Hawkman: The Return

By Grant Giandonato

The Plot Outline:

After a nasty nightmare, Shayera Thal, Hawkwoman, decides it’s finally time to go looking for Katar Hol, Hawkman. The first thing she does is track down the Nth metal wings Katar buried prior to the Hawk-God coming to earth. Poof: Hawkwoman is back.

Hawkwoman then goes to the JLA (specifically J’onn) for help in finding Katar. J’onn recounts their last adventure together and fills everyone in on Katar’s status in Limbo. (Background on Zero Hour and the adventures that led to Katar’s banishment in Limbo is provided). Zauriel listens intently and deduces that Arion sent Hawkman to the Ghost Dimension — a.k.a. Prometheus’ House.

The JLA summons Arion, and they’re off to the Ghost Dimension. When they arrive, Prometheus is missing from his house (he’s been gone for awhile), but they do find a whole mess of Hawkmen floating about. Most of them are ghost-like, but Katar is still very real. Arion and Zauriel open a doorway to the afterlife, and all of the ghosts go on their way (including the Golden Age Hawks).

The JLA is about to leave when the Hawk-God attacks. He’s magical, so most of the heroes are affected. Things look grim, but then the Golden Age Hawks show up. They’re not ghosts anymore, but angels. They have all the powers of Zauriel, and with the JLA’s help, they defeat the Hawk-God.

Everyone says their good-byes. The Hawks return to heaven with the Hawk-God in tow, and the JLA returns home.

Hawkman comes to once they leave the Ghost Dimension. He starts to cry.

“The voices, they’ve stopped,” he says, “I thought I was going to go mad, but I did it, I saved them all.” (Hawkman basically went comatose in order to keep all the different souls separate and intact while they were in the Ghost Zone.)

Epilogue: The Ghost Dimension. Prometheus pops back into his house only to find it trashed. Eh? What the hell happened here?

Character Descriptions:

Hawkman — As a result of his merging during Zero Hour, Katar now has the N^th metal within his body. As a result, he has super strength and can “grow” his wings. I think Hawkman’s last look was pretty cool, so I’m going to recommend he keep it — besides, he’s got an action figure. :-)

Hawkwoman — A normal Thanagarian with N^th metal wings. The N^th metal still provides anti-gravity powers even though the Hawk-God is gone.

The Hawk-God — Basically, an insane high level angel. The Hawk-God came to this plane thousands of years ago. Several other “Gods” followed him, and soon they began using Avatars to fight each other. (These are all the guys Hawkman fought in his Post-Zero Hour adventures.)

Katar’s father imprisoned the Hawk-God years ago to prevent it from wreaking havoc on the universe. During the Zero Hour conflict, the Hawk-God escaped its prison, trashed Thanagar, and came to earth in search of Hawkman. (The Hawk-God can sense the N^th metal that Thanagarians use to fly, but it does not power this mystery metal.)

Once the Hawk-God came to Earth, the universe was destroyed. As a result, Hawkman merged with all the various avatars the Hawk-God had absorbed and all the Hawkmen from across the space time continuum. In other words, Hawkman was a mess. With all these various people running around inside his head, Katar Hol went insane. In a last ditch effort to save him, Arion the Immortal and J’onn J’onzz banished Katar to Limbo. He remains there to this day.

Script for "Homeward Bound", Hawkman; The Return #1:

Page One
Splash.
A medium shot of Hawkman’s skeleton. The skeleton is wearing the current Hawkman costume and has what’s left of Katar’s real wings spread out behind it. The skeleton needs to look alive, as it will be saying something.
SKELETON HAWKMAN: SHAYERA, SAVE ME.

