Polite Dissent

This is Hawk’s first outing sine his brother died, and it’s not one of his prouder moments.

New Teen Titans #19 is primarily a set-up issue. Most of the Titans have split town for one reason or another. Cyborg is helping Changeling look for his step-father. Raven is missing and Nightwing is searching for her. Jericho is working with his mother and Starfire is in outer space with her husband. Wondergirl is the only Titan remaining. When a request comes in from a secret government agency for help on a case, Nightwing refuses to get involved. Frustrated, Wondergirl argues with him and then recruits her own team of Titans. For her team, she goes back to the basics: Robin (Jason Todd, in this case), Speedy, Wally West (in one of his first outings as Flash), Aqualad and Hawk.

In New Teen Titans #20, the team travels to Switzerland. Their mission is to protect the U.S. and Soviet ambassadors from an attack by the assassin Cheshire. The ambassadors are having secret peace talks at the top of the Alps. Cheshire launches a pre-emptive strike against the Titans at their chalet. She shoots and severely wounds Flash but escapes before she can be captured. The next morning the Titans travel to the top of the mountain where the ambassadors are meeting. Cheshire arrives and has her first face-to-face meeting with Speedy since giving birth to their child, a fact that is news to him.

The rest of Cheshire’s men scale the mountain in New Teen Titans #21 and the battle ensues. The Titans are surprised by the fact that Cheshire doesn’t seem to be trying very hard. Speedy suspects she’s up to something. He’s right: her mission is not to assassinate anyone at all but instead to expose the Titans and stop the peace talks. It turns out that nobody is supposed to know the ambassadors are meeting, and the arrival of the Titans halts the peace talks and exposes the Titans to international scorn.

While technically proficient, two and a half issues of second-string Titans do not make for a very interesting read. It’s the equivalent of watching the XFL instead of the NFL. Remember how long that lasted? I never thought I’d say this, but Jason Todd was the most interesting character of the bunch. Wondergirl is too concerned with being a leader to be a hero. Flash is obsessing about making Barry proud while Aqualad spends all his time mourning for Tula (and who thought bringing Aqualad to the top of a mountain would be a good idea?). Speedy is conflicted about fighting Cheshire and Hawk is just plain crazy.

How do we know Hawk is crazy? The script tells us time and time again. No subtlety here. Flash calls him the Titan’s “looney toon contingent.” Donna tells Robin, “Hawk’s been insane since his brother died.” Even the villain agrees. “He’s insane,” thinks Cheshire. Back to Wondergirl: “Only Dove could keep Hawk in check…without his brother Hawk’s a maniac!” A little later she tells him, “Hawk, you don’t need to be with the Titans, you need a psychiatrist!” And did I mention he spends all his down time carving a block of wood into a gun with a hunting knife? Nope, it’s not hard to miss that Hawk is supposed to be crazy.

Eduardo Barreto’s art is generally very good, but he can’t draw Hawk’s costume very well. His cape looks more like withered fingers than feathers. George Perez draws Hawk much better on the cover. Barreto keeps forgetting (or it could be the Wolfman’s script) that Hawk can only be in costume when there’s danger present. Sitting around the Titan’s Tower, he should just be Hank.

All in all, another lackluster adventure with the Titans. I think the Titans West storyline was the closest the Titans ever came to an exciting story that involved Hawk (and/or Dove).