BEWARE!

Of the two titles that Ditko took to DC, I think the best one (and the one closest to his heart) must have been BEWARE THE CREEPER.

To me, Ditko was obviously doing his best to recapture some of the imagery and power of his Marvel creation, The Amazing Spider-Man. But he was also doing his best to infuse it with parts of one of his personal favorite characters, The Question.

Like Spider-Man, The Creeper is an acrobatic creature comfortable with dancing along the rooftops and dropping into alleyways to kick criminal ass. Just as with The Question, the hero's alter-ego is an investigative journalist sniffing around for clues of criminal activity and political corruption. It actually made a pretty darned good combination. Unfortunately, as with THE HAWK and THE DOVE, BEWARE THE CREEPER suffered the same fate--cancellation after a mere six issues, with the last one mainly being illustrated by someone other than Ditko.

The Creeper is, as super-heroes go, not very super-powered. He has slightly superhuman strength and agility, combined with a puzzling electronic gimmick that allows him to transform instantly from civilian attire to the strange costume the hero cobbled together from bits and pieces found in a room during an investigation.

The iconography of The Creeper is pretty cool. He doesn't much look like any other superhero the fans had seen. And it's still almost unique nearly 50+ years later. Ditko later did at least a few stories featuring his creation for DC. And he has popped up now and again as a supporting character in other books.

He obviously is still a valuable commodity to DC, as I doubt they'd be eager to give him back to his creator at any point. Not that Ditko would even accept the offer if it was made.

Because...well...Ditko.

SHOWCASE #73, introduction of The Creeper.

Here, with less interference from meddling editors, Ditko could have a more human hero who does battle with human villains. This is the kind of thing he successfully did with the Spider-Man title at Marvel.

And whenever I see the action pages in BEWARE THE CREEPER it is obvious to me that either Ditko wanted to hang onto his Marvel fans with similar Spider-Man type antics, or DC editors had requested that he serve up the same type of stuff. This sequence could just as well have been Spider-Man and Kraven.

The first issue after the Showcase introduction. Ditko pretty much kept the villains in BEWARE THE CREEPER as close to human as possible. They just didn't have super powers. Even The Creeper's super powers were muted when compared even to Spider-Man. Slightly enhanced strength, and the ability to switch to his alter ego at will.

Ditko introduces Proteus, a villain who is, in pretty much every way, the Chameleon that he gave us in The Amazing Spider-Man #1.

The Hawk & the Dove.

To me, Ditko's move to DC to try to reignite the fire under the fan base is rather sad. He was still, of course, bursting with ideas and was one of the best and most imaginative artists then working in comics. And for their part, DC was heavily promoting his move to DC...almost to the point of howling about how it was Ditko who had arrived at their doors rather than the titles he had brought with him.

By now, we all know what happened. He entered the marketplace with two new titles: BEWARE THE CREEPER and THE HAWK and THE DOVE. True comic book fanatics know the history of how this move coincided with serious health problems for Ditko that prevented him from working at his desired pace and intensity. 

Both of these books reflected his right wing philosophy more than the two titles he had created at Marvel (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and DR. STRANGE). And of the pair, the one least like anything he'd done at Marvel was THE HAWK and THE DOVE. It was also the first title he had to abandon due to his serious health problems. Ditko completed three stories featuring the Hawk and Dove. The issue of SHOWCASE in which they were introduced, and the first two issues of their regular title. As always, the artwork in all are superb. The stories, to my way of thinking, were rather strange and dogmatic. Apparently, Ditko was trying to present a balanced view of the political turmoil running through the USA at that time, but his particular brand of Fascism ruins any such attempt. I cannot see how the title could ever have been anything other than a failure.

After Ditko left the book due to those health troubles (tuberculosis, from what I've been able to discover), the book was left in the hands of Steve Skeates as writer and Gil Kane as artist. If anyone was going to do that book, I would think that Kane was as good a choice as any. But the writing was on the wall, and Ditko's initial tenure at DC as a superhero creator was soon at an end. Both of his titles ended after just six issues.

As with just about everything Ditko has created, though, the characters and their images live on in revivals and animation. Ditko was not quite the machine Jack Kirby was, but he is still one of the best who worked the superhero comic book world.

Was Martin Goodman worried? At this point, I rather doubt it. He'd already seen Ditko's new superhero creations at Charlton fail to attract the fan base he'd established at Marvel. Would the work at DC bring them in? Nope.

The mincing, cowardly Dove.

The manly Hawk dominates.

From here on out, it was Skeates writing and Kane illustrating. And both ultimately failing.

You have to admit...Ditko could create some iconic superhero imagery to be used effectively by artists who followed in his wake.

And then...half a dozen issues was all that DC could justify.