The Mid-Life Crisis of Hawk and Dove (The Brave and The Bold

[@robert2430]

Jim Aparo was my favorite Bronze Age DC artist. Alan Brennert is great, too. He did some good TV work also.

[@SonofCapwolf]

Yeah, I don't know who else DC really had that competes with Aparo. Dick Dillin was good but I wouldn't put him at the same level as Aparo. Niick Cardy... same as Dick Dillin... I guess, Neal Adams over on Green Lantern would be the next obvious big one. Kirby on the New Gods (and your favourite Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen). Oh no, wait, Bernie Wrightson on Swamp Thing, he's probably able to hold his own against Jim Aparo.

[@kurumais]

im a big fan of hawk and dove my brother had a bunch oftheir books. i really like their costumes

[@SonofCapwolf]

Boy Dove or Girl Dove?

[@robert2430]

Love the cover

[@SonofCapwolf]

Reminds me of that one Fantastic Four cover with Thing and the FF fighting Luke Cage.

[@robert2430]

Your nemesis has many layers

[@SonofCapwolf]

And all of them make a person cry.

[@darthknight1]

Aparo helps elevate this issue, and Brennert actually gives a decent story for two ridiculous characters. What I don't understand is why Hawk and Dove kept getting guest appearances and new series. They were awful ideas, the designs were really Silver Age, especially weird for Hawk given his 90s Punisher attitude. In concept the dichotomy was as simplistic as an Aesop fable, but one where the storyteller didn't even want to commit to the message. That he quit the book so quickly says a lot. Why then, did DC keep giving these characters a shot? Was it on the strength of Steve Ditko's name and his creating them being a selling point to the public? Or am I alone and people really like their costume designs and wanted to see these characters get a storytelling makeover?

[@SonofCapwolf]

They didn’t keep getting shots, really. At least the original duo. They were in a handful of Teen Titans (7 issues at most), this and then Crisis. Hawk made more appearances after Dove died. The ‘88 version was actually a surprise hit (I’d argue more from the Kesels than his art) and the new Dove and their contrasting ideologies were both much better this time around. The 80s series was done because Karl Kesel didn’t like Dove dying in Crisis, he felt that it seemed unfair to someone if their favourite character happened to be Dove. Him and Barbara came up with the series and the new Dove and the mythology behind their powers. If Hawk (and Dove) hadn’t been sacrificed to Armageddon 2001, I think that version could have been cemented as something at the same familiarity as Firestorm. They were forever broken with Monarch though and nothing since had recaptured the briefest of excitement that Hawk and Dove maybe achieved once. I didn’t even mention the other Hawks and the other Doves. There was a terrible Mike Baron one where they were teen rockstars.

[@darthknight1]

LOL! The music video was unexpected gold! Your nemesis made up for terrible singing and audio with an almost decent video editing job.

[@SonofCapwolf]

Someone else did the video. He’s a neophyte when it comes to technology. Well, he was technically at one time a “KZbinr” but he never even cut out the pauses at the end when he’d lean in to turn the camera off.

[@markshulusky6680]

I would have thought that Hawk would be "spit," but, hmmm, maybe you've intuited something there.