Annie Wu

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Matt Fraction’s “Hawkeye, Vol. 3: L.A. Woman” is a collection of issues #14, 16, 18 and 20 of Hawkeye comic book series plus the first issue of Annual. Hawkeye’s talented but spoiled teenage protégé Kate Bishop got tired of Clint Barton’s, that is Hawkeye’s, drama so she left for Los Angeles and took with her Lucky the Pizza Dog. But on the West Coast things are not perfect either. Kate gets dead broke and tries to make ends meet working as a private show more investigator. On top of that, she is being pursued by Madame Masque who wants to revenge some old grievances…

THUMBS UP:

1) As entertaining and absorbing as ever.
Although an entire volume focuses on Kate’s adventures, I loved it as much as “Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon” and even more than “Hawkeye, Vol. 2: Little Hits.” Just like the previous volumes, “Hawkeye, Vol. 3” is surprisingly realistic, action-packed, well-thought-out, entertaining and absorbing.

2) Youthful and upbeat.
Even though I liked “Hawkeye, Vol. 2” a lot, I found it rather depressing and hoped for the brighter tomorrow in the third volume. My prayers have been answered. Hallelujah! “Hawkeye, Vol. 3” is like a breath of fresh air. Although Kate, just like Clint, gets banged up, often finds herself in trouble and makes terrible decisions, she, UNLIKE Clint, is bursting with youthful energy and optimism.

3) Kate is AWESOME.
Since the previous two volumes focused on the other Hawkeye, Clint Barton, I never really understood Kate’s character, but now I do and I absolutely love her. Kate is overconfident, ambitious, often naive and childishly silly, but she is also smart, funny, good-natured, optimistic and really good-looking. She is indeed a female version of Clint Barton, just much younger and more cheerful.

4) Wu’s artwork is SO Kate.
Wu’s illustrations are at least as good as Aja’s, and her portrayal of Kate is simply perfect: Wu brings out Kate’s character better than any of the previous artists managed to do.

COULD BE BETTER:

1) Pulido’s illustrations.
Although I’ve read plenty of praise for Javier Pulido’s illustrations in the Annual issue #1, I personally didn’t like it at all. The storyline is great, but the artwork is just so childish, simplistic and cartoon-like, and half of the characters are drawn as silhouettes. Ew!

VERDICT: 4.5 out of 5

Matt Fraction did it again: “Hawkeye, Vol. 3: L.A. Woman” is as realistic, action-packed, well-thought-out, entertaining and absorbing as the previous two volumes. Plus, this time it is all about Kate Bishop, so the vibe is youthful and optimistic. I finally really get Kate and she is actually quite awesome! And although this volume is not illustrated by Aja, Wu’s artwork is a masterpiece on its own. show less

Kate Bishop takes center stage after she leaves NYC (with Lucky the Pizza Dog -- sorry, Clint), and gets cut off by daddy-dearest and has a run in with Madame Masque that leaves her not only broke but without her car or her belongings in LA. So she decides to try her hand at being a private investigator.

This volume was super interesting to me because I'd never read it before, but had been reading the new Hawkeye run where Kate sets up as a PI in California. So it was neat to see where her PI show more roots came from.

I was a bit skeptical at first but after a few issues, really got into the evolving storyline and Kate's attempts at being on her own. Because despite how awesome she is, she is still a privileged rich girl and while she can shoot a bow and arrow, had never had to learn how to shop for groceries on a budget. And I really liked seeing that part of her. I'm loving that Fraction's writing shows the human, fallible side of these characters. show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

I've been a fan of Black Canary since I first encountered Dinah in Green Arrow comics and fell in love. I followed her from there into Birds of Prey, which continued to develop her and her history-- but I felt she was immensely poorly served by the "New 52" reboot, which replaced her long history with a dull one. But from the moment I saw a cover of her New 52 solo series, I was excited. This looked like the Black Canary I show more knew, in that her visuals had returned to their fishnets-and-leather-jacket roots, but it also looked different, in that Dinah was now the punk-styled leader of an alternative band, spinning out of events in writer Brenden Fletcher's excellent Batgirl series.

In Kicking and Screaming, Fletcher and artist Annie Wu create one of those perfect comics books, one that is wholly itself. It's hard to put into words how much I liked this, especially the first few issues, because there's nothing for me to compare it to-- this is the lone exemplar of the superhero-and-rock-band comic book. Panel after panel provides delights. Wu's Dinah is sexy and stylish without being objectified, and completely kick-ass. Usually too kick-ass, as the concerts of Black Canary (here the name of the band; Dinah is just "Dinah" or sometimes "D.D.") often end in violence when Dinah has to fight off government agents and/or protestors. Like I said, I've loved Dinah ever since I first encountered her, but this is the most I've loved her; she's everything I want my female superhero characters to be, violent and attractive and in charge.

Wu's art is amazing, and Lee Loughridge-- always the best colorist in the business-- adds so much to the book's aesthetic too. A couple issues are also drawn by Y: The Last Man's Pia Guerra, who is an excellent artist but maybe not as "punk" as this book requires; her linework is a little too straightforward, while Wu's is dynamic and energetic.

The book's plot is kind of weird, but honestly it's one of those books where I don't care, because it's all about hanging a wacky music-based adventure off it. It's filled with great stuff: Dinah's bandmates include characters named Byron and Heathcliff who actually do look like contemporary kids, one of Black Canary's enemies is the band's disgruntled former singer who now has superpowers, the issues are interpresed with excerpts from a self-produced Burnside music zine, and there's an issue where three "enemy" bands turn up to challenge Black Canary to battle for no readily apparent reason.

I was surprised that this book actually drew on continuity established by the New 52 Birds of Prey and Team 7: Dinah's ex-husband Kurt Lance turns up, as does Amanda Waller, and the book picks up on their situations as of Soul Crisis. Even more surprisingly, the book does more emotionally with Dinah's raised-in-a-dojo backstory than Birds of Prey itself did. There were also some appreciated tie-ins to the Burnside-era Batgirl comics, including an appearance by Operator.

It's not a flawless book (I found the last couple issues, resolving the big ongoing storyline, not entirely satisfying), but it is a unique one, in a way that few DC superhero comics are, but all ought to be. I loved this book despite its flaws, and I'm really looking forward to reading volume 2.

Green Arrow and Black Canary: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

Kate Bishop, the other Hawkeye, gets tired of the emotional brick wall and ongoing meltdown that is Clint Barton, the other other Hawkeye, and heads out to LA to be a superhero PI. Madame Masque is out for revenge, her credit line is cut off, forcing her to resort to cat-sitting, and her fist case is to find some missing orchids. It's Philip Marlowe in purple, a conceit confirmed by her receiving mentoring advice from a tired guy in a raincoat in the cat-food aisle of the local supermarket. show more There's a lot of sun-soaked dirging and depression and nothing quite working out, in keeping with the general tone, Kate Bishop, millenarian rich-girl with a heart of gold kicks against the constraints and conventions of being a tarnished gumshoe knight of the mean streets, which includes getting beat up a lot and getting framed for murder and having it all taken out of your hands by remote authorities in a most unsatisfactory manner which seems to preclude real justice, and it's adorable. show less