THE HAWK AND THE DOVE #5

Cover shows good color and gloss with strong contrast still present in the black background. There is visible surface wear along the top and right edges with some minor corner blunting, and faint handling creases near the spine area suggest slight stress lines. The book is in a protective sleeve which obscures fine detail on edges, and interior/back cover were not assessed. No major tears, color breaks, or stains are visible in this photo.

The Hawk and the Dove #5 arrived near the end of DC's brief, six-issue Silver Age run featuring the politically-charged brother duo created by Steve Ditko and writer Steve Skeates. By this issue Ditko had departed the series, with Gil Kane stepping in to illustrate the adventures of Hank and Don Hall. The title was notable in its day for framing its heroes as opposing ideological archetypes — the hawk of aggressive action and the dove of restraint and diplomacy — against the backdrop of late-1960s social debate, though the series itself was cancelled after issue six due to modest sales.

Market activity reflects a low-print, low-demand Silver Age book with a thin but consistent sales history concentrated in the mid-to-high grade tiers. Certified sales cluster around $40-$60 for near-mint copies, with a sharp premium increase only at the very top of the census, where a single 9.8 has traded near $700 and 9.6 copies command roughly $300. Grades below 7.5 have essentially no recorded certified sales, indicating that raw, lower-grade copies trade quietly and infrequently, likely through general back-issue bins rather than as a focus of dedicated buyers.

This is a book for completists of the Hawk and Dove characters, Ditko/Skeates Silver Age DC output, or Gil Kane art collectors rather than mainstream key-issue investors. Mid- and low-grade raw copies remain inexpensive and are readily available to casual buyers assembling a run, while the small handful of high-grade census copies command outsized premiums driven by scarcity rather than character significance. Long-term value is likely to track general Silver Age DC demand and any renewed attention to the Hawk and Dove characters in modern continuity, rather than independent collector momentum.