The Nail :: Hawkwoman

In the world of The Nail, Hawkwoman is one of the eight main characters of the story. She is a senior member of the Justice League of America, and heroine from the planet Thanagar. Years ago, during a fight with the android Amazo, her husband Hawkman was killed trying to help fellow leaguer Green Arrow. Since then, Hawkwoman has tried her hardest to find reasons to stay on Earth.

Hawkwoman is introduced in the story watching an interview on TV where Green Arrow, now a deformed and crazy cripple has turned aganist all metahumans. As tensions increase and hate against metahumans intensifies, Hawkwoman has become discouraged, and an enemosity between her and Wonder Woman has started because the amazon is approaching the situation through politics.

Hawkwoman has developed a great friendship with Aquaman, who is in many ways as alien to the surface dwellers as she is, and it is he who gives her friendly advice and suggests that perhaps it is time for her to leave Earth and go back to her home planet Thanagar.

Shayera resents the fact that after her husband died protecting humanity, it is now that same humanity that rejects her and all super powered beings; and now that Earth has just become the place where she lost everything, she has decided it is time to go.

As she prepares to depart, she notices a building on fire and in a last act of heroism, rescues two little children. All the witnesses start thanking Hawkwoman for saving the kids, and when she is about to be arrested by the police, all the people in the nighborhood defend her, and even acknowledge the sacrifice her husband, Hawkman, made in their name.

With her faith in humanity restored, Hawkwoman fighs alongside her companions in the JLA against the menace of the Eradicator. Once victorious, she decides to stay on Earth, and with the other leaguers welcomes Superman to the team.

This was the first time that Hawkwoman was given such a prominent role as an independent character, and it is my belief that thanks to The Nail she was featured in the Justice League animated series as one of the Big Seven. It's been more than ten years since this incredible story came out, but even after all that time it is still one of my favorites, because it gave Shayera a lot of camera time; and she is also featured in the sequel "Another Nail"... but that's a story for another time...

...so it was a kingdom was lost, all for the want of a nail.