Polite Dissent

When last we left Hawk and Dove, they had returned to the restaurant after defeating Shellshock to discover that Hank’s girlfriend had been possessed by Kestrel. Teasing and taunting, Kestrel takes particular particular delight in tormenting Hawk by changing his visage between that of Kestrel and that of Ren. Kestrel slices open a dimensional doorway with his/her claws and tells Hawk and Dove that this time they’ll have to meet on his home turf: the world of Druspa Tau. The doorway closes behind Kestrel.

The only person they know who can travel dimensions is Barter, so they look him up in the phonebook. Strangely, his phone number is only six digits long, but it seems to connect. When Dawn opens her bedroom door, they find themselves in Barter’s shop. He agrees to take them to Druspa Tau but wants to strike a better bargain for the trip back. Hawk has other ideas, knocking him out and tying him up.

Entering Druspa Tau, Hawk instantly feels stronger and more powerful. Dove is having a harder time trying to integrate all the information her enhanced senses are receiving. It turns out that Druspa Tau is not only Kestrel’s home, but also the home dimension of Hawk and Dove and thus their powers are exponentially increased there.

A small world with few resources, Druspa Tau is nearing the Kali Yuga — the mythical time when Order and Chaos will fight their final battle. M’Shulla, one of the Lords of Chaos, is fomenting rebellion to advance the Kali Yuga. Kestrel is at his side, and together they convince Hawk to join them, pointing out that they are fighting the entrenched government of Druspa Tau in order to bring more freedom to its citizens.

Dove encounters Rome, one of the priests of the Order goddess Arriya. He believes that Dove is an incarnation of Arriya and he leads her to Arriya’s citadel, but they are ambushed by the Lord of Chaos Child and his companion Flaw. In a brief battle, Dove easily defeats Flaw, leaving Child helpless.

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Hawk is relaxing in M’Shulla’s castle. Since this is a world of magic, his costume can be removed; underneath is a broadly-built spiky and hirsute warrior. Sadly, he also has — this being the early ’90s — a mullet. He refuses to let Ren/Kestrel take off her costume because he doesn’t want to see what Kestrel really looks like.

M’Shulla and Hawk, with help from Kestrel, attack the city at the base of Arriya’s citadel. The priest Rome tries to stop Hawk but is quickly defeated and captured. While exploring the city, Ren comes across Barter and not realizing who he is, unties him.

Meanwhile up in the citadel, Dove is learning her role in Druspa Tau. She understands that this world has very limited resources and some order must be imposed upon its citizens or they will all die all out within a few generations. Hearing the news that the city below has fallen to M’Shulla she realizes that it will only be a matter of time before she has to confront Hawk.

This is the first half of the four-part storyline that reveals the origin of Hawk and Dove. The story is well-written with equal attention paid to both Hawk and Dove. They both make different choices of Druspa Tau, but the changes are entirely consistent with their personalities and beliefs. It’s nice to see the return of both Kestrel and Barter.

The art, as usual for Greg Guler, is good. His Hawk costume fits the underlying warrior’s persona, but is definitely a design of the early-90’s. Dove’s designs is more ephemeral and hard to describe, but I suspect that’s intentional. Guler does a particularly impressive job onM’Shulla, drawing him so that he is always shifting appearances and is rarely the same from one panel to the next, from raven to crone to serpent to demon, always changing –j ust like you’d expect a Lord of Chaos to be.

Tags: comics hawk dove kestrel .