Who's This? Diametrically-opposed brothers.
The facts: Created by Steve Ditko (with Steve Skeates) as a way to talk about politics in the late 60s, these two brothers - one espousing violent solutions, the other a pacifist - had their try-out in Showcase #75 (June 1968), graduating to their own series four months later. Ditko would only stay on the book for the first two of only six issues, with Gil Kane replacing him, and two issues later, Skeates as well, for the rest. They joined the Teen Titans in 1970 for another 6-issue stint, but otherwise remained fallow until Dove is killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12. This would ironically give Hawk a new lease on life, with several Titans-related appearances after Crisis and in 1986, a new Hawk and Dove mini-series co-starring a new, female Dove. The mini would set the duo up as agents of the Lords of Order and Chaos, and lay the groundwork for a new monthly. The monthly was killed a couple years later, as Hawk became the villain Monarch in Armageddon 2001 (a controversial move). Hawk and Dove would return in the New52, in a doomed series by the 80s mini's artist Rob Liefeld, but in the "real continuity", Hawk had already been resurrected in Blackest Night/Brightest Day. The original Dove was never resurrected, however.
How you could have heard of them: Hawk and Dove appear in the Titans live action show, and had appeared in animation in both JLU and The Brave and the Bold.
Example story: The Hawk and the Dove #3 (January 1969) "After the Cat" by Steve Skeates, Gil Kane and Sal Trapani
In the first of two stories in the first Ditko-less issue of THE Hawk and THE Dove, Hank Hall (Hawk) is looking for a cat burglar called "The Cat". Don (Dove) comes running up and wants to help... oh wait, not to help, just because he's going the same way. I think we're about to find out if Steve Skeates was right to leave the book because first Ditko, then editor Dick Giordano were changing his scripts to take all the courage out of Dove. I guess we know what THOSE two guys thought of pacifism. Well, exhibit A is Don saying he doesn't want to be a superhero.
Not that Hank wants to be seen with him (well, there's a new reason for wearing masks...). Hank hears a noise in an apartment, so it's time to transform into Hawk. Sorry, THE Hawk!
Is it me, or is Gil Kane actually pastiching Ditko here? Maybe they were trying to transition artists more smoothly. So Hawk is the violent one, the one who leaps in without looking, he's brave, but perhaps a bit reckless. He lands some punches, but the Cat trips him up, and ultimately, he gets a chair upside the head and the Cat escapes with the loot. But here's the twist: If "injustice" isn't in the immediate vicinity, the brothers transform back, and Hawk has to bail before that happens.
Meanwhile, Don is at a lame party at the local coffee house, bored and thinking of the girl who doesn't give him the time of day (every teen hero has one). A drunken guy even c**kblocks him like he's in an Atlas ad. He makes an attempt at telling the guy not to harass the girls, but 1) they can take care of themselves, and 2) the guy's wingman intercepts him and guides him out of the situation (realistic!). But as Don works up the courage to talk to his crush Linda, in comes Hank with some of the worst thoughts in comics:
So you get the dynamic. Hank is soon accosted by the drunk guy on account of his facial bruises, and it Hank almost immediately responds by punching the guy out. Again his friend intercedes, but what's this? There's talk of not making a rumble because they're laying low from the fuzz? Could it be that our man's not drunk, but actually the Cat? Those guys leave, anyway, and the girls give Hank all the credit. Feeling disrespected, Don leaves thinking he really might be a coward. Police sirens. Time for another transformation.
So how does Dove handle the Cat? Well, first of all, he tries to defuse the situation with the trigger-happy cops, but he accidentally triggers a tear gas gun. It's not going well.
It gives the Cat an out. As Dove tries to go after him, he trips into a garbage can (I thought he was supposed to be the super-agile one?!) Before he can get to the costumed burglar, the cop shoots, and the Cat goes down. Dove bolts before the cop can accost him too... and, that's it, really.
The Cat is dead at the cop's hands. Those dudes in the coffee bar don't connect to anything. The brothers don't ever work together. And Skeates was right, while Hawk doesn't come off very well (a clumsy jerk), Dove REALLY seems ineffectual.
Wow. Okay. I'm surprised the series even went to 6 issues. The characters are unheroic and unlikeable. The story is anticlimactic and doesn't really explore politics, or the value of pacifism or violence. A big, big YEECH.
Who's Next? A reincarnated heroine.
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