Polite Dissent

I’m going to step away from my chronological review of Hawk and Dove appearances to take a look at Teen Titans #27. The chronological review will return soon with a consideration of Hawk & Dove #4 (as soon as I can find which moving box I packed that series in).

Teen Titans #27 was the first half of a two-episode stint on the Teen Titans by Gail Simone and Rob Liefeld. I’ve been looking forward to this storyline because it is written by one of my favorite writers and features Hawk and Dove, characters that I am particularly fond of. It also features Kestrel, their arch-villain. I was also looking forward to Liefeld’s pencils as he was the first artist to tackle the Hank Hall/Dawn Granger Hawk and Dove team way back in 1988.

Overall, the issue is a good read. The characters are written well, the plot is intriguing and the dialogue is clever. There is an underlying theme of “Father’s Day” but it never threatens to overwhelm the story and serves to tie both the heroes and villains together. Robin’s reactions were to be expected from someone who recently lost a parent, and I liked the way the rest of the team came together — even participating in activites that they didn’t particularly care for — to help Robin through the difficult day.

It’s always a pleasure to see Hawk and Dove in action. Other than an occasional glimpse here and there, not much has been seen of them since their series ended (and Armageddon 2001). This is only the second appearance of the new Hawk, Holly Granger. I, for one, would like to see some more back story on this previously unmentioned sister of Dove (Dawn Granger).

Gail Simone does a good job of establishing Kestrel as a formidable villain. She has pulled together all the little bits of his past hinted at in his previous appearances and forged them into a solid antagonist. Kestrel first appeared in the 1988 Hawk & Dove mini-series and was designed to be the evil opposite of Hawk and Dove (you’ll notice that his outfit is purple, a combination of Hawk’s red and Dove’s blue). An agent of Chaos, his task was to bring Hawk fully over to Chaos’s side. He showed up again in issues #14-#17 of the Hawk & Dove ongoing series. At that time, his ability to jump into new hosts was shown, as was the fact that his claws could cut through dimensional walls. He is arrogant, strong, agile, clever and fully amoral — in other words, a good villain.

As for the art, I think the best way to describe it is to think of Rob Liefeld as Bull Durham’s Nuke LaLoosh (the Tim Robbins character). He has the desire and ability to play ball/draw comics well; he just needs the stern guidance of Crash and Annie to actually pull it off (and maybe some women’s underwear). Seriously, I do enjoy Liefeld’s art when it’s done right. His early art, particularly on Hawk & Dove and the New Mutants was quite good. His later efforts became self-parodies. He needs someone over his shoulder helping with plotting and pointing out continuity errors. And he should never, ever ink his own work. (And I defy anyone to explain the first two pages to me: It’s Robin! He’s flying! No, he’s falling! No wait, he’s on a rope! But the rope isn’t attached to anything! Never mind, he landed!)

If you’ll permit me a little bit of fanboy whining:

• A note to all DC writers, please remember that Hawk and Dove can only change into costume when danger is nearby.
• Kestrel can only “sniff out” Hawk and Dove when they’re in costume and not when they’re in their civilian identities. For example, after his battle with Kestrel at the Smithsonian (in the 1988 Hawk & Dove miniseries), a wounded Hawk was able to escape by turning back into Hank; Kestrel could no longer find him. Thus, as long as Dawn and Holly had stayed Dawn and Holly Kestrel could never have found them.