Chay-Ara Thal
2207 BCE - Chay-Ara Thal is born to a low-cast family on Thanagar.
2183 BCE - 24-year-old Chay-Ara Thal becomes a low-level officer of the Wingman force on Thanagar.
2171 BCE - 36-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr successfully expose the corruption of several major political elites. In retaliation they are sent on a remote assignment, their ship sabotaged to kill them. They manage to survive the crash in ancient Egypt.
2169 BCE - 38-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr free the local people from their abusive rulers.
2164 BCE - 43-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr, worshipped as god-kings, choose to accept that role to protect their subjects. They first craft their Nth Metal Armory from the remains of their ship.
2160 BCE - 47-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr come to rule all of northern Egypt from Thebes.
2156 BCE - 51-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr are married.
2140 BCE - 67-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr come to the defense of Teth-Adam and Kahndaq after they are attacked by Ahk-ton, forging the soul knife to defeat him.
2100 BCE - 107-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr lead their armies against Vandal Savage's forces.
2067 BCE - 140-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr have their daughter Ke-Dre. Her birth is chronicled by a young scribe, Hath-Set.
2050 BCE - 157-year-old Chay-Ara Thal & Khufu Kan-Tarr are murdered in their sleep by Hath-Set using the stolen soul-knife, altering their souls to be reincarnated in the future.
Hawkgirl is such a unique entity within comics. There are other female heroes of course, and vastly more girlfriends of male heroes... but the idea of a male hero's girlfriend also having the same powers and fighting alongside him as an equal was practically unheard of at the time. While it took almost a year before Shiera actually suited up as Hawkgirl and joined Carter in the sky, the fact that she was part of his origin as a reincarnated Pharoh from the very beginning just shows that she was uniquely a part of his story from the very beginning
Chay-Ara's Comic HistoryIn his first appearance in Flash Comics #1 in 1940, when Carter Hall was sent a knife that triggered him to remember his past life as Khufu, the mysteriously blonde ancient Egyptian prince, his dreams included the memory of his princess, Sheira. Upon awaking, he goes out and almost immediately runs into the modern-day reincarnation of Sheira... also named Sheira. Weird how Carter had different names, but she didn't.
As best as I can tell, the first time she actually went by the name Chay-Ara was in the Geoff Johns JSA series when the team went back in time to interact with Khufu, which allowed Kendra to meet her past life. This is also the first time that Chay-Ara was depicted as actually being Egyptian. |
|
|
Our Chay-Ara StoryOur version of Chay-Ara & Khufu have three very distinct chapters of their lives, each of them essentially adapting specific elements of their classic stories. first is their lives on Thanagar, which actually are modeled after the relationship between Katar & Shayera, the Thanagarian cops in the miniseries Hawkworld. After they expose massive corruption among the wealthy elite social caste, they are essentially exiled and set up to be killed, but manage to survive by crashing in ancient Egypt.
The second chapter of their lives is basically them building their Empire, expanding their rule from the city of Thebes, and of course, also falling in love. I really appreciate that we're having them continue to live and work as partners for decades before they're married, it makes their relationship feel like it's built on such an incredible bond. There are a few other characters that are active in this era, and we get to use Chay-Ara and Khufu to interact with them. The third chapter largely takes place after the birth of their child Ke-Dre. This isn't based on anything in canon; there's no reference to these two characters ever having children. But it actually does this amazing job of giving their lives and relationship a functional third act, and as a result these characters feel very complete. These were really fun timelines to create. |