple changes to their reincarnation; first, their next life cannot already be alive. This is mostly so it doesn’t get too confusing on when different incarnations are active. Second, all reincarnations of Chay-Ara and Khufu cannot be Caucasian. They can be tanned, but they can’t be as white as me (and I’m pretty much white as snow). Third, when one dies, the other follows shortly after. This is also to avoid confusion and desyncing. Making an older version of Hawkman romantically involved with a Hawkgirl who’s 20-30 years younger than him is kinda weird in my book. Now, onto the incarnations!
Chay-Ara doesn't really get a whole lot of focus...really anywhere. I enjoy the idea that she was a passionate and benevolent ruler of Egypt. Helping her subjects so they don’t live in poverty, etc, etc. But she’d also be pretty merciless when she needs or wants to. Like with her enemies or people harming her people. And, like other versions of her, she doesn’t realize Hath-Set is planning to kill her and Khufu, leading them to start their cycle of death and rebirth. Her relationship with Khufu is that of typically lovers; they give each other shit from time to time, but they love and support each other.
Centuries later, Katherine ‘Cinnamon’ Manser is born. I haven’t read or watched anything with her in it, at least not in a major role. Which is a shame because from what I’ve seen she’s a fun character. She’d definitely be one of the more feisty incarnations, not taking anyone’s shit and willing to get her hands dirty. I was actually kinda surprised she spent most of her life on a quest of vengeance for her dad, and then on another one for Nighthawk. Given how their romance is described as a ‘whirlwind romance’, I don’t think they actually ever got married or had kids.
After Cinnamon came Shayera Thal (no, not Hol according to Earth-One). Shayera would probably be the first incarnation to be not native to Earth, but she’d wind up on Earth anyway. Shayera would have a very similar personality to her DCAU version; tough, tomboy-ish, but still caring and compassionate. She would resent being called Hawkgirl when she first comes to Earth, but she’d eventually start being called Hawkwoman. While she had trained her body on Thanagar, Shayera would also train her mind more and more with her time on Earth and the Justice League, earning a spot on the Detective’s Guild before Katar. She’d also butt heads with Katar, due to his more conservative and patriarchal views. Due to the weirdness in Zero Hour, mostly all the Hawk people fusing into a singular Hawkperson (which makes absolutely no sense) it’s easier just to say Shayera and Katar are killed in the Crisis.
The latest Hawkgirl would be Kendra Saunders. I took bits and pieces of her New 52 Earth-2 version and her New Earth version. Kendra isn’t a warrior like Shayera or Cinnamon, but she’ll learn how to fight as time goes on. Kendra will rely mostly on ranged weapons when she begins her crimefighting career. She’s more of an Indiana Jones type, finding artifacts and returning them to their rightful people, going on adventures and exploring, gaining knowledge and solving mysteries. Kendra is also the first incarnation to outright reject Hawkman as a romantic partner, due to her preferring women.
I do plan on making other incarnations of Hawkgirl, like a samurai one and a pirate one. But that’ll be another time.
From JLA #198-199; Zatanna and Cinnamon have only known each other for less than half a day and yet their entire energy is basically ‘I’ll die for you”.
Literal first meeting where Zee is amnesiac:
Meeting her friends:
Teaming up with the Leaguers:
And not wanting to to leave behind her new cowgirl friend to face danger alone and not be separated from each other:
The fact that Cinnamon was later revealed to be a reincarnation of Hawkgirl nearly two decades later adds another layer to this (although not the same Hawkgirl that Zee knew on JLA except for that times that it was....it’s.....complicated).
Also this two parter may or may not have been the inspiration for the JLU episode ‘The Once and Future Thing Part 1: Weird Western Tales’.
