Written by Sterling Gates
Illustrated by Rob LiefeldHank Hall is not happy. He’s not happy to have Dawn Granger as a new partner in his war on crime. He’s not happy that she’s dating the ghostly Super Hero, Deadman. He’s not happy to learn that someone is trying to plunge the United States into a new civil war! Now it’s up to Hawk and Dove to root out the forces behind this conflict and stop them before they turn the U.S. into a wasteland!
And who is the monster lurking in the shadows, watching Hawk and Dove from afar? Find out in this new series from Sterling Gates (FLASHPOINT: KID FLASH LOST) and artist Rob Liefeld (X-Force, Youngblood)!
While I am putting little stock into the DCnU as a whole, I am still doing my civic duty and giving random titles a shot. Hawk and Dove is not the most random pick for me, admittedly; I am a rather big fan of Sterling Gates’ work on Supergirl, and unlike the rest of the collected internets I don’t really have any problem with Rob Liefeld’s work. Why not give it a shot?
Let’s see what happens after the cut.
I think I may have figured out something about the DCnU. I don’t think DC wants to actively make this thought public, but from my very brief interactions with their new line (at the time of writing this, I’ve read a grand total of three of their books) I get the feeling that DC is attempting to travel through time with their comics. It’s not a great secret that as goofy as the ’90s were in terms of “quality” titles, comics were certainly in a much better place financially then than they are now (or, at least, that’s what every pessimist on the internet will tell you when sales are brought up, because quantity over quality is king). It seems that DC believes that if they reboot comics and bring them back to the ’90s, maybe they will sell more. That’s what I thought when I read Justice League, and that’s what I think after reading Hawk and Dove.
Hawk and Dove takes place somewhen in the DCnU that seems to have happened after both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Brightest Day, although I’m not sure if either of those have technically taken place. Don Hall is dead, and Dawn Granger has replaced him mysteriously (with no mention of Holly anywhere), teaming up with Hank to fight crime. It’s an action heavy read, with the majority of the story taking place on a plane soaring down into our nation’s capitol in a terrorist manuever by an angry scientist, for no other reason that I can glean aside from “America bad!” It’s kind of a paint-by-numbers plot that we’ve all seen before, perfect for an introduction to two new characters that your average reader may not be familiar. Hawk and Dove were being groomed for their own series throughout Brightest Day, and now we’re given some sort of twisted amalgam of that and the idea of the DCnU, all wrapped up in what is arguably one of the worst offerings you’re likely to find from the DCnU.
It kind of pains me to write that, actually: This is the worst comic I’ve read this week. I’m not particularly happy to share that particular piece of information, but that doesn’t make it any less true. This feels like an exasperated attempt to capture a bygone era during a new age, and rather than find a way to bridge the character development both Hawk and Dove went through in Brightest Day, everything gets a brutal reset to a poor end. Everything feels abraisive here. You’d expect an easy introduction to their world with the fresh new #1, but since this book was clearly written before the DCnU happened and has since been form-fitted, things just fail to add up. It’s admittedly tough to get into the mindset of “this is the first time I’ve met these characters,” but as much as I try, Dawn going from the quiet and open character of yesterday into this more butch and closed-off emotionally person (with a terrible haircut) of today just feels ostensibly wrong. Even Hank has been scaled back in character, now no longer being the tortured and misguided do-gooder and instead just representing a stereotypical alpha male who just wants to chug a beer and watch a game, and for some reason lives with his father. Not that I really had any attachment to either, but in reading some of Birds of Prey and Brightest Day featuring both, it’s a rather big reboot to the duo.
Continued belowThe worst part is that it comes from someone whom I know can do better. I applauded Gates’ work in the past for being heartfelt and wonderfully put together, drawing me into books that I wouldn’t normally think to read, like Supergirl and World’s Greatest. It appears as if everything Gates did right before has now been thrown out the window, however, as Hawk and Dove here are not so much three-dimensional characters as they are paint-by-number generic heroes. The only general excuse that I can think of for this is that Gates is writing for Liefeld, and given Liefeld’s ’90s mentality, it only makes sense to write as generic a book that would fit in the ’90s. Unfortunately, it’s 2011, and in as competitive a market as we have today, books are generally expected to try a little bit harder to give us a real reason to read it. Aside from laughing at the book a few times (in scenes where I don’t think I was supposed to laugh, mind you), the only real reason to read this title is because a) you’re really bored, b) you are a talking head on VH1’s I Love The ’90s!, or c) you’re really bored.
I’m not going to pick on Rob Liefeld. The internet does that enough, and everyone “gets it” at this point. Liefeld’s work defines polarizing in a “love it or hate it” style where one side likes to actively deride the other, and the other side never has a good comeback. While I am entirely refraining from participating in that vicious back and forth, all of the trademark issues that have been brought up about Liefeld’s work are still present here. The bodywork is sloppy, with feet randomly hovering off the ground and other assorted limbs disappearing into angular nothingness. The facial expressions are laughable, and apparently smiling has basically been banned from the book in place of scowling and growling at every corner. I also am not sure that Liefeld has any particular understanding of depth perception after all these years and vicious fanboys screaming at him, or if perhaps he just thinks it’s funny at this point to fuck with people – but that’s here as well, and by the bucketloads. This is just a very poor looking book, epsecially when compared with some of the other DCnU titles like Action Comics or Swamp Thing, and the lack of growth in Liefeld’s work from 1988 is more than apparent.
I can only assume Liefeld was called to work on the book as part of that ’90s nostalgia I mentioned DC having earlier. His work on the Infinite from Image is PURE ’90s, and while there are those who deride the title, I find that his work is part of it’s charm. The book wants to be nothing more than a ’90s throwback book, and it succeeds in doing so. Additionally, to tiny, miniscule degrees it’s fairly apparent why Liefeld of all people would be called to illustrate this issue: the book is filled to the brim with machismo like no other with Hawk beating his chest in one panel, Dove gritting her teeth on a solid half page, and a new character named Washi Watanabe who wears sunglasses at night, because the sun never sets on bad ass. With Liefeld’s sharp edged and muscle-filled illustrating matching the throwback-tone that the issue is oozing from it’s pores, it only seeks to fuel the argument that DC wants to reinvent and reclaim the ’90s and it’s wider market. However, that still doesn’t excuse the whole book from being incredibly messy.
At one point I thought of starting the review with, “Man, I’ve never been so disappointed,” but that’s not inherently true. I’ve been more disappointed at many things in my life, especially with comic related things (like when I saw Watchmen, or Superman Returns). There are many things in this life that are disappointing that, when it boils down to it, reading a comic like this – which I didn’t put too much faith or stock into and read just to see – is really not disappointing at all! In fact, it’s exactly what I expected it to be. Granted, that’s not much, but hey, if you currently think the Infinite is the bee’s knees then you’re in for a treat.
Final Verdict: 1.0 – NYARRRR!!!
