Polite Dissent

The Hawk and The Dove #2, “Jailbreak” was published in October/November 1968. Once again, the art is by Steve Ditko and the story by Steven Skeates.

The issue starts out with Harker, a particularly unrepentant criminal, planning an escape from jail. We know he’s unrepentant because he starts a fight in the cellblock just because he got denied parole (imagine that). He coerces his pal Davis and several other inmates into joining his plans for escape.

Meanwhile, the Hall family is leaving to visit Uncle James, who lives on a farm in the country (inauspiciously close to a jail, as coincidence would have it). Once at the farm, Hank, his father and uncle go for a drive in the woods while Don and his mother stay behind in the farmhouse.

The jailbreak occurs! The convicts commandeer a truck and drive off. Halfway into the woods, Harker and Davis kick the other convicts out of the truck to slow down any pursuit and speed off down the road.

The remaining cons cause a rockslide (in the middle of the forest?) trapping the Hall’s car. Menacingly, they surround Hank and his family. Suddenly, another escapee runs up shouting that the police are coming and all the convicts scatter into the forest. In reality there aren’t any police; it was just a repentant escapee scaring the others off. Knowing he can’t change into Hawk in front of the others, Hank dashes into the woods telling his father that he’s running back to the cabin to check on Don and their mother.

Meanwhile, the truck Harker and Davis stole runs out of gas. The pair enters the farmhouse where Don and his mother are staying and begin to slap her around. Don won’t fight back, but he doesn’t run away either. Arriving at the cabin, Hank looks in the window and sees what is happening. He changes into Hawk but doesn’t want to charge into the cabin out of fear that his mother might get shot. Instead he tries to attract Don’s attention. Don sees Hawk but ignores him, convinced that he will just worsen an already tense situation. Realizing that Don won’t help, Hawk tries to draw out the convicts by driving away in the car sitting in the driveway. Infuriated, Harker and Davis run outside after him. Don follows them outside and changes into Dove.

Hawk tackles Davis and pounds him unconscious even though the con repeatedly tries to surrender. Returning to the farmhouse, he encounters the convicts from earlier and beats them all senseless as well. Not far away, Harker is shooting at Dove who keeps exhorting him to give up (“His constant whining…driving me crazy!”). Running out of ammunition, Harker tells Dove he is ready to surrender. Dove congratulates him for making the right decision, unaware that it is only a feint and Harker begins punching Dove as soon as he is close enough.

Hawk arrives while the two struggle and cheers both combatants on. First, he roots for Dove, but then realizing that Dove isn’t fighting back, he starts rooting for Harker. He figures he’ll take Harker out himself once Dove is incapacitated. Finally, Dove pulls Harker’s shirt over his head, incapacitating him (but earning two minutes in the penalty box).

As he helps Don to his feet, Hank tells him, “Yeah you got guts all right! But you sure haven’t got any brains.” That’s as close to endearment as Hank ever gets.

Notes:

• This is Ditko’s last issue as artist on The Hawk and the Dove and he does an outstanding job. His action scenes are dynamic and captivating, providing a true sense of motion. His splash page in incredible, with a hawk and a dove framing a jailhouse brawl, while lady justice looks down from above. Unfortunately, the otherwise splendid art is marred by some of the ugliest lettering ever seen in a comic book. The word and thought balloons are all blocky, square and awkwardly placed; they distract the eye and obscure the art.
• The ad for a Revell model of a whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan, caught my eye. “When the Charles W. Morgan went whaling, she went whaling with a vengeance,” states the ad copy. “On her maiden voyage alone, she killed 61 whales.” Somehow, I don’t see this ad running in today’s comic books (especially from the company that published Superman for the Animals.)
• The most intriguing character in this issue is the “reluctant escapee”. He is a convict who just wants to serve his time and return to society, yet he gets forced into escaping with the rest. He is the one who saves the Halls when they are surrounded in the woods.
  I’m no expert on Ditko, but this character strikes me as rather grey in Ditko’s strict black and white interpretation of the world. It’s interesting that Judge Hall also shows some compassion towards this criminal, which presents a stark contrast to the way he lectured a similar character about crime and punishment in the beginning of the issue.
• As I stated above, I am not a Ditko expert. However, from all that I’ve read, it seems apparent that Judge Hall is the character written to reflect Ditko’s philosophies.