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Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle is the name of two fictional characters published by DC Comics.

Pre-Crisis

The original Golden Eagle was an orphan by the name of Charley Parker. Charley lived in the Midway City orphanage and idolized Hawkman. At one point he sent a letter to Hawkman describing his home-made "Hawkman" costume. In Justice League of America #109, Hawkman had been ordered back to Thanagar, thus resigning from the JLA.[1] Golden Eagle debuted seven issues later in Justice League of America #116.

Parker himself explained that one day he had been wearing his "Hawkman" costume and fantasizing he was the Thanagarian hero when a strange light enveloped him turning his costume into an exact replica of Hawkman's costume. He also gained the ability to fly due to the replicated wings of his costume. Charley could at will change his street clothes into the Golden Eagle costume. The Justice League was called by the Midway City Police due to several incidents where criminals were dropped off at the police headquarters, captured by someone unknown who left a gold-colored feather behind—Hawkman's old modus operandi.

The Leaguers investigated and ran into the Golden Eagle when they were attacked by Hawkman's old foe Mark Mandrill, the Matter Master, a man who carried a mentally controlled wand that could manipulate matter—for example, changing the heads of members of the Justice League into the heads of animals. The Matter Master thought that the Golden Eagle was Hawkman and mentally had the wand bring the Golden Eagle to his hidden lair. Mandrill figured out that his wand must have transformed Charley, acting out some sort of subconscious need for the villain to battle Hawkman, who had not been seen for months. At the end of the story, Charley was changed back into a normal teenager.[2]

Charley was seen again in Justice League of America #117, as Green Arrow took him aboard the JLA satellite as a new "mascot" (similar to Snapper Carr).[3]

He later appeared in Teen Titans #50–52 as a member of Titans West.[4]

Post-Crisis

In 1989, Golden Eagle was retconned as a Californian surfer, unable to hold down a job. The previous connection to Hawkman was gone. Instead, his past was a mystery, just as the origins of his costume and his powers. Nonetheless, he remained connected to the Titans West, and was involved in the Titans Hunt storyline, where he was seemingly killed by a member of the Wildebeest Society.

Ch'al Andar

In Hawkman (vol. 4) #43, a new origin for Golden Eagle was introduced. Once an orphan in Midway City's Sisters of Mercy orphanage, Charley Parker bounced around from different foster homes and orphanages for the better part of his youth, learning life's hardships along the way. At sixteen, he became a drug courier for Mick Valdare, and was adopted by various foster families. Valdare paid these families handsomely, which allowed Parker, and by extension Valdare, to keep a low profile and to have a front if caught. Parker lived a rich and spoiled life full of fast cars, expensive clothes and beautiful women until he turned eighteen. Valdare fired him because he was no longer a minor. Parker, desolate, alone and without the luxuries he had grown accustomed to, considered suicide. Hawkman saved him and became a mentor for the young man. On the hero's recommendation, Parker went to, and found a job opportunity with, Carter Hall, a museum curator and Hawkman's secret identity. Parker accepted, and was soon exposed to other heroes, including Adam Strange and Hawkgirl.[5]

Parker earned Hall's trust when he defended Hawkgirl from the Shadow Thief. Hall revealed his secret identity, gave Parker a Thanagarian battle suit that had been discovered by Adam Strange, and began training him to be a hero. Parker, now known as Golden Eagle, finally felt he had a purpose in life. Carter Hall had to leave Earth and left Charley to his own devices. Parker eventually hooked up with the Titans West, but after that team disbanded, he returned to a slacker lifestyle, surfing and performing the occasional odd job to earn money. After discovering that renting out his services as a hero didn't generate sufficient income, he retired the Golden Eagle identity. Deathstroke asked him to track down some missing Teen Titans members at the beginning of the Titans Hunt storyline. During this time, while fighting alongside Aqualad against the Wildebeest Society, Parker was choked to death. A statue of Golden Eagle is in the memorial section of Titans Tower. Suddenly, he was miraculously revived by the Nth-Metal within his Thanagarian armor, claiming to have rediscovered his motivation to be a force for good.

This story proved to be a ruse, and Parker's true colors and motivations appeared in Hawkman (vol. 4) #44–45. When Carter Hall was seemingly killed in battle, Parker claimed the right to his legacy, becoming the new Hawkman. He managed to win the friendship of Kendra, and claimed to be the "true" Hawkman's son (he considered Hall a "false Hawkman"). He showed Kendra a Thanagarian ship he had built using blueprints stored in his Golden Eagle armor, and asked her to follow him to Thanagar. When she refused both his proposal and sexual advances, Parker beat her and exposed the truth about his relationship with Hawkman. On the verge of killing Kendra and replacing her with a Thanagarian maiden, "more suited to his tastes", Parker was confronted by a very much alive Carter Hall, who miraculously returned for a final showdown with his former protégé.[6]

In the subsequent fight between the two Hawkmen, it was revealed that Parker was indeed the son of a Hawkman, the villainous Fel Andar, the spy sent from Thanagar in the wake of the Invasion, the military alliance against Earth, and Earth woman Sharon Parker. Parker had carefully planned the death of Carter Hall, creating an alliance among many of Hawkman's foes. He drugged Hall to beat Hawkgirl, to make her betray him just as (Parker believed) the Thanagarians and Earth-men had betrayed his father. Hall beat his foe and sent Parker, along with a recording of his confessions, to Thanagar to be judged for his crimes.[7]

Arriving on Thanagar in the wake of the Rann-Thanagar War, he earned a pardon for his crimes and was instated as a Wingman leader dispatched on Rann. Half-blinded by the severe beating he suffered at Hall's hands, Parker was now equipped with a cybernetic eyepatch over the left eyesocket and a new suit of armor. In battle with Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Adam Strange, Parker was finally reunited with his father, Fel Andar, who had now forsaken his evil plans of domination and sought only forgiveness and to do what is right for Thanagar. He pleaded with his son to follow the same path. Parker foregoes a further attack on Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but it is unknown yet what path he will take. His father Fel Andar was killed during an encounter with Blackfire.

After the alien Forerunner Viza Aziv was dismissed from The Monarch's multiversal army, she found herself in space aboard a space pirate ship she promptly took as her own.[8] Shortly afterwards, a Thanagarian fleet in search of the ship's original captain demanded her surrender, to which she challenged them and their leader to honorable combat. Their leader was Golden Eagle. Viza invoked the law of choice, a custom on her home world enabling the victor of a battle to take any prize they wanted.[9] After she defeated him and his troops, she decided to take him as her prize, forcing him to serve as her sex slave aboard her pirate ship. When Forerunner finds a planet to call her own, she allows Golden Eagle to leave.[10]

Aryan Brigade version

There is a second Golden Eagle that is a member of the Aryan Brigade. This Golden Eagle is much different from Golden Eagle I since he is equipped with mechanical wings and is a white supremacist like the other members of the Aryan Brigade.[11]

In other media

Golden Eagle first appeared in issue #50 of Teen Titans Go as a potential new member along with (the TTG universe's version of) Mirage, Aquagirl, Flamebird, and Azrael.

Golden Gladiator

References
  1. Justice League of America #109
  2. Justice League of America #116
  3. Justice League of America #117
  4. Teen Titans #50–52
  5. Hawkman #47
  6. Hawkman #44
  7. Hawkman #45
  8. Countdown to Adventure #6
  9. Countdown to Adventure #7
  10. Countdown to Adventure #8
  11. Justice League Task Force #10
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