David Aja

After the Avengers vs X-Men event, Marvel relaunched all their series under a new branding “Marvel Now!” It was supposed to make it easier for new readers to enter the Marvel Universe without needing tons of backstory/continuity. Which is why I decided to try Hawkeye, whose series I had never read. I had only encountered him as part of Avengers team series, or in crossovers. I like the character, so I picked up his newly launched title with Matt Fraction at the helm.

The biggest problem show more I have with Marvel is that they relaunch, and relaunch, and relaunch series with new writers and artists, without giving readers a chance to get to know and enjoy a character before someone else comes in and changes him/her. Readers get 6, maybe 12 if they are lucky, continuous issues. Fraction got 22: twenty-two issues of character and story development that completely invested me in the series.

One of the things Fraction really dives into is that Hawkeye has no superpowers, and what that would really mean being an Avenger. Hawkeye ends up in the hospital – a LOT. In fact, the story opens with a shot of Barton falling away from a building while shooting an arrow (almost exactly as he did in the Avengers movie during the Battle of New York). Only this time he crashes onto the top of a car and ends up in traction in a hospital bed. Barton is painfully human. He gets beat up often, and through most of the series he’s wearing bandages. His private life is a mess, exemplified perfectly by a panel showing his ex-girlfriend (Black Widow), his ex-wife (Mockingbird), and his current girlfriend (Spider-Woman). The main current of the story is Hawkeye’s “war” with some Russian Mafia-types who are trying to drive him and his neighbors out of their apartment building. This weaves through the entire run up to the conclusion. In between, he runs missions for SHIELD, mentors Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye, and interacts with his neighbors. Readers get to know Clint as never before. His relationship with Bishop is a highlight. She knows what a mess he is and accepts it. She does what she can to help, learns from his and her own mistakes, and acts as a foil for him.

The run only seriously stumbles twice. At one point, Clint invites his neighbor and her two boys over to watch Christmas specials, because he damaged her tv dish. Fraction inexplicably decided to write out one of those specials. It went on, agonizingly, for dozens of pages (probably an entire issue). At another point, the POV switches to Kate Bishop after she heads to LA after Clint ticks her off. Kate works best with a partner or team. Solo, she’s damn annoying. The conclusion at first seems weak, it wasn’t an epic battle, but for a very human character it worked.

Overall, the entire run was excellent. I wish Marvel would give more authors a chance to build like this. And the art of David Aja was a perfect fit for Fraction’s story. The minimalist style (which I normally don’t like), in mostly sepia tones with pops of color, worked so well for the character. Highly recommended, especially this omnibus edition. show less

From the get-go this Hawkeye series is impressive. David Aja's art is stylish, bold, and slightly abstract - matching in tone Matt Fraction's characterization of the titular hero. Clint Barton is a fantastic "Every Man" who just happens to moonlight as a superhero. The new landlord and dog owner is charming, slightly goofy, and as accident prone as any of us. His lack of organization and tendency to leap without looking echoes that of his young protege Kate, who's only a bit more put show more together than her teacher. The friendship and duel mentorship between Clint and Kate is endearing and hilarious at the same time, and Clint's feelings about and interactions with his Avengers teammates are complicated and tinged with a slight loneliness. It's easy to tell that Clint doesn't fit neatly into either the "normal" or "superhero" worlds - a trend that continues later in the series when *SPOILER* Clint loses his hearing and is returned to the duality of both the hearing and Deaf worlds in issue #19. *END SPOILER*

Overall masterfully written in a grounded and believable manner with a lot of humor and charm, with characters made vibrantly colorful from both writer and illustrator. This is the perfect comic for someone wanting to be introduced to Hawkeye, wanting to start reading about individual Avengers, or to just start reading comics in general. show less

I will forever live in confusion regarding why hawkeye is altered so much in the mcu from his comic version because WOW.

This was honestly one of the best comics I've ever read, let alone a marvel comic. The way they artwork was detailed yet not with its sketch based style was so unique, and the use of colour helped to almost build atmosphere in the story.

AND CAN WE JUST

AT THE SCENES WITH THE DOG AND HAWKEYE LIKE OMG YES PUPPY

This was just so amazing I need to buy myself copy asap please and show more thank you. show less

I'm so on the cuff with my grade there. It's leaps and bound better than Vol. 1, that I rated a deserved 4, but this isn't quite up there with the most stellar things every written, drawn and plotted in the comics universe. I think it might have a hardcore 4.5, or even 4.8.

This one definitely takes you off with a bang, and I'm utterly in love with all the interaction of Kate & Clint and Clint & Natasha & Ex-Wife & Jessica. I love that Fraction has started playing around with timelines and show more appearances, giving himself a little more slack to be amazing with timelines and approaches.

I loved the comic book covers tribute. I loved the way the second to last issue went back at step and brought us to the villain in the end of the issue, matching the one before it where we saw how Clint got to that moment. I love how much Kate know Clint and won't let him pull his normal crap.

I love, love, love the Pizza Dog issue this ends on. That was genius and interesting, and gave us so much more information about the tenants of the building than we'd ever seen before. I'm hoping in the next trade we'll revisit Kate and Clint's conversation, the way the Villain-Hero double play issue rolled out. I'm definitely on board, and I've totally taken off the whole part where I think about this as a superhero title under that title and expectation. show less