The Avenger Hawkeye is a Living Weapon

Back in 2012 writer Matt Fraction (Batman, Invincible Iron Man) and artist David Aja (The Immortal Iron Fist, The Seeds) delivered a stylish, cinematic, and profoundly human take on Marvel’s most unlikely—and most human—Avenger, Clint Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye. An ordinary man among the most powerful heroes on Earth. That run of comics is now reprinted in a most amazing volume, Hawkeye My Life is a Weapon). His teammates have included gods, aliens, magicians, mutants, androids, Inhumans, and numerous other Supra-powered individuals, and yet, here he is, some random dude with a wooden bow and a quiver full of trick arrows. Still, not only does he stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them but he stands his ground, steps to the action, and delivers blow-for-blow with equal tenacity as do his teammates. He is, after all, Hawkeye. He is an Avenger.

The Hawkeye series by Fraction and Aja (collecting issues 1-11, along with Young Avengers Presents #6 (2008) where the young Kate Bishop (the new Hawkeye while Clint was Avenging as the ninja Ronin) first met, was later reprinted in a square-bound formant as part of Marvel’s Premier Collection. The entire comic book run was a critically acclaimed modern classic that won numerous awards and ultimately served as the inspiration for the hit Disney+ series. And yes, there’s even a story about Pizza Dog, who gets his own Eisner-winning story. Bonus contents to the collection includes variant covers, Aja’s sketchbook, cover concepts, page process, color guides, as well as David Aja’s drawing playlists.

But back to Clint Barton, the focus of this most amazing book. Clint is a rather ordinary guy operating in a world of gods and super-soldiers, who just wants to do right—and maybe hang out at a decent rooftop BBQ. This series follows him along with Kate Bishop, his equally sharp-eyed protégé, as they take aim at Russian mobsters in tracksuits (who call everyone “Bro”), and attempt to navigate the everyday chaos of life in the Big Apple. With Fraction’s razor-sharp voice and Aja’s minimalist brilliant art style, these stories turned the small details of the big city—neighbors, stray dogs, broken tape decks—into an unforgettable legend in the annals of modern-day comics.

For our part we’ll be talking about the collected edition, as that’s where he discovered the series. The book focuses on Clint’s life not so much as an Avenger, but as a guy who happens to be an Avenger on his off days, while not saving the world from epic-level bad guys. As the book opens up, Hawkeye is falling from a building as Hawkeye lands on a car and winds up in the hospital (the first of many trips there). Over the course of the book, the timeline jumps back and forth giving us flashbacks and flash forwards which adds to the very quirky nature of the book. It is very early in the series that Pizza Dog makes his initial appearance (first showing up ironically named “Arrow”).

The ongoing villains here are the Russian Track Suit Mafia, who though they operate not so much as a major threat, but mostly in the background seem the be there mostly as comic relief, even though they do manage to do some serious damage to Hawkeye throughout the run. As it turns out, Clint has chosen not to live in the Avenger’s mansion but has taken to living in a run-down brownstone in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, NY. Clint winds up purchasing the building from the Track Suit Mafia (mostly against their wishes) with a satchel full of cash (apparently Clint is somehow sitting on a pile of money that he mentions a couple of times but never explains how he acquired).

Over the course of the 11 issues contained in the graphic novel, Hawkeye spends quite a bit of time with the inhabitants of the building that he now owns, including Gil (whom he refers to as Grill) who has been running the numerous grilling events on the building’s roof. Many other characters show up, including a number of legacy characters, including (but not limited to) Swordsman (the carny showman/thief who trained Clint), Kingpin, Madame Masque, Ringmaster, Crimson Cowl, a few members of AIM, as well as a few heroes who make cameos, Captain America, Maria Hill, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Tony Stark, Black Widow, Mockingbird (Barbara “Bobbi” Morse), and Spider Woman (Jessica Drew).

