I love this cover. I'm such a sucker for little things like that. XD
So, I’m a little behind with my review of Hawk & Dove–I was punishing myself with a ‘No Comics’ rule as I worked on things I had put off. Finally getting to read Hawk & Dove was my motivation to finish!
“Batman” & Dove #6, is the first issue with Rob Liefeld going solo with both writing & artwork (With Matt Lackey as the colorist~).
Not only is this issue a crossover with Batman & Robin, but it’s also a self-contained one-shot. So, short & sweet–Actually, this is a great issue to jump in on if you wanted to get into the series.
But I digress (Yes, I’m still very bitter Hawk & Dove was canceled when I love it so).
He is a lot of fun. And how can you not love that grin?
Summary:
Our issue starts out with Hawk chasing down Blockbuster in Gotham. Blockbuster and Hawk duke it out on the building tops until Dove crashes the party–and she’s still in super-agressive mode from the last storyline.
And of course, since this is a crossover (covers never lie, right? :D)–their chase down is interrupted when Robin takes out Hawk for stepping in on their turf.
Hawk doesn’t take it well.
It’s Robin vs Hawk & Dove for as long as it takes Batman to drop down. (Dove telling Robin/Damian off was particularly amusing: “Dove. And you don’t want any piece of me, kid.”)
Yes Hawk, Batman has some moves. XD
As it turns out, Blockbuster was working for a higher up Necromancer–who Batman and Robin were after–so they all team off to confront the big bad.
The bickering between groups is a given, Hawk & Robin being particularly antagonistic to each other–they’re about the same maturity level, so it all works out! :D
There’s a big free for all for magic artifacts, and Blockbuster going wild, and all that fun stuff you get from an action scene.
They take down the big bad, and part ways with Batman acknowledging that Hawk & Dove will be a formidable team in the future (if they survive each other long enough).
Thoughts: I wasn’t sure what I was expecting coming into this issue, but I did like it. You can tell the difference in writing style between Gates & Liefeld almost immediately, and I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But I was eating up the increase of puns in the text–but that’s me.
Hawk is such a dork for a football jock--I love that about him. XD
Artwork wise, it’s continuing to step up issue to issue. Matt Yackey’s coloring is still a perfect match for Liefeld’s pencils & inks and it looks great. It’s bright and colorful without being blinding or too in your face. There were some great shots in this issue–and a spread of The four characters soaring over Gotham was amazing. Loved it!
I think my only comment would be that Damian looked…a tad too old. I’m so used to him being a little pipsqueak that seeing him look about Tim or Dick’s age (and height) was a tad off-putting. On the bright side, his attitude and personality seemed pretty on the mark from what I remember in the old Batman & Robin series, so all good there. *thumbs up*
The most interesting thing about this issue though, was almost all of it was from Hawk’s single point of view. That in itself was an experience–Hawk’s not the brightest toolshed in the box. Never has been, and the thought bubbles fit that. He made puns, obvious observations, and occasionally bad mouthed Batman. (A line about feeling sorry for Robin after a Bat Lecture made me chuckle.)
On Batman’s note, after seeing Hawk & Dove in the Birds of Prey series, I had to remind myself that this was probably the first time they’d seen each other…and it made sense it’d be antagonistic. Hawk & Dove don’t really do the ‘team’ thing outside of their own duo (as we can see how well the Deadman thing turned out–and even in Birds of Prey they sort of did their own thing), so the clash between the characters was a good match up.
I just really loved this frame enough I had to share--Dove looks so pretty here. <3
Final Thoughts: Before Hawk & Dove, Batman was really the only comic-character I was really fond of thanks to the Cartoons and Movies (and my first venture into comics via some Trade Paperbacks I got from Borders XD). So, seeing them together with my Favorite DC Characters was a lot of fun! :D
The only downfall to it all, was that I’m reminded yet again this series was canceled. There’s so much potential for these two in their solo series no matter who is writing them.
But that won’t deter me from hanging in there to the end!
We’ve got two more issues from Rob and I just know they’re going to be good. So check them out & let’s make sure this series goes out with some all time high sales!
*hugs Hawk and Dove*