Predecessor: Don Hall, Dove I
 | Before Dawn Granger ever wore the mantle of Dove, it belonged to Don Hall, younger brother of Hank (aka Hawk). |
Who Was Don Hall?
The available information on Don via the comics is very sparse, but we know that Don was quite the opposite of his older brother. Hank was always more aggressive, quick to anger (and quick to angrily protect a friend), while Don was more studious and gentle, interested in keeping the peace and keeping ANYONE from being hurt too seriously. The two brothers couldn't have been more different in their political beliefs, either (which was the basis for their short series of comics, The Hawk and The Dove, back in the '60s--the writers wanted to show that different political beliefs COULD get along and work together.)
Yet the "powers that be" (in the comic series, at least) granted the Hall brothers powers based on those widely differing beliefs. Hank's fierce spirit transmuted itself into brute physical strength and endurance; Don's gentler care lent itself naturally to evasion and shielding the innocent. And, quite inexplicably, Hank and Don became an excellent crime-fighting team, cooperating in ways they would have never imagined, and even having time for a few jokes mid-battle (such as Dove's joke in the scene pictured above).
...Well, they were a great team, that is, until Don tried to save some children from being hit by a falling wall, and ended up being crushed.
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But that does not stop Don from reappearing in the new Hawk and Dove series, because in comics, heroes are never dead! When Dawn is at home recuperating from a severe flu-like bug caught during one of her superheroic stunts, Don appears to her (seen at left). Privately, Dawn has worried that her receiving the Dove powers actually killed Don--that he would have been able to survive the wall falling on him if she had not accepted the powers. But Don reassures her that it was meant to be that way, that he intended to save the children in danger, and that "sometimes your luck just runs out," even if you're a hero. |
Personality
| Don is a much quieter, more retiring person than even Dawn herself is, but that shyness does not hide his compassion and even nurturing characteristics. In life he was often anxious and worried about things (as seen in the image at right); in death, he has gained a serenity and peace about everything. |  |
 | (Don's anger, though very, very rare to see in the comics, does come up--in the instance at left, Hank is remembering the time Don believed Hank had been killed, and was punishing the murderers. This, however, was a controlled anger, unlike Hawk's inflamed, lashing rage; Don never lets himself go over the edge into brutality, but he does seek to punish justly for the grievous wrong done to his family.) |
Don is quite able to admit his own flaws, acknowledging that since Hank was the older of the two of them, he himself never really explored many of the Dove powers or expressed his true nature because he looked up to Hank. He knows he wasn't a perfect superhero, and advises Dawn not to hold herself to such an impossible standard either--she's simply "good for Hank AND Hawk, and that's something [he] could never have been." He's not jealous of Dawn's ability to live and work beside his brother; instead, he has an almost fatherly concern for her well-being.
Interesting Footnote
During the 2009-2010 DC Comics event "Blackest Night," when the Black Lanterns were trying to raise dead heroes to become zombie soldiers, several Black Lanterns tried to raise Don, standing around his grave and calling, "Don Hall of Earth, RISE from your grave!" The only response they hear is "Don Hall of Earth--at peace." And no matter what the Black Lanterns do after that, they can't touch him. He's the one hero they can't resurrect; he is truly peaceful in death.