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Hawkman's Ultimate Weapon: The Claw of Horus

Published with permission of Tim Board:

Throughout his history, one of Hawkman's trademarks has been his weapons. From the beginning he has used all sorts of weapons to defeat his enemies; from his ever-present mace to his Katar from Hawkworld. However, in 2001, David Goyer and Geoff Johns created a weapon for Hawkman that would be his most powerful weapon ever: the Claw of Horus.

In JSA No. 20 (March 2001), the Flash (Jay Garrick) borrowed Black Adam's speed to pull the King of Fears into the Speed Force and destroy it. To return from the Speed Force, the Flash used Black Adam's energy signature as a guide, or as Mister Terrific called it, a "tether". However, instead of returning to the Black Adam of the 21st century, he ended up 3,000 years in the past, where he met Prince Khufu (the future Hawkman) and his advisers Nabu (Doctor Fate), and Teth-Adam (Black Adam).

From JSA No. 20 (March 2001)
Nabu had foreseen a battle on Thanagar that would take place in the Flash's time in the 21st century. To help them win the battle, Prince Khufu gave the Flash the Claw of Horus. This was a war gauntlet made from the Nth metal they found on a Thanagarian space ship that had crashed in the desert. Nabu instructed the Flash to give it to Khufu (Hawkman) when they met again in the future. Using the speed of Teth-Adam, the Flash was able to safely return to the 21st century with the Claw of Horus.

From JSA No. 22 (May 2001)
Soon afterward, Hawkman was brought back from the Well of Spirits to help fight Onimar Synn, a Thanagarian demon who had taken over the planet and most of the Nth metal. The Justice Society came to Thanagar to help and the Flash gave the Claw of Horus to Hawkman, as promised thousands of years before.

From JSA No. 24 (July 2001)

From JSA No. 24 (July 2001)
The first thing Hawkman did was to use the Claw to disable Onimar Synn's wingmen's Nth metal, causing many of them to fall out of the sky. However they were eventually defeated, and Synn took the Claw from Hawkman. He added the Claw to his body of Nth metal, but that was his fatal mistake. Hawkman and Hawkgirl channeled their love for each other into the Claw and it caused Synn to self-destruct.

From JSA No. 25 (August 2001)

From JSA No. 25 (August 2001)
The next appearance of the Claw of Horus came in Superman/Batman No. 4 (January 2004). In this episode, Hawkman and Captain Marvel were asked to bring in the fugitives Superman and Batman.

Superman/Batman No. 4 (January 2004)
Hawkman took on Batman while Captain Marvel went after Superman. During the battle, Batman told Superman to trade opponents. Batman took on Captain Marvel and Superman grabbed Hawkman. He took Hawkman up high to make him black out, but before that happened, the Claw of Horus came out of Hawkman's arm gear. He punched Superman out while explaining the Claw of Horus to him. "It draws its power from the magnetic core of the Earth. Essentially… I just hit you with the planet."

Superman/Batman No. 4 (January 2004)

Superman/Batman No. 4 (January 2004)

From Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
The next appearance of the Claw was in Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42, and this time, Hawkgirl was the one to wear it. This is the only time we have seen her wear it, but she used it with great effect. In the story, Hawkman was supposedly dead (shocker), and a villain called the Purple Pilgrim came after Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl) and her grandfather Speed Saunders (a cousin of Shiera Saunders, the Golden Age Hawkgirl). The Pilgrim was about to kill Speed when Hawkgirl put the Claw on and blasted him out of the building with a powerful energy wave.

From Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42 (September 2005)

From Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42 (September 2005)
The Pilgrim tried to kill Hawkgirl and take the Claw for himself, but she blasted him again, creating a huge hole in the middle of the street several feet deep. She blasted him a third time, completely destroying the entire street in the process.

From Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42 (September 2005)

From Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42 (September 2005)
The Claw next appeared in the Brightest Day series in 2010-11. Hawkman and Hawkgirl (the resurrected Shiera) returned to their museum in St. Roch after the events of the Blackest Night. They were given a sapphire (actually a shard of the crystallized bones of Prince Khufu and Chay-ara) by Star Sapphire. These bones were part of the power source of the battery for the Star Sapphires of Zamaron.

From Brightest Day No. 0 (June 2010)
The jewel suddenly attached itself to the Claw of Horus, and for the remainder of the story, the Claw served as a guide for Hawkman and Hawkgirl to find their Egyptian remains, Hath-Set, a place called Hawkworld and finally Zamaron. Hawkman never used the powers of the Claw that has been seen in the previous stories.

From Brightest Day No. 8 (August 2010)
The last appearance of the Claw came in Dark Days: The Forge, the prelude to the Metal series. In the issue, Carter Hall was trying to figure out what the Nth Metal is and where its power is coming from. In one panel, he has a case of Nth Metal artifacts and one of them clearly resembles the Claw of Horus that appeared in Superman/Batman No. 4. That is the only time it appears in the series (as of Metal No. 3).

From Dark Days: The Forge (August 2017)
It should also be noted that during the Savage Hawkman series (2011-2013), Hawkman's armor had gauntlets that resembled the Claw of Horus, but it was never referred to by that name and his gauntlets themselves never had any special powers or abilities similar to the Claw's.

That is all we have seen of the Claw of Horus so far. To recap, the Claw has the following abilities:

• The ability to draw power from the magnetic core of the Earth and hit with the force of a planet.
• The ability to disrupt other forms of Nth Metal
• The ability to shoot energy blasts powerful enough to destroy a street in a single blast
• The ability to be a guide to other Hawkman-related artifacts
• The ability to destroy a Thanagarian demon

The Claw of Horus appears in the following issues:
JSA No. 20 (March 2001)
JSA No. 22-25 (May-August 2001)
Superman/Batman No. 4 (January 2004)
Hawkman Vol. 4 No. 42 (September 2005)
Superman/Batman Public Enemies (DC Animation Movie, 2009)
Brightest Day No. 0-5 (June-September 2010)
Brightest Day No. 8 (October 2010)
Brightest Day No. 13 (January 2011)
Brightest Day No. 17-18 (March 2011)
Dark Nights: Metal No. 1 (October 2017)

Over the last three days, we did a poll on our Twitter and Facebook accounts to see what the Hawkfans and other comic book fans thought of this weapon. It seems that fans who wanted Hawkman to use the weapon sparingly slightly outnumbered the fans who wanted it to be a regular feature of Hawkman's arsenal. With the possibility of Hawkman coming back during the Metal series, there could even be a chance that the Claw of Horus could tip the balance in the battle between the heroes and all those Dark Universe Batman Demon creatures. Whatever the case, it can be said that the Claw of Horus is sure to make another appearance in the story of Hawkman and Hawkgirl in the future.

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