In Action #33, Ken Hall, "owner of the huge Hall lumber interests--one of the most profitable enterprises in the North Woods---" decided to put in his will that all proceeds from his lumber camps and mills were to go towards founding a free summer camp for underprivileged youths. He used to be a kid in the slums himsefl---and hadn't forgotten how he roasted in the city in the hot summer. It prompted Lois Lane to say,

"This fellow Hall is all right! I didn't know millionaires were built that way."

Clark answered, perhaps thinking of the time he was a millionaire, after World War I, answered,

"A man can have a million and still have a heart."

Still, both Lois and Clark retained some suspicion of those who were wealthy. Save for Bruce Wayne, Clark never really was a close friend with someone who was wealthy, perhaps too aware of the class differences between a farmer's son and a plutocrat. In one of the Sunday color comic strip sequences, Lois inherited a large mining estate from an uncle, William Bixby. (An uncle by marriage, having married a sister of Lois' father, if my research on Lois' family tree is correct.) At the end of the sequence, Clark says,

"Well, Lois, as owner of a radium mine, do you realize that puts you in the millionaire class?"

"I'll donate the mine to science and the medical profession. Me, I'd rather be just a plain sob-sister than a millionaire."

"Some people might think you crazy for those sentiments, Lois---but I think you're swell!"

...Which indicates neither Lois nor Clark were comfortable being associated with the wealthier classes.

One evening Ken Hall sauntered across his vast property for a lone inspection, and was found the next morning, dead....supposedly from a fall.

Ken's brother, Brett Hall, contested the will---and after a legal struggle of several months, lost. Yet the lumber operation was plagued with delays and accidents,and Clark and Lois went to the North Woods to investigate. In a story in which no one saw Superman at work (and thus was probably more realistic than most, though Lois suspected Superman was around.) Brett Hall was revealed to be the masked killer of his brother.

This happened during Clark and Lois' "Daily Planet" phase, when they were living in New York City, probably around 1938 or 1939. Brett Hall contested his brother's will in that city, indicating that whatever lands they had in the North Woods, they had their financial headquarters in New York City.

Well, in 1940 there was the first appearance of an adventurer called the Hawkman, whose other identity was New York millionaire---Carter Hall.

It's been noted that Superman was relatively uncomfortable with the Justice Society. The picture that is at the top of this article is one of the few times Superman and Hawkman worked together in the Justice Society. Part of it might have been the preponderance of mystical-based heroes, but part of it might have been that its chairman was the nephew of murderer Brett Hall. Superman might have felt uncomfortable and more than a little suspicious--- of the nephew of Brett Hall.

Carter Hall was an...interesting case. He was convinced he was the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian prince. Despite that delusion(or was it a delusion?), he was an extremely effective hero--- and became the third leader for the Justice Society, and became its permanent chairman. (It may have helped that he came from a wealthy background, not unlike Franklin Roosevelt, who first formed the Justice Society. Roosevelt and Hall understood each other instictively.)

Carter Hall's close physical resemblence to Flash Gordon was certainly no coincidence. David Gordon, an inventor of some note, married a Estelle Carter, of the same Virginia family that claimed John Carter, Southern gentleman and Warlord of Barsoom. Estelle's mother was an Englishwoman, sister of Professor Cavor, inventor of the anti-gravity metal Cavorite, as explained in H.G. Wells THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Unfortunately, their marriage turned out to be unhappy, and the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Estelle divorced David. She then married Ken Hall, taking Raymond ("Flash") Gordon, their son, with her.

Carter Hall was her second son, and "Flash" Gordon's half-brother. We know that "Flash" was a star of the polo fields, and a Yale graduate, indicating a wealthy background.

Like Dr. Cavor, his grandnephew Flash Gordon travelled to other worlds. (Dr. Cavor went to a small air-filled area of the moon that Reed Richards would later chisten "the Blue Area". There he found a colony of insectlike beings, long stranded on the moon ages ago.) Carter Hall, on the other hand, from hints left by Cavor's notebooks, rediscovered Cavorite, and made it into a more useful alloy he christned Ninth Metal.

