Polite Dissent

As we left them at the end of last issue, Hank, Dawn and Ren were confronted with an armed woman in Hank’s apartment. She calmly explains that she just wants to see Kyle and Donna and forces Ren to call them up and invite them over for a last minute party. Dawn and Ren tell her that a creepy snake guy is following Ren, but the other woman doesn’t believe them.

At that moment — just like in any grade-B horror film — the lights go out. Hank lunges at the gun-wielding woman but gets a knee in his groin that leaves him gasping for breath as she runs out the door.

Of course the lights did’t go out by accident: Copperhead has crept into the apartment looking for Ren. Dawn changes into Dove and tries to keep Ren safe, but Copperhead is too quick and grabs her. Hawk charges into Copperhead, freeing Ren, but he finds the slippery snake man difficult to hold. The mysterious woman reappears in the doorway and fires several shots into Copperhead, driving him out the window.

Ren dashes from the apartment, runs to a phone booth and dials 911. Before she can complete the call, Copperhead shows up. The strange woman drives by in her VW bug and offers Ren a ride. The two of them speed away but Copperhead jumps on top of the car. The woman tries to shake him off but only succeeds in rolling the car. Luckily, the accident is in front of Suds and Ren slips into the bar while the woman tries to hold Copperhead off.

Once in Suds, Ren runs into Kyle and Donna. Kyle explains that the strange gun-totin’ woman must be his aunt Ruth, the black sheep of the family. Dugan promises that he’lll “look after” Ren and makes a cryptic comment about disliking law and order (emphasis on order).

Hawk and Dove arrive and once again Hawk finds that Copperhead is hard to hold or even to land a hit on. Dove sneaks up behind Copperhead and gives him a Vulcan nerve pinch, but just to be sure he’s immobilized, Hawk hits him once or twice while he’s down. Copperhead is captured, Ruth escapes, and Ren is fine…or is she?

Running through the DC books at this time was a race around the world between Flash and Superman. The racecourse cuts through the Georgetown campus and the students all come out to watch. Ren, acting crazier than usual, crosses the barriers and walks onto the racecourse, camera in hand. Both Flash and Superman manage to dodge her, but the air stream from their passing knocks her head over heels. She just sits there in the middle of the road laughing maniacally. Gee…could this mean something?

Greg Guler and Scott Hanna’s art is good and the Kesel’s writing is certainly entertaining, but this issue never quite clicked for me. Copperhead is the first established super-villain that Hawk and Dove have fought, but his reasons for hunting down Ren just don’t make much sense. Similarly, the idea that “crazy Aunt Ruth” would try to reconnect with her nephew by kidnapping his friends at gunpoint seems more than a little off.

Looking back at the Scorecard, we can see that many of the foreshadowed events have occurred. Some of the better ones are still to come though: the Titans and the return of Kestrel.