Throughout the series, Clint and Kate keep getting drawn into the affairs of the Track Suit Mafia, mostly because Clint takes over their building, and partially because Clint becomes romantically involved with the wife of one of the gang’s members, leading to the appearances of Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Spider Woman, all three of which Clint has been romantically attached to over the years (he was actually Married to Bobbi). There is also a subplot where Clint winds up in Madripoor doing a black ops gig for a reformed S.H.I.E.L.D.).

While all of that is very cool, it is really Fraction and Aja’s storytelling style for this tale. They use sparse dialogue, small panels, and a minimalist approach to the entire process. As previously stated, there are several time jumps as the story moves back and forth across the city (in and out of various fights, the hospital, in and around New York (along with a side trip to Madripoor) as Clint and Kate go about their business of just being a pair of Hawkeyes wandering around the Big Apple. And the story is thrilling, compelling, intriguing, and amazingly well told.

Still, perhaps the coolest part of this package is not only the (not quite) stand-alone Pizza Dog story (told virtually without words and exclusively from Pizza Dog’s point of view), but the addition of the  Young Avengers Presents #6 story where Kate and Ronin (Clint) first met, also written by Faction (penciled by Alan Davis and inked by Mark Farmer). In this story, Kate and Eli Bradley (Patriot) are out on not a date when they are Jumped by Ronin, who knocks out Patriot and then spars with Kate before telling her to meet him the following night. When Kate shows up, she learns that Ronin is actually Clint, who is now leading The Secret Avengers (Luke Cage and Spider-Man make a cameo) and Clint challenges her to an arrow shooting contest, with the prize being Clint’s bow which she is currently using (courtesy of Captain America).

Make no mistake about it, this is an amazing volume that will surprise and delight any reader, especially if you like me are already a fan of Clint and/or Kate. The book is published ‏by Marvel Comics (November 25, 2025), is 280 pages, is just slightly smaller than standard comics at at 5.98 x 0.63 x 8.98 inches, and retails for $14.99. Oh, and yes, the Disney+ Hawkeye series was largely adapted from this series. 

OK Kids, here it is, the  final trailer for the upcoming (May 1 — Free Comic Book Day) Avengers film

Lego Avengers

Teenage Mutant ninja Avengers

Dr. Pepper & The Avengers

Yesterday I acquired one of the Avenger Dr. Pepper tie-in soda cans.

Hulk Smash

Avengers roll call

Tony Stark does the Avengers Roll Call for Loki.



Yeah, this is the Comicbook movie of the summer.

A second Avengers Trailer

Just watch, effendi, and enjoy!



Yep, that was a total geekgasim!

Possible Avenger's movie spoiler

OK kids, I don't know if this is at all just an actress who doesn't know the difference between Captain America and Batman, or a real inside scoop (Skip the entire post if you don't want to know) but it was recently reported at Radio Times, that this year's Avenger flick is going to have a very interesting (and surprising) cameo appearance

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

According to Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London) who has recently joined the cast of the Avengers film, there will be a special cameo of another, non-Avenger Marvel Superhero in the film. That hero will be none other than Spider-Man.

Yep according to her interview she said...

“I’m sworn to secrecy! I wasn’t allowed a script until I got there, and when I did, I felt like a complete child being on big sets and a huge parking lot full of Winnebagos.”

She did, however go on to say that two of these Winnebagos apparently housed Iron Man and Spider-Man. Presumably she can tell the deference between the heroes, and it really was Spideyas, and not, say Hawkeye's.

END SPOILER ALERT! END SPOILER ALERT! END SPOILER ALERT! END SPOILER ALERT! END SPOILER ALERT!

Is that cool, or what?

What if?

Marvel has, over the years, produced a couple or three series revolving around the concept of “What if...?” That is to say, they take a specific story line, and then pick a critical point in said story, and extrapolate a new ending based upon changing a single element (i.e.; Captain America survived WWII, the irradiated spider bit someone other than Peter Parker, the Fantastic Four had different powers, etc.). These stories range from excellent to, well highly implausibly and sometimes (believe it or not) simply incredibly poorly conceived and badly written.

