Hawkgirl, a.k.a. Shayera Hol, is my favorite character on Justice League. Why can be summed up with two quotes:
When a team she’s leading runs into Lex Luthor and company:
We going to do this the hard way, Lex? Please say yes.
Another time, Vixen gives her advice on dealing with a subordinate:
Vixen: Men have fragile egos. To get what you want, you have to know how to talk to them.
Shayera: I don’t do that.
Shayera Hol is a soldier from the planet Thanagar, possessed of a superhuman physique, winged flight, and a big honkin’ mace that is her preferred solution to any problem. She is smart, confident, and has a deadpan sense of humor.
She also has some of the best character development of any character on the series. Over the course of the first two seasons, she develops close relationships with several other League members, notably a friendship with the Flash and a romance with Green Lantern.
Her greatest test comes when she is forced to choose between her comrades and her people after the Thanagarians invade Earth. Shayera initially betrays the League, but turns against her own people when she learns that the Thanagarian plan will destroy Earth as part of their war against another species. Despite saving Earth, she resigns from the League and goes into self-imposed exile.
Alienated from bother her original and adopted homes, Shayera eventually returns to the League to find several members of the original League wanting nothing to do with her and Green Lantern having moved on. Since the League’s membership has drastically expanded, Shayera is often assigned to lead teams, usually with subordinates who are even less forgiving of her past actions than her long-term teammates. She repeatedly proves herself as a leader and as a hero, with moments of awesomeness far too numerous to list here.
Shayera Hol is, in short, exactly the sort of female character that we need more of.
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Oh man. I started watching the Justice League a few weeks ago, and it was definitely Hawkgirl who got me hooked. I love that while her reaction to almost any problem is to hit it with a mace, that she’s not stupid (she just finds physical means the most effective way to solve problems), and she’s highly respected by all the other members of the League. It’s remarkable how many references to that there are — often in funny lines, but not as jokes themselves. Like when she and GL are investigating something on a foreign planet, and he’s having no luck getting information. Pan to a window breaking and two dudes being thrown through it, with her following, swinging her mace. To which GL says, “Would your rather talk to the bad cop?” or something along those lines.
Reb(Quote) (Reply)
i have an OBSESSION with Hawkgirl. That is all.
Melpomene(Quote) (Reply)
Diana: You shouldn’t have talked to her like that. She’s royalty.
Hawkgirl: Standard interrogation procedure. I was Bad Cop.
Superman: You’re always Bad Cop.
Hawkgirl: Why play against type?
Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
I had no idea. Awesome.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
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