"Hawkeye: The Avenging Archer"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Hawkeye: The Avenging Archer” as presented in Epic Collection format.

            Clinton Barton and his brother Barney Barton were orphaned at a young age. They were put in the foster system together, and bounced from home to home. Finally, after being placed with an abusive foster father, Clint and Barney ran away. On the run, Clint and Barney found a travelling circus led by the swindling Swordsman. Clint was picked to be trained to amaze and amuse the audiences as an archer, while Barney was picked to steal from the audiences. Clint trained so well and became such an expert marksman that he did not miss. He was billed as “Hawkeye.” Eventually, Clint and Barney were disheartened by the Swordsman and moved on with their lives. Clint stayed as a carnival attraction while Barney got involved with the mob.

            One night at Coney Island, New York, Tony Stark (secretly the superhero the Invincible Iron Man) and his secretary Virginia “Pepper” Potts go on a date. The date was supposed to be for Tony’s friend Harold “Happy” Hogan, but Pepper misread the signals and went with Tony. Hawkeye was a performer there, but really was not impressing the audience. Suddenly, the Flying Pinwheel went out of control, and Tony ran off, switched to Iron Man, and saved the day. Dismayed by this turn of events, with Iron Man stealing his thunder, Clint decided he wanted the attention the same way Iron Man did and to become a superhero himself. He devises a series of trick arrows with different functions and creates a costume. Unfortunately on his first night out, he stops a jewel thief but is misinterpreted as the criminal himself. As he goes on the run, he meets Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. The two fall in love. The Black Widow riles Clint up, and Clint decides he wants fame, and what better way to do that than to defeat Iron Man? The battle comes to an end when the Black Widow is gravely injured, and Clint escapes with the Black Widow.

            Tony Stark later finds himself gravely injured and must remain in his Iron Man armor until he is recovered. However, Tony’s absence is not unnoticed and finds himself suspected in his own disappearance. Black Widow convinces Clint that this is the perfect time to raid Stark’s weapons plans to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. He is discovered, and in an escape attempt, Clint takes Pepper hostage. Iron Man battles Clint and rescues Pepper. Clint and the Black Widow are separated, but again both manage to escape.

            Black Widow designs a new costume with some new trick gadgets. When Clint and the Black Widow are reunited, the two kidnap Happy and Pepper while on a date to attract Iron Man’s attention. Black Widow and Iron Man battle, but when Black Widow is defeated, Clint and Black Widow again make their escape.

            Clint returns to appeal to join the Avengers (Hank Pym/Giant Man, Janet Van Dyne/Wasp, Tony Stark/Iron Man, and Steve Rogers/Captain America). The Avengers, believing Clint’s desire to reform himself, accept Clint’s application. However, Giant Man, Wasp and Iron Man decide to take a leave of absence from the team, leaving Captain America to pick replacements. Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, (both former of members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) apply, seeking redemption from their past crimes. Captain America accepts and the new Avengers are formed.

            Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch leave the Avengers, Hank Pym (now Yellowjacket) and Wasp (now Mrs. Pym) return, and T’Challa/Black Panther and Vision join the team. Black Widow is now an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division). Black Widow is kidnapped by Egghead, the Mad Thinker, and the Puppet Master. The Avengers are sent by Nick Fury on a rescue mission, but Hawkeye, being too involved, is asked to stay behind. However, the Nick Fury who calls the Avengers to action is actually a Life Model Decoy, and the team is sent on a wild goose chase. Black Widow is able to contact Clint and is able to inform Hawkeye of her real location. Clint decides Hawkeye just isn’t enough and takes Hank Pym’s growth particles and takes on the mantle of Goliath. Goliath is able to rescue the Black Widow.

            The defeated villains don’t stop there. The Avengers then race to space, where Clint is reunited with his brother, Barney. The Avengers find themselves being manipulated by the Puppet Master’s dolls, and Barney pays a terrible price to save his brother and his teammates.

            But blasts from Clint’s past don’t end there. The Swordsman also returns, teaming up with Egghead and forces Clint to make a difficult decision.

