The casting continues on the upcoming live action Titans television series, which will debut on DC Comics' own screening service some time in 2018 (along with a new season of Young Justice). After rumors of the pair's involvement, it's been officially announced that Hawk and Dove will be appearing on the series in a recurring role, with room to be added as regulars for Season 2, or possibly even get their show. The history of Hawk and Dove and the Titans is a bit of an odd one, so we'll fill you in on their strange history (which involves a whole lot of deaths and resurrections and deaths and resurrections and deaths and...)

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In 1966, Steve Ditko was sick of working for Marvel Comics. He felt that they were not taking care of him financially but, perhaps more annoying to Ditko, they were interfering with him artistically. Ditko had already successfully cut ties with Stan Lee on Amazing Spider-Man, where the two men did not even have to talk with each other after Ditko took over complete plotting duties on Amazing Spider-Man with issue #25.

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However, while Lee and Ditko did not talk, Marvel's Publisher, Martin Goodman, still talked to Ditko and he often had demands for what he wanted Ditko to do with the series. Finally, Ditko just quit Marvel all together after Amazing Spider-Man #38. He could have moved to Marvel's biggest competitor, DC Comics, but he instead chose to go to a smaller publisher, Charlton Comics, who offered less money but a good deal more creative freedom (Ditko had worked for them before he moved to Marvel in the 1950s). Ditko essentially had carte blanche on the company. They even let him introduce the Question, a slightly more appropriate version of Ditko's outright Objectivist superhero, Mr. A (who Ditko debuted that same year for Wallace Wood's Witzend)! DC, though, made a pitch to Ditko to bring him over and let him work his magic at DC, as well. Ditko agreed and spent roughly a year at DC (the calendar year of 1968). He introduced two new features for DC's Showcase series. One was the Creeper and the other was Hawk and Dove, which Ditko created with writer Steve Skeates. The characters debuted in 1968's Showcase #75...

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The concept for the characters was simple, but bold for the era (this was in the middle of the Vietnam War). Hank and Don Hall were brothers who couldn't be more different in personality. Don was a peace activist while Hank literally led counter-protests against Don's peace protests!

The boys' father was a judge and some bad guys tried to kill him. He survived the initial assassination attempt, but when Hank recognized the assailant, the boys tracked him to the lair of the bad guys. They were trapped and were in big trouble when a mysterious power spoke to them and offered them the chance to save their father by giving them powers...

They rescued their father and soon got their own ongoing series by Ditko and Skeates...

There was an amusing conflict, though, between Ditko and Skeates. You see, Ditko kept wanting Dove to be an ineffective wimp and Skeates kept trying to balance the two characters in the bravery department. Dick Giordano, an editor at Charlton, was brought to DC at Ditko's recommendation and Giordano edited the series and was in sync with Ditko's way of thinking, so he repeatedly agreed to change the story at Ditko's request to make Dove the wimpier of the two heroes. Ditko, though, left the series soon after it began. The book ended after six issues.

Dick Giordano was also made the editor on Teen Titans, and he brought Hawk and Dove to the team in 1970 for a brief period. This happened to be the same time when the Teen Titans stopped wearing their costumes and became part of a training project under the direction of the mysterious Mister Jupiter...

That did not last long and pretty soon, Hawk and Dove were generally just in comic book limbo throughout most of the 1970s and early 1980s (they still made occasional appearances and even teamed up with Batman in an issue of The Brave and the Bold!). They showed up again when all of the Earth's superheroes fought against the Anti-Monitor in the final issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (by Marv Wolfman, George Peresz and Jerry Ordway). Tragically, Dove was killed in the battle against Anti-Monitor's shadow demons!

With his brother dead, it was time for the next stage of Hawk's life and superheroing career.

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Dove Is Dead - Meet the New Dove!

Hawk, as you might expect, did not take the death of his brother particularly well. This was a guy was not exactly all there when he had a peaceful brother working as the yin to his yang. Without his brother, Hawk was almost a creature of mindless violence, doing whatever the United States government ever asked of him (like this Teen Titans Spotlight story by Mike Baron, Jackson Guice and Larry Mahlstedt)...

It was while working on DC's History of the DC Universe (where he inked George Perez, who drew a big spread of Crisis on Infinite Earths and all the people who died in the event) that inker Karl Kesel thought that, "Hey, why not do a NEW Dove?" He pitched it to his wife, Barbara Kesel, and they then pitched the idea to DC, who approved a new Hawk and Dove miniseries, drawn by an up-and-coming artist named Rob Liefeld. The new Dove would be Dawn Granger.

While the personality conflicts would remain, this time it was less that Dawn was a pacifist or a protester and more that she was just a lot calmer than Hank, who continued to be filled with rage. The miniseries was a big hit (and Liefeld was soon a star artist) and it led to an ongoing series (with Greg Guler taking over from Liefeld)...

Karl Kesel and Barbara Kesel also finally came up with an origin for the mysterious source of Hawk and Dove's powers. As it turned out, it was the Lords of CHaos and Order. Hawk was an Agent of Chaos while Dove was an Agent of Order.

