What's This? At the beginning of the month, I posted
Who's The Fadeaway Man and active reader American Hawkman correctly pointed out that the Cloak of Cagliostro used by the villain had a longer DCU history than I'd at first realized... and connected to Hawkman, too! Indeed, it first appeared in a Golden Age Hawkman story way back in 1947! Let's go back, shall we?
Example story: Flash Comics #82 (April 1947), "The Cloak of Cagliostro" by Robert Kanigher and Jon Chester Kozlak
I had not realized that the Earth-2 Hawkman hung his wings in Gotham City, but that's where this story unfolds. A pauper wonders if he should spend his last 2.10$ on food or cloths, but he is inspired by buy an old cloak he sees in a story window. It's 5 whole dollars, but the store clerk is quick to accept 2 bucks for it (that might be your first clue...). 10 cents for peanuts later and our still nameless man finds dogs run away from him, birds fly away from him. And that's when a strange feeling comes over him:
He now regrets having starved instead of begging or stealing after he lost his job. So he goes out and robs a grocery store. Oh, but remember when I mentioned birds, earlier? Well, Hawkman has a chat with them and that's enough to put him on our man's trail. And he catches up to him while he's mugging some innocent park walker. I wouldn't say the cloak has given him any powers, exactly, but even Hawkman can sense something magical here.
There's a hypnotic element to this evil that makes Hawkman start to feel dizzy and then - ah! - the man fades away.
Now, it's recognizably the same cloak. Carter brings the piece of fabric he ripped off it to his lab and discovers it's centuries old, and he also starts to feel a bit evil himself! He throws the rag away from himself before it goes too far and handles it with tools from then on. But we might be saying that it's not the Fadeway Man's fault if HE went bad over on Earth-1. Carter then goes to his books and finds references to Cagliostro who also had hypnotic powers and jumps to the easy conclusion that we're dealing with his wardrobe here. Hey, he's the expert. Across the city, the man, now identified as Jabez Malone, has put the cloak on a hook and suddenly feels deep remorse. But as soon as he puts it back on to go outside, he's back to evil. He breaks into a goldsmith's shop (not exactly leaning into the teleportation bit) and that's when a little bird tells on him, and Hawkman arrives on the scene, avoiding his hypnotic gaze.
Hawkman throws the cloak - a PRICELESS ARTIFACT - into the smith's furnace and Malone goes back to normal. In fact, Hawkman gets him a job as Carter Hall's "houseman" (I do not believe he was ever seen or referenced again). This is how Earth-2 was rid of this evil object. But on Earth-1, Anton Lamont got his hands on it and turned to supervillainy. Of course, the Earth-1 version may or may not have hypnotic power, or emanate evil. It's also a lot fancier. But then, its Hawkman is a space cop, so.
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