For me, Hawk and Dove only worked one and a half times, for maybe a total of 25 issues. That’s not a good record considering they’ve been around for like 40 years
The problem is the book only works if Hawk and Dove are balanced as characters. Most writers just make Hawk a stupid asshole and Dove the voice of pure, sweet reason and a brilliant fighter. This makes the book less interesting.
Ditko’s version was interesting, since he created both Hawk and Dove as totally self-absorbed assholes. Don/Dove was a total wimp, and a whiney one–non violence is nice and all, but you can’t be proactive with it: if someone’s committing armed robbery, this is not a good time to sit down and passively resist until they let themselves be arrested. And then, when his techniques didn’t work, Don would just whine. Hawk was the poster boy for Anger Management. Their father (a judge) was the hero of the book saying that both of the extremes were incorrect. (Also, it was very clear that despite trying his best to write a balanced book, Ditko’s sympathies obviously were with Hawk)
The Kessel’s version of the book (the one Liefield drew the first miniseries of) with Dawn worked beautifully because, unlike every other writer who’s ever touched the characters, they showed how Hawk had strengths AND weaknesses and so did Dove. Dove would get caught up in esoteric moral quandries and Hawk would just shrug and kick ass. Hawk would get pissed and do the bull-in-the-china-shop routine and Dove would have to repair the damage.
To me, except for, say, those first 25 issues or so of the Kessel run (heh) no-one’s ever gotten the balance right and even a fantastic author like Gail Simone (possibly DC’s best current writer) can’t get Hawk & Dove right (Hawk is a stupid, angry berzerker, Dove is a calm voice of pure reason and an elegant fighter. Again, unbalanced-why does she need him?).
The worst (IMO) iteration of Hawk and Dove was that stupid mini-series from the…what, mid '90s? She’s a Pissed Off Military type. He’s a stoned slacker guitar player. They both have wings. Together, they fight crime. The only two “reimaginings” that I can think of that were ignored as quickly were the terrible Zatanna-Gets-Gothed (and a wand) series and Byrne’s rewrite of Spider-Man’s origin.
Y’know, looking at all the various covers, I wonder if despite Dick going back to being Nightwing, there might not still be two Batmen - neither of the points that make me wonder that are persuasive - he’s got 4 titles of his own, plus he’s in 2/3 Justice Leagues (not terribly persuasive - not too far off his status at various points in the past), and his costume is noticeably different in the JLI cover compared to JLA and the one Batbook where we’re given a good look (again, not persuasive - it’s not MAJOR differences, so it could just be Lopresti interpreting it slightly differently than Lee, whereas Capullo matches).
Probably not, but it’s a thought.
(On a different Justice League note…I notice…JLDark are all characters who’ve headlined Vertigo titles at one point or another…sort of, as the Vertigo Deadman was kind of unrelated… Kind of a lot unrelated. Still…pretty neat theme it’s got going on, there.)
Yeah, while some of this strikes me as a desperate “Throw everything against the wall and see if something…anything sticks”, I love the idea of Martian Manhunter in The Authority (or Stormwatch). I’m intrigued.
I wonder if the reason (other than the obvious sales ones) that this isn’t a clean reboot is that they’re sick of having to tell the same stories over and over, and if you reboot from day one/clean slate, you kinda have to.* How many times can you retell the “Superman’s first day in Metropolis” story or the “Batman rescues Dick Grayson” story?
*Ultimate Spider-Man seems to be the one exception to this rule.
Announcements for Suicide Squad and Blue Beetle are up, leaving only four - which would presumably include Action, and Superman. We’ve had leaks about a Supergirl title, and rumors of Superboy and JSA…
Judging from the talent selected and the costume designs, DC has decided that in five years, it wants to be as big as Image Comics. :smack:
And apparently Morrison is on Action. I thought I’d seen that there was no JSA book announced out of the 52. Which isn’t too surprising, since the JSA has basically been run into the ground since Johns left.
Anyway, Kara’s peakaboo-knee boots looks stupid; rest of the costume is okay, mostly. And looks like they’ve assed up Kon – cyborg Superboy, maybe?
A lot of these make me think of Marvel in the mid-90’s or Image Comics (not surprising, when you see the names involved, but still…) and that’s not a good thing.
I thought it even odder that the red patch… is basically in the shape of the El “S” crest (with the same shape above as a pseudo-buckle. even though she has no belt). Protecting her supergirly virtue, I guess.
I think I’d read the “hey, no JSA” comment on the RPG.net thread. Which I can’t access from work (because it’s a “games” site). People over there had heard the JSA rumor, but counting up the titles announced left no empty slot for the JSA.
I wonder if this retcon/reboot isn’t going to eliminate the confusion of two Flashes, Green Lanterns of two origins, and the Power Girl/Supergirl niche overlap. They’re trying to simplify the DCU for new readers, and probably think a line of explanation text (“Power Girl is the Supergirl of an alternate Earth”) is too much. Characters that don’t overlap niches with established characters – like, Mr. Terrific, or Stargirl – will show up somewhere.
DC is apparently going to be doing a TV ad push for this relaunch. That will be interesting to see.
An interview at Newsarama with incoming Titans artist Brett Booth (which does not contain an apology for the horrible costumes, sadly) clears up one point I was wondering about - the Kid Flash depicted there (with red hair, d’oh) is Bart.
