Khufu

Khufu II was one of the children of Rameses II, pharoah of the 19th Dynasty.

Khufu and his beloved Chay-Ara discovered a wrecked Thanagar scout vessel on the Giza plateu. Inside were potent items made from Nth metal that allowed them to fly and maneuver like birds.

The evil priest Ahk-Ton used the powers of the Orb of Ra to engineer the assassination of the Royal Family. He murdered Teth-Adam's family and then killed Khufu and Chay-Ara with their own Nth metal weapons.

The court vizier Nabu petitioned the god Horus-Re of the Ennead to help Khufu and Chay-ara find justice. Horus and Nabu pooled their powers and set their souls on a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth. Always they find each other, and they are inevitably killed violently. And neither can rest until they find one another again.

In 1941, Carter Hall, a noted Egyptian archaeologist, met his future wife Sheila Hall on a dig near Cairo while fleeing German excavation crews intent on plundering tombs. Upon discovering a lost tomb of Rameses II, they were overwhelmed with visions of their past lives. They donned the ancient, lost weapons of Thanagar and took on the mantles of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They joined Jor-El of Krypton and Prince T'chaka of Wakanda in fending off the Germans, then became founding members of the Defenders.