Charley Parker

Charley Parker is a fictional super-hero/villain who goes by the code name of Golden Eagle. He is featured in comic books published by DC Comics and was introduced in Justice League of America #116 in March, 1975.

Origins
In 1947, the Thanagarian siblings known as Andar Nal and Andar Pul arrived on the planet Earth for the purpose of scientific study. Andar Nal met and fell in love with an Earth woman named Naomi O'Neill. The two were married and by 1948, they gave birth to a son, Fel Andar. Andar Nal brought his son back to Thanagar so that he could be raised in the customary Thanagarian tradition.

Many years later, the Thanagarians placed Fel Andar in charge of an undercover espionage mission on Earth. His objective was to gather as much information as he could obtain regarding Earth's offensive capabilities and report back to Thanagar. Thanagar in the meanwhile, were conspiring with several other alien races in an effort to amass an Invasion force to conquer Earth.

On Earth, Fel Andar met a woman named Sharon Parker. The two fell in love and were eventually married. Fel and Sharon gave birth to a child, which Fel named Ch'al Andar. In order to keep Ch'al's heritage a private matter, his parents provided him with a human name to accompany his mother's maiden name – Charles Edmond Parker.

Four years later, the Thanagarian ruling council altered Fel's long-term mission parameters. They instructed him to assume the guise of Carter Hall Jr., the son of the fabled Hawkman from World War II. Fel did as instructed, but neglected to inform his home world that he had sired a child with an Earth woman. Recognizing that Thanagar would frown upon such a mating, Fel used the technology at his disposal to brainwash Sharon Parker. He programmed her to believe that she was a fellow Thanagarian, and removed all knowledge of Charley's existence from her memory. Soon after, Fel secretly placed Charley into the care of the Sister of Mercy Orphanage in Midway City.

The orphanage operated in close connection with a small-time criminal cartel led by a man named Mick Valdare. Mick used his connections at Sister of Mercy to find homes for children in exchange for a percentage. All of the families listed on the referral were front operations for Valdare's criminal exploits. One of the selected families adopted Charley Parker and by the age of sixteen, he was running packages for Mick's crew.

Early life
Charley Parker lived a lifestyle most others only dreamed of. He drove fast cars, visited the most popular nightclubs, and was never seen without an attractive woman hanging onto each arm. He continued to run drugs for Valdare on a regular basis, but was careful to never sample any of the product himself.

Charley's whirlwind lifestyle changed on his eighteenth birthday. His foster parents evicted him from their home in order to adopt another child destined to run drugs for Mick Valdare. Valdare only employed minors to work for him, and refused to associate with anyone that could potentially earn a criminal record. Valdare instantly disassociated himself from Charley.

Parker knew that he possessed no real talents aside from the skills he learned running drugs for Valdare's mob. He further knew that it would only be a matter of time before he committed some act that would land him in prison. His world shattered, Charley prepared to take his own life by leaping off of the top of a Midway City bridge.

Charley's salvation came from the most ironic of sources – the original Hawkman. Hawkman had long since established himself as the super-hero, and acted as Midway City's champion along with his wife, Hawkwoman. Hawkman convinced Charley to reconsider suicide and set him up working as a janitor for "Carter Hall" at the Midway City Museum. Charley had no idea that Carter Hall was secretly Hawkman.

One day, a criminal known as the Shadow Thief burst into the Midway City Museum and began attacking Hawkwoman. Charley ran into the room and drove the Shadow Thief away with one of the various weapons found in the museum. When Hawkman returned, he was grateful to Charley for saving his wife's life, and revealed his secret identity as Carter Hall.

Hawkman possessed an ancient suit of Thanagarian battle-armor that he acquired from his close associate, Adam Strange. He gave the armor to Charley, and the ambitious teen became the super-hero known as Golden Eagle. Hawkman worked with Golden Eagle for several months training him in flight maneuvers, battle tactics and basic hand-to-hand combat. Once Hawkman was satisfied with Golden Eagle's progress, he encouraged him to leave the museum and seek out his own fortune.

