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‘Titans’: Easter Eggs and References in “Hawk and Dove”

Week two of DC Universe’s long-awaited Titans is here, and while the second episode is a bit more […]

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Week two of DC Universe’s long-awaited Titans is here, and while the second episode is a bit more laser-focused than the first, they still managed to sneak in quite a few references to aspects of DC Universe mythology in the episode, which centers on the heroes Hawk and Dove.

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In the episode, Dick Grayson brings Rachael Roth to the home of Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, who are secretly the heroes known as Hawk and Dove. Still active years after apparently splitting with Robin, Hawk and Dove are preparing a final attack on a group of gun smugglers, which will allow them to retire to the country in peace once it’s done and the villains are off the streets.

Nothing goes as you would hope, though, and the Nuclear Familiy shows up, looking for Rachel.

So, what did we see? What did we miss? Read on, and comment below or hit us up on Twitter @comicbook if you’ve got anything else for us.

Hawk & Dove

So far our biggest takeaway from Titans is that in the world they are setting up, if you are a superhero you probably have a bird-themed identity.

Whether it’s Raven, Robin, Hawk, or Dove, the good guys in this show are all birds so far. That’s kind of weird.

Also, makes it kind of weird that Hank was apparently planning on moving away from this apartment he and Dawn were sharing to go find their destiny in Wisconsin immediately after revealing to her that he spent all that time building a bird sanctuary on the roof. But that’s another story.

Anyway, Hawk and Dove are a pair of superheroes created originally in the Silver Age by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko. Dawn Granger came along years later (originally, the pair were brothers and Dove’s name was Don), created by Karl Kesel, Barbara Randall, and Rob Liefeld.

In some ways the personification of peace and war (get it?), the Hawk and Dove roles have passed through other hands over the years in DC Comics. Like in the comics, Hawk is a volatile and violent man loaded to the gills with toxic masculinity and insecurity, which can make him pretty useful in a fight but insufferable in day-to-day interactions.

The episode ends with Dawn at least seemingly killed — a recurring motif in the comics and something that leaves Hank damaged every time.

Superman

Dawn Granger wearing a Superman t-shirt likely suggests that Superman exists in the universe being set up by Titans and Doom Patrol.

Theoretically it could be a case of him being a fictional character, but with Batman in the world and super-powers evident in some of the characters, that feels unlikely.

Erectile dysfunction

Impotence could be a side effect from all the drugs he’s doing, but is more likely just a nod to the series being “mature.”

It echoes Dan Dreiberg’s difficulty getting an erection in Watchmen, a book that obviously influences Titans producer Geoff Johns a great deal.

Kids in America

In the “four years ago” flashback, Hawk and Dove fight baddies (in a scene seemingly influenced heavily by Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie) to the tune of “Kids in America,” a 1981 hit by Kim Wilde which has since been covered a number of times.

In a strange coincidence, after the pilot episode of Titans used “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer (a song that appeared in the first season of Riverdale), “Kids in America” is a song that KJ Apa (as Archie Andrews) covered in that same season.

Donna Troy

Donna Troy is one of numerous names to show up in Dick’s cell phone contacts (we’ll get to that in a minute), but this may not be the only time we see her in the episode.

Later in the episode, when Dick and Dawn are talking in Hank and Dawn’s apartment, there’s a photo on a wall in the background that seems to show Hank, Dawn, Dick, and a fourth, unidentified brunette. The most likely scenario seems to be that this is Donna Troy, who also used to work with them and is not mentioned this early on so that they can introduce her later.

The Bat-Family

Besides Donna, other DC characters included in Dick’s contacts are Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, and Lucius Fox.

Alfred makes a voice cameo in this episode and Bruce did in the pilot. Donna Troy is expected along at some point in the series. No word on Lucius Fox (who works at Wayne Enterprises with Bruce) yet.

Significant roles for any of the Bat-characters may wait until season 2 when Gotham has wrapped, although since Gotham EP Danny Cannon is headed straight into a Pennyworth series for another streaming service, it may be no different then.

Raven at one point notes that a computer has “Wayne Enterprises tech.”

Dick, meanwhile, said that Alfred could give him some money to help with Rachel, but he doesn’t want Bruce to help him. This begs the question: is Alfred independently wealthy? It doesn’t seem likely you could sneak much past the world’s greatest detective.

And Also Starring…

The rest of Dick’s contacts seem to be the real names of people involved on the behind-the-camera side of Titans, Supergirl, and other shows. Here is a quick list with some links and observations:

Amy Rostollan would be an odd coincidence because while she is not involved in show business, a Google search turns up a woman with that name who DOES come from Michigan and there are basically no other people with that name who come up in a simple Google search. And she works, it seems, with at-risk youth. This is likely someone Johns knows or knows of, and it would make sense in the context of Titans for Detroit cop Dick Grayson to have a number like that in his phone.

Mark Reid worked as a line producer on the show Corner Gas, which doesn’t have any immediately evident DC ties, but in a weird coincidence, the show’s logo appeared on a t-shirt worn by Malcolm Dragon in Savage Dragon #239, which was released this week.

Verschooris is not credited as working on Titans but contributed to Supergirl and Reign (another WB TV show on the CW).

Given that they KNEW fans would be poring over this episode for Easter eggs, this was a uniquely good chance for the crew to toss some of their names in, in a way that people would take note of.

Timeless?

Raven is watching Game of Thrones in the hotel. This kind of breaks the “timeless” feel of the show that we talked about last time a bit.

Especially when in this episode she mentions dragons, suggesting she is watching a later season and the show basically takes place in the present day.

This is not, strictly speaking, a problem. Just mostly worth noting since so much of the identity of the series seems to be tied up in the same hazy, grimy approach to timelines as Gotham and Riverdale.

The Nuclear Family

The Nuclear Family — a group of villains introduced in Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo’s run on The Outsiders — make their appearance here.

Like the other characters introduced so far in Titans, they live in a real, rather than DC Universe, city (St. Louis, MO). Like in the comics, they have names like Bro, Sis, Mom & Dad rather than real names.

Their ties to the Titans are fairly tenuous, although they appeared in a Nightwing-centric story called The Battle for Bludhaven by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Dan Jurgens.

The team has previously appeared on TV in animated form on Justice League Action.

Now that Cheryl Blossom has gone full on good guy, Sis gets the title of creepiest redheaded teenager on TV.

 

Indecisiveness

Dick can’t seem to decide what he wants to do with his life. 

“I’m out of the life, Dawn,” Dick tells Dawn like two days after having gone after those drug dealers in Detroit.

This could be chalked up to lazy writing, but it really does not seem like it. The more likely answer is that Dick is on a journey that will tell him who and what he needs to be by the end of the season.

Dick Grayson

The romance subplot with Dove is interesting.

While I don’t remember Dick Grayson and Dawn Granger ever being a thing in the comics, it could be that they are imbuing her with Starfire’s backstory and baggage with Dick, since the Titans version fo Starfire just joined the team.

Another possibility is that it is just the show’s way of subtly telling the TV audience what comics readers already know: Dick Grayson gets around.

Ditko Movers

The gunrunners are using Ditko Movers as their cover. Steve Ditko is best known for creating Spider-Man, Hawk and Dove, and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle.

Quoth the end credits

The final shot uses the Raven-as-death motif that is popular to basically all fiction ever.

This is something that will seemingly be brought up more as the series goes on, considering the reveal in this episode that the guy Raven accidentally/on purpose killed had a raven tattoo on his shoulder. Is that becuase he’s part of whatever movement is trying to get hold of her, or is it a brand she leaves on her victims? Only time will tell.

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