Titans Season 1 Episode 2 Review: 'Hawk and Dove'

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Titans has been pretty controversial since the first images of the series leaked online.

The reception was more positive than negative for the debut episode last week, which was good for DC Universe as its first original series.

The second episode though erased any doubts I had about the series, as it had me hooked right from the start.

Titled 'Hawk and Dove,' the episode obviously introduces the crime fighting duo of Hawk and Dove, aka Hank and Dawn.

This starts off with Hank captured by some criminals he was trying to take down, including some very violent torture, which leads to Dawn showing up to save him.

This really showed the more mature side of Titans with the level of violence and even multiple f-bombs being dropped, which continues throughout the episode.

After this initial sequence, we see Hank and Dawn back at home with Hank soaking his wounds, where they talk about how they have one more job to do before they can hang their superhero coats up basically.

Dawn ends up having a flashback here of a time four years prior where her and Hank were fighting criminals with a little help from Robin, showing they have a history.

Hank makes a comment about Bruce letting Dick come hang out with the bad kids, showing these two were previously seen as the more violent heroes compared to Robin.

We then catch up with Dick and Rachel, who end up being on their way to see Hank and Dawn, though Dick just says they're going somewhere safe.

On their travels there, they end up stopping at a motel that Dick leaves Rachel out to go get pizza.

During this time, he ends up calling Alfred Pennyworth, with us finding out later he asked him for money to leave Rachel with Hank and Dawn.

Dick and Rachel eventually get to Dawn and Hank's place, where Dawn answers and Dick explains what is going on.

Dawn is very sympathetic, but then Hank arrives and is very angry as it appears that Dick had some sort of past with Dawn. He calms down once he see they have a young girl with them though.

Dawn and Rachel start to bond a bit while Dick is doing some of his own digging.

Dawn also reveals to him that Hank and her have one last job that they could really use his help on.

Hank thinks that Dawn called Dick in town just to help with that, making it worse that he walked in to Dawn having her hand on Dick's hand, but they all witness the power of Rachel when she yells and breaks windows around them from the yelling.

Hank and Dawn end up leaving to take on the criminals, but things to not go well for them at all.

Both are captured and in a precarious position, but then Dick comes in as Robin and wrecks house very violently. You could see that Dawn and Hank had never seen Dick this violent, which Dawn specifically points out later.

While they were gone, Rachel finds a note left by Dick that wasn't meant to be seen until he was gone later that had money that Alfred had given him earlier so that Hank and Dove could watch over her and that would help cover expenses.

Upon returning, Rachel confronts Dick about this, but this is just in time for a group of bad guys known in the comics as the Nuclear Family to arrive.

We saw them earlier in the episode as a suburban family that looks like they are right out of Leave It To Beaver who use some sort of serum and become crazy and violent fighters.

This group earlier in the episode attacked Dick's new partner at the Detroit Police Department to get information on where Rachel was and now are here to get her. They nearly knock Dick off the roof, leaving him hanging on.

Hank is grabbed with a whip and nearly choked and knocked out.

Dawn gets the worst of it though, as she is thrown off the roof itself, with nobody able to save her in time, which gave them a chance to grab Rachel and leave.

Dick is able to pull himself up and noticed what happened to Dawn, leading him to run down and check on her, with her life being in the balance as the episode ends.

This episode felt a lot more focused than the first and introduced two great new characters in Hawk and Dove.

They felt very grounded and offered something different to the series that I really enjoyed.

It was kind of nice seeing the episode not jump around between as many characters as the first too, which is what we should see more of as the characters start to come together moving forward.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Titans Season 1 Episode 3 Review: 'Origins' (more); Review: 'Titans' Episode 1 Season 1 (more); DC's 'Titans' Show Will Be On Netflix In International Countries (more); Teen Titans GO! To The Movies Gets A Blu-ray Release Date And More Details (more).

And here are some more related articles: Review: Teen Titans Go! To The Movies Is A Fun Ride (more); Teen Titans Season 6 Has Been Teased By New Movie (more); Teen Titans Go! To the Movies Is Certified Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes (more).

A few more: DC Universe Releases First Trailer For Gritty Titans Series (more); Box Office Tracking Revealed For Mission Impossible - Fallout And Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (more).

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