Hawkeye 8-22, Hawkeye Annual 1
I’m falling behind on everything. I’d better catch up this weekend, or I’m going to be totally screwed.
Hawkeye 9. Halfway through, I started asking myself if it was as good as issue 3, and by the end, it proved itself to be so. Let’s see why!
First of all, it answers the burning question from the previous issue: Why are the women in Hawkeye’s life standing around with cards on their foreheads?
The answer is the obvious one - they’re playing Indian poker with Clint. Why are they all dressed like gogo girls? Because David Aja draws the hell out of them that way.
Fraction spends the rest of the issue following up on each of these ladies as they respond to the unexpected kiss in their own way.
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| This looks bad in 8 out of the first 9 issues. |
Natasha (The Work Wife) chases down the offending woman.
Bobbi (The Ex-Wife) serves Clint with their divorce papers and beats the crap out of some Bros for good measure.
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| Her wet hair is beautifully drawn in that last panel. |
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| Don't know how it took me so long to see Aja's resemblence to David Mazzucchelli. |
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| There's something startling real about how he draws that dress strap. I'm serious. |
Kate (Kate) is woken up in the worst possible way, by three exasperated and concerned Avengers. She does her best to save Clint from the wrath of these woman, and also beats the crap out of some Bros for good measure.
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| Seems like the best alarm clock ever until you realize it isn't. |
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| The bros aren't having a good day. Seeeeriously. |
Jessica (The Friend-Girl) calls Clint out on his crummy behavior, as the boomerang from issue 3 comes all the way around to smack him in the face.
And at the end of the issue, when things couldn’t seemingly get worse for a physically and emotionally thrashed Hawkeye, Matt Fraction kills Grills! What the heck??? And even worse, he doesn’t follow up on this cliffhanger for another three issues. I completely forgot about it the first time around, 3 months is a long time to leave a thread hanging with no reminder.
Those three sidebar issues each focus on a different supporting character - The assassin Kaziu, the pizza dog Lucky, and the brother Barney. All fine character studies, with some particularly fine work by Aja depicting Lucky’s thinking process.
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| Parallels Clint's shot from issue 3. |
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| Nice homage to Anatomy of a Murder. |
Not all of Fraction’s experiments go quite as well. While it was fun and easy to read the iconography used for Lucky, the sign language in issue 19 fared far worse.
I really struggled with this issue. The sign language ground the momentum of a compelling story to a halt, and actively reduced my enjoyment of the issue. Same with the Chris Eliopoulos-drawn issue 17, which was a complete waste of time with the animated Winter Friends. They can’t all be winners, and considering how amazing the rest of the run is, I’m more than happy to forgive these missteps.
Kate’s sabbatical to the West Coast succeeds more as a wonderful character study than a fun story. The weird incorporation of Beach Boy and Elliott Gould analogues baffle me. The Madame Masque stuff is fun, and I like how what could have been a one-and-done impersonation back in issue 4 has become a running antagonism that’s run through Kate’s solo title as well.
Annie Wu is amazing at body language:
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| This was seriously a team. |
Love how the word balloon fades into the environment as he passes out:
The final two issues play out the confrontation that’s been building for the entire run - The Barton Building versus the Bros. It’s suitable epic, and they didn't kill Lucky! And when it’s all over, we’re left once again with two partner, silently doing what they do best.
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| Lovely ending. Check out the little look he gives her. |
I had completely forgotten just how amazing this title was. It reads so much better all at once. Taken monthly, too many of the callbacks and chronological storytelling devices get forgotten over four weeks. Read in three days, it shines as a single piece of art. So. Good. Staying on the shelf, my OCD can live with splitting The Nam across two boxes.
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? Yes
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Really good (Pure Joy for issue 9, Nice for the Wu issues, Disliked 17, Fine for 19.)
Hawkeye 1-12, Generations: Hawkeye 1
I picked up the Kate Bishop solo title for mega cheap. Very happy I did, I’ll be picking up the last four issues when it comes out in trade. Kelly Thompson does a very fine job of carrying over Kate’s snarky voice from Fraction’s run. And now Kate gets beaten up just as much as her mentor, which makes so much sense.
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? Yes
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Pretty good
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| What’s good advice for bros is good advice for us all. |
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