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...