Page Two
Skeleton-Hawkman is now in shackles, chained to a floor in a very dark dungeon. He looks at the “camera” and beings to talk to us. The camera circles around Hawkman and we can see another figure chained next to him: it’s Shayera Thal, Hawkwoman (NOTE: Shayera is very alive and NOT in her Hawkwoman costume.) There’re a few panels of the Hawks talking, and then Shayera’s shackles fade away.
HAWKMAN: SHAYERA, YOU’RE FREE. YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN FREE.
Then a giant bird-like shadow moves over the two surprised Hawks—

Page Three
Cut to Shayera Thal (Hawkwoman) screaming, sitting up in bed. Shayera is sweating with tears in her eyes. She’s wearing some sort of nightshirt, with the blankets all twisted around her. She gets up and begins to get dressed as she thinks about Katar. As she puts on her pants she comes eye to eye with her old Hawkwoman helmet that is sitting on top of her dresser. We need a close up of Shayera and then the eyes of the helmet. In this scene Shayera realizes it’s time for Katar to come home.

Page Four
Shot of the Detroit Police Station. Dawn. Inside we see Shayera and her partner talking. Shayera is packing up a box of her belongings. Shayera tells Purlie (her partner) about her dream and Katar (getting the exposition out of the way.) She has a plan to bring him home. Purlie says she understands, and tells Shayera she can always come back to Detroit.

Page Five
The desert, somewhere in the southwest. It’s very hot. Shayera is following some sort of treasure map and with her is a Native American boy. She drops her belongings and removes a short shovel from her backpack. She then begins to dig. We need three similar panels going across the page of Shayera digging. Within each panel Shayera is digging as the dirt pile behind her is getting bigger. Finally she hits something hard and unearths her old Thanagarian metal wings.
BOY: WINGS?
SHAYERA (with a slight grin): YES, WINGS.

Page Six
Shot of the JLA Watchtower. Inside, J’Onn J’Onzz, Zauriel and a few other heroes are standing around the JLA table when the teleporter activates. Alarms start to go off as the unannounced visitor beams in. Hawkwoman, in full uniform, steps out of the tube and announces herself (Insert HAWKWOMAN logo here.)

Page Seven
Later. A shot of the JLA roundtable with the entire JLA seated. Most of the JLA are listening to J’Onn speak. Orion looks bored. Plastic Man is goofing off.
FLASH: SO, LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, HAWKMAN IS TRAPPED IN LIMBO?

J’Onn and Hawkwoman go on to explain Hawkman’s last adventure. Cut in a few panels of Hawkman #33 (last series.) A shot of J’Onn and Arion touching the vanishing Hawkman (from Hawkman #33.)

    J’ONN: AND THAT WAS IT… WE BANISHED KATAR TO LIMBO.

Page Eight
A close up of Zauriel. From J’Onn’s story he recognizes Limbo… it’s the Ghost Zone… home of Prometheus. Cut in a quick flashback panel of Prometheus’ House. Another shot of the JLA roundtable as the heroes discuss what to do. A few more close ups of Zauriel, J’Onn and finally Superman. They decide to help Hawkwoman in her quest, but first they must summon Arion.

Page Nine
An unhappy Arion stands before the JLA. They are standing in the reception area of the JLA Watchtower. A few pleasantries are exchanged and then <FWASH> the JLA, Hawkwoman, and Arion are in the Ghost Zone.

Page Ten
The JLA is standing/floating outside of Prometheus’ House.

    ZAURIEL: YEP, THIS IS THE PLACE.

Flash runs reckon and returns with info.

    FLASH: PROMETHEUS ISN’T HERE. IF FACT, I THINK HE’S BEEN GONE FOR AWHILE.
SUPERMAN: GOOD. HAWKWOMAN, YOU CAN SENSE KATAR… WHERE IS HE?
HAWKWOMAN: HE’S HERE. SOMEWHERE OVER THERE.

Hawkwoman points off to the right.

Page Eleven
Hundreds of ghost-like Hawkmen fill the air. They are from different times and different eras. These are all the people Hawkman merged with during Zero Hour. Among the bodies are the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, The Silent Knight, and Tomahawk. In the very center and very tangible is Katar Hol… Hawkman. The JLA hovers silently in the background.

