icon_uk (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} icon_uk) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} scans_daily,@ 2009-11-07 01:30:00 |
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| Entry tags: | char: dove/dawn granger, char: hawk/hank hall, creator: barbara kesel, creator: karl kesel, creator: steve erwin, group: female furies |
Granny Goodness wants YOU - For the Female Fury Cadets....
The Karl and Barbara Kesel run on Hawk and Dove was one of my favourite titles back in the 1990's. They oversaw the introduction of Dawn Granger as the second Dove (Who was, to be honest, FAR more interesting than Don Hall had ever been) and created as good a superhero comic as one might hope to find as well.
The Kesels are amongst the few people who seems to "get" Jack Kirby characters and concept, Karl in particular used them a lot in things like this title (and Superboy), and in a way that was usually respectful, but expanded on them in ways that Kirby never did, usually because he was already moving on to his NEXT idea.
Take the Female Furies, Granny Goodness' elite warriors; Lashina, Stompa, Bernadeth and the marvellously named Mad Harriet. In some way these ladies are a lynchpin of the DCU, an equivalent perhaps to the MU's Wrecking Crew. They're powerful, versatile, each has an awesome visual design, and together form a team which is a good, but not unbeatable, challenge for a new hero team (or single hero if they're powerful enough) to test their mettle and resourcefulness. They also have the advantage of not needing much explanatory motivation "A mission from Darkseid/Granny Goodness" covers a multitude of plot points.
And at the same time, they had a static membership for a LOOOONG time. Prior to this story they had only ever added ONE member to the team when John Ostrander introduced the archer Artemiz and her cyber-pack (Technologically enhanced Apokaliptian wolves, NOT exactly cuddly puppies).
And then we had this story, from Hawk and Dove 21, with guest art from Steve Erwin, which presents us with a...
We open with two cops investigating an explosion they just heard in an alley. Well, they actually heard more of a "BOOOOOM!" but can't find evidence of an explosion, or debris... but they do find...
Long time Fourth World fans will spot the clue in her name here...
Yup, an angelic looking (but utterly malevolent) little girl in a pinafore dress with a pet "imaginary" giant moster cat head, riffing on Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat? You really can imagine Kirby BEAMING at that notion, can't you? (And that wasn't sarcasm I should make it clear)
Sadly Roy the Cop doesn't make it to the end of the page, but he does throw himself into the monsters path to let his partner escape. She nearly makes it too, but brushes past another freaky figure in the process, who isn't too happy...
Badges? Points? What CAN they mean? You'll see...
Meanwhile over at Washington's Capitol Ice Rink, Dawn and her friends are having a girls night out, when suddenly ANOTHER Boom Tube opens depositing two new women... (Speed Queen is new, but Gilotina was actually a Kirbyy creation, first appearing in Mister Miracle #8 back in 1972). They're an odd couple, but a fun one, in a warped sort of a way.
Gilotina is "Apokalips as religious fundamentalist nutter", she has clearly heard every single one of Darkseid's homilies and Granny's lectures, and fervently believes every... single... word. And is disappointed that other's don't share her belief system. She's also probably the most frightening of them all BECAUSE of the strength of her beliefs, and her literally insane sunshiny outlook on the world.
Speed Queen (She has rocket powered roller-skates! What's not to love?) on the other hand is, if not "Apokalips as aetheist", has a much more "real world" view of the Apokaliptian way of life, she'll pay lip service to those in charge, and be as violent as they want her to be, but isn't really sold on the philosphy/
See what I mean? She's a few watts short of a Megarod IMHO... (And Holy Lowlie is another VERY Kirby-ish phrase)
Dawn switches to Dove to pursue them....
I should add that the series was usually NOT this violent (Kestrel the spychotic supervillain to one side), and could be whimsical at times, but that just made this story REALLY stand out.
Meanwhile, whilst Dawn and her ladyfriends are having THEIR night out, Hank "Hawk" Hall and the other ladies' boyfriends are having a sort of night out too. For several issues their friend Roger has been hding something about his private life, and this is where it comes out.. as it were, because as it turns out Hank isn't the ONLY hero around (And get your mind out of the gutter, it really IS a Boys Club, not a gay bar)
It's a throwaway scene, but a fun one, and I'm afraid I had to crop the next few panels where one of the little
Something tells me this fire isn't an accident...
This is going to end well, isn't it?
Meanwhile Speed Queen and Gilotina are also up to mass destruction...
Remember what Gilotina did to that poor nun? She proceeds to do the same to two cop cars and half a building with one sweep of her Kirby-Krackling hands.... The pair are now keen to get more Policeman's badges...
Something tells me Gilotina isn't wondering that because she wants her autograph.
Meanwhile, Hank has, out of sight of everyone, leapt into the burning building, and uses the danger he is in to trigger the change to Hawk (Hank and Dawn must be in the presence of danger to become Hawk and Dove and once the threat has been defeated they have a short time before they revert to human form whether they like it or not)
Hank assumes that the little girl is pleased to see him.. he's right of course, but for the wrong reason....
Hank realises the only way to escape is to punch his way down through the levels of the building, which is a disaster area anyway by this point... So he escape Chessure, only to find on the ground floor....
That's a LOT of dead firemen...
Dove confronts Speed Queen, and still has no idea WHO the hell they are (She's stil relatively new to the hero game and this is her first exposure to Apokalips)
So the whole this is a truly horrific scavenger hunt for the Female Fury Cadets, with the winners getting promoted and the losers... not having a very good time. The notion that so many deaths are their idea of a night on the town is genuinely ghastly, and Gilotina's humour is at Joker levels of warped.
Whilst Speed Queen tried to get a good enough grip on Dove to rip her mask off, we cut back to the MALE component of the duo, who is, as you might imagine, having problems of his own... (And to answer her question, yes it pretty much is, the mask, and indeed the whole costume, are part of the spell which creates Hawk and Dove, they CAN'T remove their costumes because they more or less ARE their costumes.
Malice trying to glass Hawk is also rather horrible an image... and Roger, who never changed out of his performance costume, is about to make a very brave, but very BIIIG mistake.
Oh, and I have to say that Hawk's method of dealing with Bloody Mary is unique, logical and makes my eyes water ever single time....
Y'know, I could hate that little girl very, very easily.
Dove discovers that Speed Queen is just as lethal as Gilotina, when she deliberately rams a petrol tanker just to make it explode in the hopes that the blast will kill our hero. Luckily Dove CAN fly, so manages to avoid most of the impact.
"... they just ignore the bloody trail they leave in their wake". The last image is of Hawk carrying Roger's bloody and battered body as he tries to find medical help for him, an oddly depressing, but effective way to end the issue. (Roger DOES survive BTW, just so it's not a complete downer for you)
And the Female Fury Cadets have made a few appearances since then, including Karl Kesel's titles like "Superboy and the Ravers", and Gilotina defected to the side of the angels, sort of, after falling for the leader of the Newboy Legion in, IIRC a miniseries whose name I forget, and Bloody Mary and Gilotina showed up as recently as the Wonder Girl mini-series last year.