Polite Dissent

Hawk & Dove #4 is where the action really starts. Hawk and Dove do some serious damage, much of the Georgetown campus is destroyed, we find out the new Dove’s identity plus we’re treated to the most horrifying Liefeld panel ever.

The issue starts out precisely where the previous one left off with an attack on campus by a group of armed criminals. Hank sprints across campus to find Ren. He drags her to the roof of the nearest building and challenges her to change into Dove. She is speechless, so Hank goes first, turning into Hawk in front of her. As Hank changes into Hawk we are treated to one of the most horrific comic panels of all time. It’s not that the art is bad – it’s actually quite effective. What’s so horrible is the subject matter, which I can describe in three simple words: clenched Hawk butt. I can’t imagine anyone actually thinking this would be a good idea for a visual. I’m still scarred to this day. (If you absolutely must see this panel, click here, but remember: you’ve been warned!)

It turns out that Hank’s made a mistake. Ren is not Dove, and in fact Dove shows up while he’s talking to her. Hawk and Dove then run off to fight the thugs, but not before a little Dove-on-Ren verbal catfight.

It soon becomes apparent that the attackers are really demons in disguise, and they’re being led by a newly super-powered Shadowblade. The duo splits up: while Hawk leads the demons away, Dove goes after Shadowblade.

With help from the Special Crime Unit’s armory, Hawk straps explosives to himself and leads the demons into the Georgetown library. Losing them among the stacks, he drops the explosives and escapes before the charges go off. With a loud “Ka-Thoom!” the demons are destroyed, but so is the library. This always struck me as a somewhat awkward scene; surely there was a better way to stop the demons than blowing up the library. The art is no help either: it looks like the shelves were built by a team of drunk monkeys (but then, I’ve never been to the Georgetown library, maybe it really looks like that).

Dove discovers that Shadowblade’s powers are eating him alive. She defeats him without breaking a sweat, letting his own powers destroy him from the inside out. After the battle concludes, she meets up with Hawk again and vows to show him her real identity. Hank tells he already knows – she’s Donna – but he’s proven wrong again as Dove changes back into Dawn Granger. This really should have been a no-brainer (Don = Dawn), but the Kesels did a good job stringing out the clues and planting red herrings.

In addition to begin filled with action (and appalling anatomy), this issues introduces the Hank-Ren-Dawn love triangle. This would be more fully explored in the subsequent Hawk & Dove regular series (and even play a role in the current JSA series).

Next issue: The mini-series concludes with Dove’s origin and the showdown with Kestrel.