            Clint returns to his Hawkeye identity and teams up with Spider-Man against the cyborg Quasimodo.

            Clint also teams up with Two-Gun Kid against Zebadiah Killgrave/Purple Man.

            The Avengers continue to expand and they even receive government sponsorship. Their liaison Henry Peter Gyrich decides that the team is too big and forces Clint off the team. Clint finds employment with Cross Technological Enterprises as head of security. One of his first opponents to protect CTE is the Shi’ar alien, Deathbird.

            Spider-Man and Clint team up once again against the villainous Mister Fear.

            Clint’s next opponent is El Aguila.

            Next Clint goes to the circus and teams up with Scott Lang/Ant-Man against the Taskmaster.

            Bobbi Morse goes from being the Huntress to becoming Mockingbird, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Mockingbird then teams up with Spider-Man to save S.H.I.E.L.D. from an inside threat that could destroy the agency’s reputation.

            While on a date, Clint meets Mockingbird when she breaks into CTE. Their encounter does not go very smoothly at first, but after mutual rescues engaged by both parties, Clint and Bobbi form a partnership that quickly turns into romance. The team-up leads them against villains such as Bombshell and Oddball. Clint and Bobbi are defeated and brought to the true mastermind behind this plot, Crossfire, who tries to turn Clint and Bobbi aggressively against each other. After their daring escape, Crossfire tries to beat Clint at his own game, with bow and arrow, to permanently take Bobbi out of the picture.

            Darren Cross is kidnapped by Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s enemies, who use a juggling act taken to a violent level, and Steve Rogers/Captain America and Clint team up once again to save Clint’s boss.

            Clint goes on a solo retreat after losing confidence in himself and his abilities as an archer and must regain his skills during a mystic encounter.

 

            Okay, I know that’s a lot to take in, but my prior Epic Collection review readers know the length by now, containing several related storylines in one massive graphic novel volume. Now, some of my prior readers probably think I pick Epic Collections at random considering my portfolio, but I do have a process in my selection, but I won’t bore you with that as this review has already been lengthy enough, but I do have my reasons. Almost no one knew this before, but Hawkeye is my favorite male Avenger, due to the fact that he has no true super powers, but still proves invaluable to those with powers and rightfully proves he belongs on the team. That said, though, this book was seriously flawed. First off, the selection of issues in this book. This just went all over the place, with seemingly random selections ranging from 1964-1988 and marketed as Volume 1. This included several key points in Hawkeye’s early history, but there was a major lack of consistency. Yes, for a Volume 1, you need choices such as a first appearance, but the gaps in the choices was just too extensive. I’ve talked about this exact sort of thing in my review of “Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising.” Hawkeye has been an on-and-off member of the Avengers since 1965, so he has a lot of history, but most of the issues highlighted were not in any true continuation. There were actually only two storylines in this book that were sequential, meaning more than one consecutive issue in a row. No, the stories contained in this book were appealing and enjoyable to me, I actually liked most of the content, so I didn’t dislike it per se, but if this wasn’t so jumbled, it might have been more enjoyable. It should be noted, however, that up to this point, Hawkeye had actually never had a solo series, which explains the mess, just like the aforementioned “Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising.” In fact, the only series that was a Hawkeye solo series was a four issue limited series from 1983, with no other issues of that year contained in this volume, including a significant gap between the times of these storylines. The biggest difference between the two volumes I reviewed were the selective options. Moon Knight had considerably less appearances in the years contained in that volume than Hawkeye did in this volume, so Moon Knight’s selections that seemed random was more cohesive than Hawkeye’s Epic Collection. Also, Hawkeye has been on several teams with continuous storylines, several of them having Epic Collections. I think this would have worked better if it focused on just solo Hawkeye series rather than highlight stories. I will say that I reviewed another Epic Collection that had no solo series, “Carnage: Born in Blood.” The big difference there is that the two major stories in that volume were continuous and not just random highlights. Also, the two Mockingbird stories seemed superfluous. They had absolutely nothing to do with Hawkeye and as I read them, I internally questioned their validity in a Hawkeye Epic Collection. Again, I liked most of the stories contained in this volume, it was just a hot mess. Now, lest we forget, this was a “graphic novel,” which means that I also have to weigh in on the artwork. Now, comic book art has varied in style over the years, and having a book that spanned 24 years totally showcased that. So I honestly cannot critique the artwork in this book due to different art styles from the time. There are a few things that seem inappropriate to mention, so I’ll avoid those. What I will critique was Hawkeye’s costume. First off, in the first issue in this book, it looked like Hawkeye was wearing a tutu. Highly embarrassing. Even later, it looked like he was wearing a loincloth over his costume, which I know is classic, but I always thought it was dumb, so I totally have to blame the artists at the time that created, what I considered to be, an atrocity. And why purple and blue? I’m not much for fashion, but I still feel that the colorist made the costume colors clash, it just wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. And yes, I know this is his iconic look, so I’m not blaming contemporary artists, they just have to keep true to the history, but I still disliked what the original artists created for Hawkeye. And Black Widow then looked nothing like the contemporary Black Widow looks like, a look I did not enjoy. And my regular Epic Collection review readers will know that I say if I felt that the art was good or if it was just good for the time. It’s very rare for me to say this, but I felt that the art was good for the time due to the creation of what I felt was a horrendous crime of a costume. Maybe back then a purple and blue costume was cool, but today? Not so much. And there was a black-and-white issue that just didn’t appeal to me. If you think I dislike black-and-white, not that I have reviewed manga and love old black-and-white movies, so that is not the case. So, all around, this book disappointed me. Just how disappointed, we’ll get to that in a couple of paragraphs.