Charley relocated to Los Angeles, California where he became a mercenary hero-for-hire. Occasionally, he provided heroic services for free, but only as a matter of establishing a reputation for himself. One of his earliest exploits involved rescuing a group of campers who had become trapped within the blaze of a raging forest fire.

Although Charley continued to periodically work in the Los Angeles area, he earned very little money from super-heroing. He preferred instead to use the extra time he had to brush up on his surfing skills. Within a short period of time, Charley had come to embody every stereotype imaginable of the typical California surfer.

Teen Titans & Death?
Soon after, a young woman named Lilith Clay decided to establish a west coast branch of the super-hero team known as the Teen Titans. She recruited Golden Eagle, along with Bat-Girl, Beast Boy, Bumblebee, Guardian and Hawk and Dove to fight against a villain known as Captain Calamity. The nascent Titans west branch teamed up with their east coast counterparts and successfully defeated the villain. However, this affair marked the final adventure of both teams, and the Teen Titans disbanded soon after.

File:Golden Eagle original costume.JPG Golden Eagle went into semi-retirement after the disbanding of the Teen Titans. He remained in California for several years and made little progress in the way of gainful employment. In the meantime, the Teen Titans had re-established themselves with a brand new roster, but none of them ever invited Charley to participate on the team.

Many years later, a criminal organization known as the Wildebeest Society began hunting down members of the Titans and many of its former members. Charley Parker donned his Golden Eagle armor for the first time in years, and traveled to Long Island to assist his old friends. Aqualad and he encountered the Wildebeest on the cliffs of Long Island. Wildebeest savagely tore into the two nearly killing both of them. He strangled Golden Eagle with a garrote wire and left him for dead.

Family reunion
Fortunately for Charley, his birth father, Fel Andar, had been monitoring his actions for the past several years. He arrived on the beach in a Thanagarian starship and used his advanced alien science to save Charley's life. Fel and Charley spent a few short weeks together before Fel was recalled back to Thanagar. During that time however, Charley learned of his true heritage and gained a new suit of Thanagarian battle armor.

This experience completely changed Charley's demeanor. He regarded Fel Andar as a true Thanagarian, and now spurned the teachings of Carter Hall, believing him to be a mockery to Thanagarian tradition. Analyzing his new-battle armor, he began reverse engineering the technology and used it to begin construction on a custom-designed Thanagarian starcraft. It was his intent to one day leave Earth and journey to Thanagar to be with his father.

A year after his resurrection, Charley began developing his skills as a businessman. He needed ready capitol with which to complete construction of his starship, and so he established Ethon Enterprises. Ethon Enterprises proved to be extremely successful, and within a short span of time, he owned several branch offices across the United States.

Three years later, Charley learned that Carter Hall – the original Hawkman, had returned to Earth and was now living in St. Roch, Louisiana. Construction of his starship was nearly complete, but he refused to leave Earth before getting revenge upon Carter for staining the true Thanagarian heritage. He opened a branch office of Ethon Enterprises in St. Roch and quietly began conceptualizing an extravagant plot to destroy Carter Hall.

He slowly began cultivating a vast network of resources and relied upon the aid of various super-villains to wear down Hawkman's reserve. He enabled the evil scientist, Satana, to begin creating monstrous animal men to plague St. Roch. He also sent a mystic Garuda statue to the Stonechat Museum – a device that summoned the essence of a powerful Manticore to plague Hawkman. He found Trygg the sorcerer, half-mad and wandering the moors of Scotland and allied him with the Fadeaway Man to turn St. Roch into a veritable Hell on Earth.

Golden Eagle flies again
After the defeat of Trygg the sorcerer, Charley Parker publicly announced himself to the world. He revealed his identity as Golden Eagle and held a massive party on the roof of the Ethon Tower in St. Roch. Hawkman and his most recent partner, Hawkgirl, were invited to the party. They attended in their civilian guises of Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders. Charley arranged for a loose confederation of villains including, Fadeaway Man, Lion-Mane, Lasso and Hummingbird to attack the tower. Carter and Kendra sprung into action, and Charley had Lasso attempt to kill them by way of a massive cluster bomb. When this failed to destroy his hated enemies, he embarked upon a secondary plan of attack.

