4159. Dawn Marie Granger a.k.a. Dove

Dawn is the second character do personify the avatar of peace after Don Hall. In their crimefighting career together Hank and Don were an effective team up until Don’s death at which point Hank started to work alone. On one such case, he discovered Dawn. He was initially hostile towards her, attacking her so that she would stop impersonating his dead brother. Soon however their roles were explained to them by the Lords of Order and Chaos and they formed as uneasy but productive alliance.

Dawn was designed as a replacement for Don Hall as the counterpart to Hank Hall in the superhero duo of Hawk and Dove. Her first appearance was in a miniseries of the same name and she was created by Karl and Barbara Kessel and Rob Liefield.

Exemplifying the role of peace, throughout her superhero career she has been the more logical counterpart to Hank, who is not always happy with her role as his partner. Her character development was somewhat restricted as the duo failed to maintain any longstanding series, but she has appeared often as a background or secondary character in the DC Universe.

Dawn’s early story were all tied closely to those of Hank. In their first adventure together they battled Kestrel, who would be one of their more consistent foes.

The first major story in which she and Hank took part was Armageddon 2001 and Zero Hour. In Armageddon 2001 a time traveler from the future, Waverider, travels to the past to find out the hero who would be corrupted into the villain known as Monarch. Eventually he discovers that Captain Atom will become this villain, but upon discovering this Monarch is freed from the time-stream and murders Dawn in front of Hank. Hank becomes enraged and kills Monarch in to found out that in fact that it is Hank that will become Monarch. Due to the psychological stress Hank dons the armour and becomes the villainous would-be-emperor. He would later take on the persona of Extant after killing Waverider and stealing his powers. He later attacks the Justice Society and even kills two of its members before being stopped.

Dawn is later revealed not to have died but rather that her supposed death was part of an elaborate hoax by the sorcerer Mordru. Hank Hall’s insanity was also caused by the sorcerer. Dawn soon joins her sister Holly Granger who had become the third Hawk as reserve members of the Teen Titans. She goes on a few missions with the team especially after Cyborg is forced to populate the team with younger members.

Dawn plays a relatively important role during the events of Blackest Night. Here Holly and Dawn are confronted by a resurrected Hank who has been possessed by the black power ring of the Black Lantern Corps. Hank is able to kill Holly and she is animated as well as a Black Lantern, and Dawn retreats knowing she cannot beat both alone. Retreating to Titans Tower she finds that it has been overrun by even more Black Lanterns. When the Black Lanterns catch up to her they try to remove her heart as well. Doing so reveals a great light within Dawn which frees Holly from the ring and which she uses to destroy the other Black Lanterns except for Terra, Tempest and Hawk. She passes out afterwards and has a vision of Don, who tells her that his brother can still be saved. She later joins the majority of the Earth’s heroes in the battle against the Black Lantern Corps in Coast City. Although her powers are effective for a short time against the Black Lanterns, they are soon drawn out of her and stored in the Black Lantern’s Power Battery, of which the Anti-Monitor was trapped inside. After the heroes are victorious, Hank is brought back to life and the two continue in their adventures together.

During the events of Brightest Day Dawn starts to worry about Hank’s behavior since his resurrection, as he is more violent than previous. Deadman contacts the two heroes and Hank uses his mystical ability to try to resurrect Don, which ultimately fails. They briefly discuss the idea to resurrect Holly, but decide against it. The three heroes are summoned to New Mexico where it is revealed that the Entity requires a new host and the three travel together hoping to find one. In so doing Dawn and Deadman realize they have feelings for one another. The two heroes are also soon recruited into the Birds of Prey by Lady Blackhawk. They are later called to Star City to protect the White Lantern Tree which become the foundation for the new Parliament of Trees.

Since the reboot into the new 52 it is not yet clear how much of the character histories remains, however, dawn is still in a relationship with Deadman.

Powers and Abilities

When she manifest the avatar of peace and becomes Dove, Dawn has enhanced intelligence and compassion as well as enhanced strength, the ability to fly and a danger sense. At one point after being lured to Druspa Tau, the home of the lords of Order and Chaos, it was revealed that they could take off their costumes while still in powered form. Underneath were bird like creatures. This experience also increased their powers.