Polite Dissent

At last! The event every fan had been clamoring for: the return of Titans West! Personally, I never really understood the mystique of Titans West as they appeared for all of two issues in the late ’70s version of the Teen Titans and consisted of mostly B-level heroes (excepting Hawk and Dove of course, and the post-Crisis version did ramp up the power level). Nevertheless, the first Hawk & Dove Annual features their “long-awaited return.” But that’s not all the surprises this issue contains as it also features a final guest star that really puts the machina in Deus Ex Machina. Overall, this is near perfect example of what an annual should be: a larger than life adventure that just wouldn’t fit in the regular title.

The story picks up shortly after Hawk & Dove #14-17. In that adventure, Hawk and Dove had chased their arch-foe Kestrel to his home dimension of Druspa Tau — a dimension that also happened to be the residence of T’Charr and Terataya, the Lord of Chaos and the Lord of Order that gave Hawk and Dove their powers. In the final scene of that story, Hawk and Dove absorbed the essences of their respective creators. This greatly increased their powers, but it also raised the question of whether or not Hawk and Dove also absorbed the love the two Lords felt for each other.

In the days since their return to Georgetown, Hank and Dawn have been avoiding each other and pretty much everybody else. Today though, their friend Donna has a big tennis match and they’ve promised her their support. Donna’s game is against one of the rising stars of the professional circuit: Bette Kane. Does that name ring a bell? It should. Debuting in Batman 139 in 1961, Betty Kane and was the original Bat-Girl (note the hyphen). After a brief time in the sun, she appeared only rarely — the last time with Titans West. After Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was ret-conned to Bette Kane and Flamebird.

Anyway, Bette trounces Donna. After game, Dawn returns home to find a mysterious envelope on her front step made out to Don Dove Dawn. Inside she finds a picture of the Titans West team and a note telling her that she needs to go to a certain hotel room across town. It also hints that father, a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, may be in trouble. She knocks on the door and discovers that she’s at Bette’s hotel room and that Hank is already there (but not for the reason you think — and not the reason Bette would like — he just wanted someone to talk over the whole Don/Dawn thing). Hank and Bette realize that the note must be from their old teammate Lilith and that they must be needed at S.T.A.R. Labs.

Hawk, Dove, and Flamebird travel to S.T.A.R. Labs. It turns out that the scientists there have opened a portal to some mysterious dimension. The exploration team, as well as the rescue team that went in after them, have both disappeared. Flamebird calls up her old teammates Mal Duncan (once the hero Gabriel — an expert in dimensional travel) and Karen Duncan (Bumblebee — who is a S.T.A.R. scientist in her own right). They bring Chris King with them (who has somehow absorbed the abilities of the H-dial he used to wear and now becomes a different random superhero on the hour every hour) as well as a houseguest who has overstayed his welcome, Charlie Parker (Golden Eagle).

While Mal stays behind to monitor the portal, the rest of the new Titans West team (though you’ll notice they’re actually on the East coast) travel through the portal and find themselves in a barren, rocky landscape. Chris, as Synapse the Energy Man, tracks the homing device used by the rescue team. But it’s a trap! He and then the rest of the team are ambushed and defeated by a gang of villains including the Iron Major, El Papagayo, Icicle, Clayface II, the Top, and the Electrocutioner. Dove realizes that all these villains are dead, and the dimension they are in is some sort of purgatory. The villains take Bumblebee with them as a hostage as well as the homing device. They intend to use the S.T.A.R. Labs portal to return to the land of living and resume their life of crime. They figure they can force Bumblebee to open the portal, and the rest of the Titans won’t be a threat because they’re stranded miles away without the homing device to lead them back to the portal.

Mal Duncan and Lillith are waiting for the villains at the portal. Mal manages to defeat the Iron Major and rescue Bumblebee, but the Icicle takes Lillith hostage easily (maybe a little too easily). About this time, the remaining members of Titans West arrive on the scene riding on the back of the Haunted Tank. Yes, that Haunted Tank, along with the ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart (in a scene that has to be seen to be believed). The tank smashes Clayface with its gun and the Titans easily defeat the remaining villains — but Lillith is still a hostage. Using this to their advantage, the villains escape and have Lillith lead them to the portal — which they eagerly jump into. Of course, it isn’t the real portal, but a fake portal set up by Etrigan the Demon. In fact, this whole scenario was a trap set by the Demon, and he was the one holding the scientists and rescue team captive. All the villains are returned to Hell except the Icicle, who has repented his life of crime and actually helped Lilith trap the other villains. He is allowed to move on to “the mountains”, which is presumably Heaven. Hawk realizes that his brother Don must be there as well and wants to bring him back, but the ghost of J.E.B. Stuart makes him realize that while Don’s life may have been cut short, it was a fulfilling one. Hawk, Dove, and the remaining Titans West members return to the real world, bringing the missing scientists and rescue team with them.

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