Her Relationship
to Hank and Hawk
Before They Know Each Other Well
Dawn Granger is merely one of Hank Hall's acquaintances at first--he knows her mainly through his girlfriend, Ren Takamori. Hank doesn't really understand much about girls in general, nor does he interact with them much, so Dawn is barely a blip on his radar. The scene below is when Hank and Dawn meet for the first time, when she saves him from getting doused with drinks--he's a bit bowled over at first, but quickly forgets her afterward.
 | But when this mysterious woman appears, displaying Dove powers and helping him win a fight with some street toughs, Hank is quite understandably angry. How DARE this girl try to replace Don? How DARE she try to help him? |
 | As Hank is roaring at her, angry that she's "impersonating" his brother's powers, Dawn is trying to reason with him, all while effortlessly knocking aside the bad guys. (This is what made me first adore her character--she just puts everybody out of commission without even breaking a sweat!!) |
 |
But as frustrated as Hank is with her, he's also intrigued--she reminds him sharply (and positively) of his brother, and he finds himself needing to know who is wearing the Dove costume. |
He tries (laughably) to find out over the course of a couple of comic issues, but Dawn finally has to reveal her "ordinary" identity to him in Issue 4 of the miniseries; she was the one female friend he didn't guess was Dove!
Fighting Crime Side By Side
Once they know each other's ordinary identities, they reach a tenuous truce. Hank slowly learns he can depend on Dawn to be there as his support (and to pull his butt out of the fire when he's gotten himself into too much trouble, LOL). Though she's not the same as Don and will never be, he grudgingly accepts her help, and gradually begins to heal emotionally.
Their strengths and weaknesses as Hawk and Dove play off well; Dove gets innocent bystanders out of the way and defends Hawk from excess attackers, incapacitating them while Hawk charges into the fray and smashes face. (Hawk also uses his super-strength and toughness to protect Dove from the biggest foes.) Aggression and defense thus combine into a pretty undefeatable team--as long as they're not at each other's throats, that is! xD
Could This Be Love? Well.......
Hank and Dawn establish that they are just friends VERY early on in their crime-fighting partnership. They don't want it to be weird, and indeed both of them pursue romantic relationships with regular non-superhero people (Hank with Ren, Dawn with Sal Arsala, the police chief).
However, near the turning point of the comic series in issues 14-17, we learn that Hank and Dawn get their powers from two spiritual, nearly cosmic-level entities; Hank's Hawk powers come from an Avatar of Chaos, T'Charr, and Dawn's Dove powers come from an Avatar of Order, Terataya. Super-mega-plot twist: Terataya and T'Charr love each other, which has upset the other mystical forces. (The logic goes about like this: "Hurr durr, Order and Chaos aren't supposed to love each other! DUH!")
In Issue 14, Hawk and Dove go to Druspa Tau, a separate magical dimension where Terataya and T'charr reside, because both entities are under attack. Because of events that occur during the next few issues, Terataya and T'Charr fuse into a single being called "the Unity," and are soon nearly vanquished by opposing forces.
The clincher: when the Unity dies, Hank and Dawn will not be able to change into Hawk and Dove anymore, unless the two of them agree to absorb the essences of Terataya and T'Charr into themselves.
Hank and Dawn agree to do this, because they know that their Hawk and Dove powers are still very useful for protecting their world. But absorbing the two entities means that the love the two Avatars shared is now present within both of them. So there's this super-weird sort of latent love bond there, but ordinary Hank and Dawn choose not to act on it...well, most of the time...
This scene, depicting Terataya and T'Charr's absorption into Dove and Hawk, is immediately followed by a huge "OMG WHAT ARE WE DOING" moment for both Hank and Dawn. BLESS!! LOL