Thousands of years ago, Egyptian Prince Khufu and his lover, came into contact with Nth metal, an element from the planet Thanagar. Exposure to the extraterrestrial material imprinted racial memories from the alien Thanagarians onto the couple and combined with their true love, strengthened their souls and the bond between them. Soon after their exposure to Nth metal, the lovers were murdered by Hath-Set, a corrupt priest of Anubis. Over subsequent, and mostly unrevealed lifetimes, Khufu and Chay-Ara were reborn again and again, destined to meet and fall in love. In the middle of the 20th century, Khufu was reborn as the independently wealthy Carter Hall, who after handling an Egyptian knife, realized his true lineage and continued his quest for vengeance against his murderer Hath-Set, reborn as Anton Hastor. Utilizing the anti-gravity Nth metal to construct an anti-gravity belt and wing harness in tribute to the Egyptian hawk god Horus, he adopted ancient weapons of war, becoming Hawkman. Chay-Ara was reborn as Shiera Sanders who fought along side her future husband as Hawkgirl.
During the timeline-shifting battle known as "Zero Hour," the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the Egyptian prince Khufu and his consort Chay-Ara, along with other hawk avatars were merged with Thanagarian policeman Katar Hol. Chay-Ara would ultimately not survive the merging and died, leaving Khufu without his soul-mate. Hol would eventually banish himself to the realm of the Hawkgod, in an attempt to stop the murderous hawk avatars that were possessing him. Unbeknownst to Khufu, Chay-Ara's soul would possess the body of Shiera Hall's grand-niece, Kendra Saunders, an attempted suicide whose soul vacated her body before death, leaving it available to the ancient Egyptian's spirit. The possession left Chay-Ara with no memory of her past life and she believed herself to be Kendra Saunders. After a battle with the sorcerer Mordru, she would join the latest Justice Society as Hawkgirl.
In the wake of Nekron's assault on all life, Hall was one of a small group of people to be resurrected by the light of ther White Lantern Power Battery. Carter and Shiera followed Hath-Set, who has collected the bones from all of their past bodies, and created from them a portal to Hawkworld. While there, Shiera is kidnap by Hath-Set's minions and, told by the Entity to stop Hath-Set from killing Carter, because if he dies one time more, he doesn't undergo the cycle of resurrection again[1] .Shiera is attacked in Hawkworld's dungeon by Hath-Set's queen, and the queen reveals to Shiera that she is her mother
Current Version:
Hawkgirl (Air Elemental)
Former Versions:
Hawkgirl (Shiera Hall)
Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders)
Hawkgirl (Black Lantern)