Charley had Carter exposed to a chemical compound known as the Delirium Dust. This drug was designed to erase Hawkman's memories and ultimately drive him mad. He had an underling known as the Thought Terror brainwash Carter into a delusional state and sent him off to kill Hawkgirl. This plan nearly succeeded and Hawkgirl was critically injured in the attack.

Feeling that he had tormented his foe long enough, Charley set about the final phase of his revenge scheme. He communicated with Thanagarian contacts loyal to Fel Andar and negotiated the sale of several Manhawk eggs. He bred the savage Manhawks and sent them to tear Hawkman to pieces. By this point, Hawkman had grown suspicious of Charley's true motivations and arranged to falsify his own death. Through the mystic power of his son, Doctor Fate, Carter managed to convince Golden Eagle that the Manhawks had indeed killed him. Without having to worry about Charley's constant scheming, Hawkman was able to covertly operate behind-the-scenes to take down all of Eagle's confederates one by one.

Following the supposed death of Hawkman, Charley decided to take his place as the new Hawkman. He donned a costume similar to Carter’s and worked alongside the recently recuperated Hawkgirl to protect St. Roch. Hawkgirl began to notice elements of Charley’s true personality showing through his otherwise calm veneer as he viciously tore into Satana and her animal-men.

Soon after, Charley took Kendra back to a special hangar bay at the Ethon Tower. He showed her the Thanagarian starship that he had been working on for the past four years, and declared that she was to be his mate and return with him to Thanagar. Kendra recoiled from the offer and now realized that Charley had been playing the Hawks for fools the entire time that they had known him.

Fall & Disgrace
Hawkman decided to take this opportunity to reveal that he was in fact, still alive. He burst into the Ethon Tower hangar bay and Golden Eagle and he engaged in a brutal battle. Although Eagle fought valiantly, Hawkman ultimately gained the upper hand. He broke Golden Eagle's arm and smashed his face into ship's bulkhead rupturing his left eye. Hawkman was nearly prepared to kill his foe, but decided that it would be more appropriate to send the former hero to Thanagar. He imprisoned him inside of the starship with a data-report explaining Golden Eagle's true identity and past actions. He programmed the ship to return to Thanagar. Upon arriving, Golden Eagle was promptly arrested and placed in prison.

The Rann-Thanagar War
He remained in custody for a very short while however, as the planet Thanagar became embroiled in a galactic war against the planet, Rann. Thanagar needed all of the resources it could muster, and Golden Eagle earned a pardon for his crimes were released from prison to participate in the war.

He 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.

As Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Adam Strange entered the war. Golden Eagle once again sought vengeance, but at that moment also reunited Ch'al Andar with his long-believed dead father, Fel Andar. Once an outcast on Thanagar, Fel had embraced a spiritual path. Fel pleaded with his son to end his vendetta - and convinced Golden Eagle to fight for peace rather than power or glory.

He pleaded with his son to follow the same path. Parker forewent a further attack on Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but it is unknown yet what path he will take. Sadly, just as father and son made peace, Fel Andar was murdered by Blackfire.

Ch'al later buried his father on New Thanagar, pledging to protect the surviving Thanagarians in his father's name.

Notes & Trivia





 * A revised origin for Charley Parker was provided in Secret Origins, Volume 2 Annual #3 in 1989.

Legal status

 * Golden Eagle is a former citizen of the United States with no criminal record.


 * Formerly declared legally deceased.


 * Naturalized citizen of Thanagar with a criminal record.


 * The general populace of Earth is aware that Charley Parker is Golden Eagle, but it is not common knowledge that he is part-alien.

Vocations

 * Thanagarian freedom fighter.
 * Former drug runnger.
 * Former surfer.
 * Former president and CEO of Ethon Enterprises