The two heroes continued in their ongoing series for a couple of years, having your typical superhero adventures (while also attending Georgetown University), but then a simple twist of fate changed their lives forever. You see, there was a crossover in 1991 called Armageddon 2001 that involved a new hero named Waverider traveling to the present from the far-off future...of 2001! In Waverider's time, a superhero turned evil and took over the world as the villainous Monarch! Waverider would then touch every major superhero and see their future and see if they become Monarch. So that was the plot for all of DC's 1991 Annuals. The problem was that after touching all of them and getting no results, he touched Captain Atom in the final part and the reveal was going to be that it was Captain Atom who became Monarch. Someone leaked the news, though, so DC had to make a last minute change (I suppose "had" is a bit of a stretch, they preferred to make a last minute change). Since Hawk and Dove wasn't selling amazingly, they decided to make Monarch be Hawk. So in the final part of the crossover, in Armageddon 2001 #2, Monarch traveled to the past and kidnapped Hawk and Dove.

He then kills Dove in front of Hawk...

Hawk then beats Monarch to death, but realizes that Monarch is an older version of...him!!

He now determines that he will be the agent of chaos AND order and he fights the world's heroes, now driven quite mad...

Captain Atom stopped Monarch by transporting them both to the past. This led to a few sequel series where Captain Atom and Monarch fought each other throughout DC history.

Eventually, Hank then took on the power of Waverider and became a new villain known as Extant. During Zero Hour, Hank wiped out the Justice Society of America...

So that was it for Hawk and Dove for a while, before Dick Giordano was involved in yet ANOTHER Hawk and Dove revival. These heroes (created by Mike Baron, Dean Zachary and Giordano) were completely unrelated to any part of Hawk and Dove's history. They had wings and this time the Hawk was female and the Dove was male...

They really don't matter. They fell into comic book limbo very quickly. We're just being completists by mentioning them.

Anyhow, Extant was prisoner of the time-travel police for a while, but he broke out and the newly reformed JSA went to go get revenge on Extant for what he did to the original Justice Society. After a lot of fighting, Atom-Smasher figures that Extant is always going to keep causing trouble throughout time, so he decided to use some time travel himself and have Extant switch places with Atom-Smasher's mom in a plane crash. This killed Hank Hall...

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Later on, Hector Hall (Hawkman's son) became the new Doctor Fate and tried to revive his seemingly comatose wife, Lyta Hall. As it turned out, though, the villainous wizard Mordru instead tricked Hector into reviving....Dawn Granger!!

It was revealed that Mordru was responsible for Hank going insane. He faked Dawn's death to drive Hank to become Monarch. It was all part of his plan...somehow.

Anyhow, with Dawn back to life, it was only a matter of time before Hawk and Dove got back together. As it turned out, Dawn had a sister named Holly who we had never heard mention of ever before. When Dawn and Holly's parents split, Holly went to go live in England with their mother while Dawn lived in Connecticut with their father. Holly was then chosen as the new Hawk by the Lords of Chaos and Order, making their debut in the big Teen Titans fight against Doctor Light in Teen Titans #22 (by Geoff Johns, Mike McKone and Marlo Alquiza)...

Dawn and Holly starred in a two-part Teen Titans story written by Gail Simone that saw Rob Liefeld return to the Hawk and Dove character for the first time in years...

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Hawk and Dove - Forgotten Heroes (Again)

So Hawk and Dove continued as supporting characters in the DC Universe, but it seems as though they are almost inherently designed to fade into the background, as that's precisely what happened to them after the new team was introduced. It even seemed like they had been killed off again in a Titans East Special where Trigon wiped out a new team of Titans, but they survived somehow.

Things did not go as well when the Blackest Night came around. The crossover event saw Black Lantern Rings come to Earth and revive dead DC superheroes and villains. However, a protective white light kept Don Hall from being resurrected. Hank Hall, though, was brought back to life as a Black Lantern. In Blackest Night: Teen Titans #1, the Black Lantern Hank Hall Hawk tears out the heart of Holly Granger Hawk...

Holly then becomes a Black Lantern, as well. At the end of the event, however, a group of superheroes and villains are resurrected by the white light of the White Lantern ring. Among the resurrected heroes was Hank Hall!

The resurrected Hank goes back into partnership with Dawn. They then join a newly reformed Birds of Prey, with Hank being a rare male member of the Birds of Prey...

Then the New 52 happened, and Hawk and Dove were one of the few characters who basically continued their plots from the previous continuity, as Dawn had just entered a romantic relationship with Deadman and that carried over into the New 52. Hank and Dawn got another new series in the New 52, as Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld were the creative team on a short-live Hawk and Dove series...

The book was one of the first books of the New 52 to be canceled, not even reaching double digits. Since the cancellation of their last series, Hawk and Dove have been where they have been for most of their comic book career, just sort of hanging around in the background. They played a role in Titans Hunt.

Hopefully they'll play a bigger role on the Titans TV series!