Hawkgirl

Shayera Hol, formerly known on Earth as Hawkgirl, was one of the founding members of the Justice League and a former member of the Thanagarian military. She played a key role in the Thanagarian invasion on both sides. Hawkgirl is a fiery and considerably aggressive person who exhibits a wild temperament but nonetheless fights on the side of good.

Coming to Earth

Shayera Hol was a lieutenant and an instructor in espionage on the planet Thanagar, engaged to be married to Commander Hro Talak. Shayera was sent in advance of the Thanagarian invasion as a scout to determine Earths' weaknesses should Thanagar's enemies, the Gordanians, attack. Her cover story was that she was tracking criminals to their fortress when she was unexpectedly teleported to Earth. Shayera eventually established herself on Earth and became known to the populace as Hawkgirl.

During the Imperium invasion, she was telepathically summoned by J'onn J'onzz to assist in repelling the invaders. Hawkgirl was teamed with Superman to take out the aliens' factories, which propelled smoke into the air to block out the sun. They were unsuccessful and were both captured. J'onn, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern attempted to rescue the two but were themselves captured. The six heroes were held for the alien invaders leader.

After Batman had successfully faked his own death and infiltrated the factory, he reversed the smoke process. The group was able to free themselves and destroy the factory and its duplicates around the world. In fact, Hawkgirl was responsible for destroying the Imperium when he attempted to escape on board his personal shuttle craft. Due to her efforts during the invasion, Hawkgirl was invited aboard the Watchtower, and formed the Justice League along with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and J'onn.

The Justice League

Hawkgirl would participate in the various missions with the Justice League, including the Manhunter threat to Oa and Vandal Savage's alteration of World War II. During Darkseid's attempt to kill Superman to remake the universe in his image, she temporarily knocked him unconscious to save her friend.

Hawkgirl was once teleported, along with Martian Manhunter, John Stewart and Flash to a world of superheroes set in the '50s and '60s of the 20th century. There, she endured constant sexist remarks due to her gender. She and one of the heroes from this dimension named Green Guardsman stopped a villain called Music Master. She teamed up with the rest of the Justice League and the Justice Guild to fight Ray Thompson once he revealed his true intentions of evil and the Justice Guild ceased to exist.

During one such mission, after tracking Solomon Grundy and Aquaman to Doctor Fate, Hawkgirl discovered Fate's connection to Thanagar. Along with Superman and Wonder Woman, she discovered that Ichthultu, once worshiped on Thanagar as a god-like entity, had come to Earth. Fate, Superman, Wonder Woman, Grundy and Hawkgirl traveled to Ichthultu's world. There, Hawkgirl developed an unlikely friendship with Grundy, which was tragically short-lived. After Grundy successfully entered Ichthultu's bowels and killed a monster inside, he was rendered immobilized. Hawkgirl followed him and finished Grundy's job for him, killing Ichthultu with a strike from her magic-disrupting mace. Grundy died in her arms shortly afterwards. However, she couldn't understand why he was happy at the end, to which Aquaman replied that it was faith.

During her time with the League, Hawkgirl developed a deep relationship with fellow member John Stewart, despite their constant bickering. During Joker's bomb threat on Las Vegas, John rescued her and sacrificed himself in an explosion. His power ring's aura protected him, but the shock stopped his heart. With her mace, Hawkgirl restarted it and brought him back to the Watchtower against Batman's orders. After giving John proper medical treatment, she agreed to stay with him overnight on the Watchtower to make sure he recuperated. John woke up and the two discussed their relationship. Hawkgirl was against it going any further, though John eventually brought her round to the idea. Her mask was finally removed, exposing her true face for the first time in the series. John and Shayera shared a kiss at the end.

After a Gordanian vessel was shot down by the Thanagarians over Washington D.C., Hawkgirl's mission on Earth was complete. She had sent all of the data she had collected on Earth and through her work with the Justice League to the Thanagarians. It was determined that Earth would not be safe from a Gordanian attack and so construction began on a force field generator to protect the Earth, overseen by Thanagarian Paran Dul. Hawkgirl was then revealed to the entire planet as a spy. To make matters worse, especially for John Stewart, she revealed that she was engaged to the Thanagarians' commander, Hro Talak. These revelations created a rift between her and her teammates and caused significant damage to her relationship with John Stewart.

Hawkgirl was firm in her duty to Thanagar and believed that the Thanagarians were acting in Earth's best interests. When the Justice League resisted the occupation of Earth, she chose duty to her home world over loyalty to her League mates. The League was captured using Shayera's report of their weaknesses against them. When only John Stewart remained standing, she chose duty over love and rendered him unconscious with her mace as he was trying to appeal to her emotions. Within days of the League's escape, Shayera discovered the Thanagarians' true intentions. The device they were building was not a force field generator, but a Hyperspace Bypass Generator. The generator would create a wormhole in hyperspace, allowing the Thanagarian armada to jump behind the Gordanians' defenses and attack their homeworld directly. This would destroy the Earth and everyone on it. Choosing to betray her people, Shayera stole this information and handed it directly to Bruce Wayne in an attempt to make amends with her friends. After everyone but John Stewart turn their back on her, Hawkgirl explained her reasons to him and returned his power ring to him then left. However, Hawkgirl's betrayal was quickly discovered by Hro Talak's right-hand man, Kragger, and she was imprisoned. When Talak realizes that she wasn't in love with him anymore, but now with John, Shayera was offered the chance to be released and pardoned for her treason, if she admitted that she didn't love John. However, Hawkgirl refused and commented that if he truly loved her, then he'd spare the Earth.

During her imprisonment, Shayera noticed that Wonder Woman had infiltrated the vessel as she and the rest of the League made their assault on the armada and their captured Watchtower. Shayera was released by Wonder Woman, although she did so bitterly. The latter picked up a Thanagarian warrior's discarded mace and flew off to confront Hro Talak. Shayera found Talak in the control room for the Bypass Generator's force field as he was about to kill John. She successfully stopped his assault and turned his aggression on her, but Shayera was pinned to a wall by Talak's energy axe. After Shayera begged him to spare the Earth, he simply slammed the back of the energy axe into her, giving her an almost deadly shock and then discarded her by throwing her across the room. John Stewart then resumed the fight with Talak. After defeating Talak, Stewart was too injured to operate the lever to deactivate the force field. Shayera had awoken and assisted him, placing her hands over his and together they pushed the button down to destroy the Bypass Generator.

With the generator's destruction, the Thanagarians left Earth. However, Shayera's status in the Justice League had been called into question. With the Watchtower destroyed, the League took shelter in Wayne Manor and set about debating Hawkgirl's future with the organization. The other six members of the League discussed and voted inside Wayne Manor. Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne family butler, served tea to Shayera and provided his own small words of encouragement; stating that she was indeed a hero because she made a great personal sacrifice to save Earth. Shayera took comfort in Alfred's words.

When she was called in, Shayera never gave them a chance to tell her what they concluded as she couldn't let them be torn between their feelings and duty along with believing that none of them will ever trust her again when she voluntarily resigned from the League. After The Flash hugged her warmly as a goodbye, Shayera accepted it and realizes that she might still have some of her former teammates as friends. Before leaving, however, Shayera told John that she loved him and never lied about that. It is unknown if she heard his words to her: "I love you too..."