Page Twelve
Suddenly, the Ghost Hawks begin crying for help. They grab anyone who is near them. This freaks out many of the JLA members. Katar remains still. They are struggling to free themselves from the ghosts when Zauriel speaks up.
ZAURIEL: MY FRIENDS… THIS WAY, PLEASE.

Page Thirteen
Zauriel opens a portal to heaven, and all the ghosts follow the light.

Page Fourteen
Hawkwoman is holding Katar. The JLA gathers around. Katar is still unmoving… then he comes to life.

    HAWKMAN: THE VOICES, THEY’VE STOPPED. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO GO MAD
KEEPING THEM SEPARATE. BUT I DID IT. I SAVED THEM ALL.

Katar then notices Shayera holding him. Their eyes lock, then they embrace in a kiss. The JLA looks on as the reunion takes place. Superman then officially welcomes Hawkman back to the land of the living. Then a giant shadow falls upon them all.

Page Fifteen
The Hawk-God, a huge, giant creature, rips through the JLA. Several members, including Arion, go spiraling out of control in severe danger of becoming lost to the void. Hawkman is now back in full control of himself. What’s left of the JLA begins an assault on the Hawk-God. Hawkwoman pulls out her gun and begins shooting at it. Superman starts pounding on it. Green Lantern attacks it with a giant cat. Plastic Man wraps himself around the Hawk-God. J’Onn fires at it with some Martian heat vision. Hawkman spreads his wings and charges into battle.

Page Sixteen
Zauriel darts into battle as well only to get knocked all the way back to Prometheus’ House (trashing it in the process.) The Hawk-God starts swatting JLA members like flies. Many heroes are down.

WONDER WOMAN: SUPERMAN, LOOK OUT! IT’S USING MAGIC!

Superman gets knocked for a loop. Hawkman manages to grab the Hawk-God by the neck and flips around so he is "riding" on its back.

Page Seventeen
The JLA is still swarming about the Hawk-God. Hawkman pulls out his katar (the big knife he carryied around after Zero Hour.) He raises it high above the Hawk-God’s head. We can see some of the other heroes looking at him, wondering what he’ll do next. Hawkman is just about to deliver the deathblow… but he stops. Hawkman drops the knife and it floats away into Limbo.

Page Eighteen
Hawkman then puts his hands on the Hawk-God’s temples. He closes his eyes, and we can see telepathic signals coming from his forehead (just like Aquaman in the old Superfriends cartoon.) The Hawk-God ignores the rest of the JLA and focuses on Hawkman. As the Hawk-God is subdued, he begins to shrink back down to human size. Green Lantern swoops in and contains the Hawk-God in an energy bubble.

Pages Nineteen and Twenty
The Hawk-God is defeated. The JLA heads back to Prometheus’ House. Soon they are bathed in light… the angels have come. The angels are the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They have accepted positions in the army of light. They explain what happened to themselves and then request custody of the Hawk-God. Apparently, the Hawk-God and several other "gods" have been running loose on Earth for some time. The Golden Age Hawks have been dispatched to gather up the last missing "god." They promise the Hawk-God will once again feel the light.

Page Twenty-One
Outside of Prometheus’ (wrecked) House, good-byes are said, and the JLA returns home. The angelic Golden Age Hawks, with the Hawk-God in tow, return to Heaven. As everyone <FWASHES> out of the Ghost Zone, Prometheus <FWASHES> in.
PROMETHEUS: EH? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?

Page Twenty-Two
Back at the JLA Watchtower, Superman officially asks Hawkman and Hawkwoman to join the JLA.

HAWKMAN: I’M SORRY, MY FRIENDS, BUT I HAVE TO PUT MY OWN HOUSE IN ORDER BEFORE I CAN JOIN ANOTHER.

SUPERMAN: WE UNDERSTAND, BUT WHEN YOU’RE READY THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A PLACE FOR YOU IN THE JUSTICE LEAGUE (Insert JLA logo here.)

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