            First off, let’s talk accessibility. This means what I think you need to know to understand and enjoy this book. Can I saw, woof? This is just not a book for new readers just getting into Marvel comics. Most of these issues are not Hawkeye solo issues, he just guest starred, so the history of these characters will not be known to new readers. And again, the gaps between the release dates are too major. So if you read this book, it should be known that this is not just Hawkeye. Many of these characters have not appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or else the characters have different backgrounds than the movies. Hawkeye was not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and in fact, started as a villain. I just don’t think MCU fans who have never read comics before would find this book enjoyable. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics regularly for twenty-one years now, so my opinions are very different. I am knowledgeable in Marvel history at this point, but this book is probably not appealing to non or casual fans. I’m not saying not to read the book, I’m just saying knowledge of the Marvel Universe is required before reading this book, because I just don’t feel this is a jump-on point. I guess since we’re on the subject, it does not get my full recommendation, not even to Hawkeye fans like me. But this is all my opinion, I’m not forcing you to feel the same way with anything I post on this blog, in fact, I invite you to feel differently and let me know. The choice to read this is up to you. I just not personally endorse this book.

            Now, as I said, I’ll tell you just how I felt about this book by giving it a numeric score. I score on a scale of one-to-ten, one meaning I feel that this is garbage, ten meaning that this ranks up with one of the best books I’ve ever read. Obviously you can tell this is not getting a ten. When it comes down to it, taking in every single one of the 2,350 words I’ve already typed into consideration, soup to nuts, I have to rank it right in the middle and give this book a five. It just was not what I was expecting and my expectations were just not met.

            Okay, I think I’ve bored you long enough and I have actually been working on this review for almost five hours now and I want to stop with this, too. So, before we go, I have to tell you about this blog. Yes, I’ve written literally dozens of reviews, most of them Marvel, but I throw in a few different books here and there.  I also write short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, editorials, and essay and several other projects. I have another review idea sitting on my desk and will post this probably in two or three days, so keep a lookout for that. I usually post with frequency and have plenty of other ideas. I have a complaint series called B’ings, I’m not telling you what it’s about so you might actually consider reading it. I’m a certified, unemployed journalist and want to get my words out there, this is why I do this blog. So feel free to read what’s already here, expect lots more soon, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!