Polite Dissent

The Hawk and the Dove #3 is a change from previous issues. First of all, Steve Ditko is no longer doing the art; the book is now drawn by Gil Kane. Second, the comic is composed of two half-length stories rather than one full-length tale. In spite of these changes, or because of them, this is the best issue of The Hawk and The Dove so far.

The first story, “After the Cat”, opens with news of daring new cat burglar prowling the town of Elmond (named the Cat, of course). Hank is determined to catch the thief, even though it means sacrificing his schoolwork. Don’s plans are less heroic; he’s going to head over to the coffee house for some excitement. (Yep, he’s Mr. Excitement all right: “Maybe I should’ve gone to the library! This place is dead!”)

Hank manages to track down the Cat at an exclusive high rise. He changes into the Hawk and follows the burglar through a penthouse window. The two of them have a knockdown drag-out brawl and manage to completely trash the victim’s apartment. The Cat escapes, but when the homeowner stumbles into the room, Hawk is still there – but quickly escapes out the window himself.

At the coffee house, Don sees a couple of pretty girls he knows but two bikers prevent him from talking to them. The girls blow the bikers off and they leave without incident…for now. Hank enters the coffee house just as the bikers come back. This time they pick on Hank who promptly slugs them. Don yells at Hank for starting a fight, but Linda intervenes calling Don a coward.

Angry, Don stalks out determined to prove that he’s no coward by capturing the Cat. He changes into Dove and stumbles across the police who have the Cat surrounded in an abandoned building. Seeing the police aiming a gun at the thief, Dove leaps in and pulls the gun away just as they are about to fire. Unfortunately, it’s a tear gas gun and Dove’s actions cause the police to gas themselves. Escaping in the confusion, the Cat is later gunned down by the police. Don blames himself for the Cat being shot. Discouraged, he slinks back to the coffeehouse just in time to see Hank leave with Linda. Not a good night for Don or Dove; Hank may have done OK with Linda, but Hawk screwed up pretty bad as well.

The second story, “Twice Burned”, picks up the following morning. Hawk and Dove are in disgrace (“Hawk Accussed [sic] of Vandalism!” reads one headline, “Dove Interferes with Police” reads another). Judge Hall begins another tirade against the pair before heading off to court. Another news story mentions that Dr. Kieves, Linda’s father, was severely beaten the night before. Separately, both Hank and Don decide to catch the criminals responsible.

Based on the description of the crooks, Hank feels he knows who the culprits are. He tracks them down as Hawk and punches them until they tell him who hired them to beat up Dr. Kieves. Meanwhile, Don runs into Linda’s brother Mark at the coffeehouse. He is clearly upset and vows he is going to track down whoever is responsible. Don then runs into Linda who explains that her dad owes one of the local loan sharks a great deal of money, and that’s who she thinks is responsible. She hoped to catch her brother before he did anything stupid. Don tells her he’ll take care of him.

Don arrives at the loan shark’s house and sees Mark there, holding a gun. He tries to persuade him to go home, but Mark believes that Dove is just protecting the man who had his father shot. Having a hard time restraining Mark without violence, Don is just about to punch him when the police arrive to arrest the crook. Hank swings by a short time later, but the excitement is all over by then. Don realizes that he was about to hit an innocent man and more dejected than ever he walks off into the night.

Graphically, this is the best appearance of The Hawk and the Dove yet. Kane’s art tends more toward the dramatic than Ditko’s. His pencils are stronger and less tentative than Ditko’s sometime appeared, but that could be the inking. Kane actually makes Dove’s costume believable (though not much can be down for Hawk’s). His fight scenes are exciting and frequently break the panels. The transformation scenes are eye-catching. He does an excellent job of varying the views and angles to give a more interesting look to the art.

This is the best written issue yet as well. The stories are more believable and not as dependant on coincidence. In order to make up for his perceived personal shortcomings, Don becomes Dove but only succeeds in making things worse for himself. Hank does a little better, but Hawk still fails to catch the criminals. The situations are well plotted and believable. Overall, it reads more like a classic Amazing Spider-Man story than a DC comic.

Notes:

1. Exactly how many newspapers does “small town” Elmond need? I count eight different papers on the splash page (Morning Times-Star, Herald-Bee, Daily Clarion Bugle, World-Press; the rest have obscured names).
2. Despite being costumed heroes with super-powers, Hawk and Dove have yet to tangle with any super-powered villains. The Dropouts (from The Hawk and the Dove #1) and the Cat (from this issue) all wear costumes, but none of them have super-powers.
3. No bow-ties for Don this issue. He’s wearing a regular coat and tie. Though apparently he only owns one blue suit coat and a yellow tie, because he wears them in both stories.
4. The word balloons are much better this issue, though still blockier than they should be.
5. This issue’s pick for best ad: “Captain Action and Action Boy meet Dr. Evil.” First,I can only assume that Ideal’s trademark on Dr. Evil ran out before Austin Powers came along. This Dr. Evil just happens to be an evil alien from Alpha Centaura (no, not “centauri”): “Get Dr. Evil…Alien from Alpha Centaura! He comes with disguises to hide his evil deeds…he comes with evil outfit and evil,evil things!” How many times can you use the word evil without it becoming redundant? I also had to love Action Boy (”comes with helmet, knife, ray gun and panther”). Because that’s just what every teen-age side-kick needs, a helmet left over from Captain Video and a giant cat. For all you trivia buffs out there, Captain Action not just a toy but also a comic book published by DC at the same time as The Hawk and the Dove.