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden journeyed with Dr. Zharkov to the planet Mongo, which Zharkov believed was on a collision course with Earth. However, Zharkov was mentally unbalanced, from trying to comprehend the Kryptonian principles behind the rocket ship that brought Kal-El to Earth, as explained in "From Gladiator to Superman". He succeeded to a certain extent---his rocket ship was centuries ahead of other rocket scientists of the time, like Goddard---but he was driven mad. The "panic" that Raymond depicted over Mongo's approach was purely artistic licence. Nor was Mongo's path, which barely touched the orbits of the outer planets, aimed directly at Earth.

Zharkov's lab kept in radio contact, even when Mongo moved away out of the solar system for years, finally losing contact with Zharkov, Flash, and Dale when they were in the Oort Cloud. (Later writers' continuation of Flash's adventures are entirely fictional. We don't know the final fate of Flash Gordon.) It may have been Carter Hall himself who relayed the information to Alex Raymond---or possibly Zharkov's young nephew, Reed Richards. (Interestingly enough, Ming the Merciless, ruler of Mongo, and Flash's greatest foe, may have been a relative of Superman's. See my article, "The House of El".)

Regardless, Carter Hall might have read Alex Raymond's depictions of Flash's encounters with Hawkmen on Mongo and been...well, inspired.

Carter was a more scientific-minded and at the same time mystically-minded individual than Flash. Flash was more a direct man of action, whereas Carter was a dreamer and an idealist, just as his father, Ken Hall, had been. He took Cavor's notes, and upon the ninth try, recreated Cavorite, which he rechristened "ninth metal". He made a belt of the same, as well as wings. (Later writers say that he was also influenced by "Perry Carter", alias Paran Katar, the second Hawkman's father from the planet Thanagar circling the planet Polaris. We're investigating that.)

One can assume that Ken Hall had other interests, diversifying, and even if the proceeds from his North Woods lumber operations went to a youth camp, there was more than enough to keep Carter, his son, wealthy. Brett Hall had originally hoped to inherit those lumber interests, knowing that Carter was more interested in archeology and collecting ancient weapons.

Carter might have been driven to remove the stigma from his family name, to make up for his uncle's misdeeds and murder of his father, by pursuing criminals himself. It's possible that his father's murder and his uncle's complicity may have unhinged Carter for a while, hence his visions of being an Egyptian prince. Carter Hall may have even been interviewed by Lois Lane for reaction to his father's death, and heard her theories of Superman's complicity in same, and become inspired to be a flying costumed adventurer himself.

Carter eventually married Shiera Sanders, who was also convinced she had been an ancient Egyptian princess in another incarnation. (And considering how Alan Quatermain also believed he remembered other incarnations, can we say they're wrong?)

They had at least one child, Hector, who as the Silver Scarab, led a group caleld Infinity Inc., according to Roy Thomas. He later became one of several Sandmen, and his son, Daniel Hall, was transformed into the true Master of Dreams, and Morpheus' successor.

There was a third brother, a younger brother of Carter, called Irwin Hall. He chose to make up for the shame of having a murderer in the family, by pursuing a career in law. He evidently became a judge, known for his unyielding devotion to the letter of the law.

Judge Hall had two sons, Hank and Don Hall. Hank was hot-headed and violent, whereas Don was mild and nonviolent. Yet a mystical voice gave them power when they were trapped and needed to save their father. They became known as the Hawk and the Dove.

Don seemed to have died during Crisis, the same catastrophic event that killed Superman's cousin, Supergirl. Hank's later career seems rather involved, and in one of his identities, the time-travelling Extant, he was responsible for the death of the original Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite and Atom, Carter Hall's teammates.

Thus, Brett Hall and Hank Hall were murderers, wheras Ken and Don and Carter and Hector were heroes. Occasionally Superman's path crossed that of the Hall family, and he may have been a catalyst in the Hawkman's birth---yet it was always an uneasy relationship.

Still, it is fitting that Superman, the first of the super-heroes, directly or indirectly influenced the developement of other super-heroes.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

Of course, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

GLADIATOR, Philip Wylie.

"The Magnificent Gordons" by Mark Brown.

"The Carters of Virginia: a Tragedy" by Jess Nevins.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. Superman is owned by DC Comics, Warner Communications, and the Siegels. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.