Initially these stories generally dealt with seminal events in Marvel's rich history, as the series progressed, it would be safe to say that the stories became less-and-less "critical" events and more-and-more circled around recent marketing events (“What if...last year's company-wide crossover ended differently?”) making the series less-and-less readable, eventually leading to its cancellation.

Over the past couple of years, Marvel has revived the title, but as a series of disconnected one-shots, again revolving around recent storylines. Hence the topic of this Blog. I picked up a couple of the most recent “What If...” comics, only to learn that I probably would have been better off if I hadn’t. Dark Reign and Grim Hunt were the ones I acquired, and while Dark Reign wasn’t so bad, the Grim Hunt issue was terrible. In the first instance the story dealt with the repercussions of Clint Barton (Hawkeye/Ronin/Giant Man) actually having carried out his threat to kill Norman Osborn during the height of Dark Reign, and the second dealt with Spidey snapping during Grim Hunt and killing Kraven.

As stated the premise of the series is to explore alternative story line possibilities based on the altering of a single element they work best when they show the ripple effect of that change (think The Butterfly Effect), however very often to make a story work, more than one unrelated event has been changed (in the Grim Hunt variation for some reason Luke Cage has offices on the Raft). Still that's not the only problem with the story. Yes Spidey was run through a gauntlet by the Kravenoffs during Grim Hunt, but I’m still not sold that he would have either actually killed Kraven or done all of the other things he did in this version.

Change an event, sure. So twist and corrupt a character so that they act totally our of character to make the new story line work? I think not. No, This Spidey story simply doesn’t work for me. Sorry guys, better luck next time out.

And now, for something completely different...

If you were to have been following this blog for the past week or so, you might think that I only read Independent comics (written by my friends). Truthfully, I tend to read more Marvel Comics (sorry kids, it is a long-standing addiction that I’m simply unable (and unwilling) to completely kick). I’ve been reading them since ‘62, and regularly purchasing them since ’71. Unfortunately, these days, I’m admittedly not having as much fun reading them as I did even a few years back. Still, there are (every once in a while) comics that do rise above the fray, and are worthy of mentioning. Off the top, I want to mention Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man which I regularly review for SpiderFan.

Another comic that always gets me smiling, is anything by Chris Giarrusso. in addition to his own work (G-Man) Chris produces the Mini Marvels. These are usually one-page humorous takes on the heroes from the Marvel Universe. As a rule, they tend to follow a theme for a period of time, and then are collected in a digest-sized comic. With the recent release of Mini Marvels Secret Invasion, Chris tells an alternate version of the Secret Invasion. All things considered, I prefer Chris’s version. In addition to the Secret Wars are broad swipes at Civil War, Spidey, and the whole Green Hulk/Red Hulk (Blue Hulk) storyline.

Chris also likes to pick on Hawkeye, and does so with gleeful abandon. As stated, another favorite target is Spidey himself, whom Chris loves to posit a young Spidey who is a paperboy for The Bugle, and regularly goes up against the Osborns (who are customers) and Venom (a competing paperboy). Again, all of this is done in good fun, and it never fails to bring a smile to my face. I strongly suggest that — even if you have read all of the Mini Marvel stories in the various Marvel Comics in which they have appeared, you spring for this collection. You’ll be very happy that you did.

Here is a fun Spidey comic that my buddy James Rodriguez brought back with him from his trip to South America. It is a copy of Spidey in , well, Spanish. I have a few of these foreign language comics in my collection, and I always love getting them.

I want to also talk about The Amazing Spider-Girl. This comic ran a single issue of What If, 100 issues of Spider-Girl, 30 regular issues of Amazing Spider-Girl, plus a 0 issue and an annual, not to mention assorted issues of various other “M2” titles. I went on record several times (once in person to writer Tom DeFalco) how much I enjoyed this title. It always reminded me of being 15 again and the thril I got every month reading Spidey at that time. I’m sorry to see the series go, but I understand that it will continue in Amazing Spider-Man Family and on-line ion Marvel’s ecomics. Now while I’m not so happy about the ecomic version, I am pleased that it will still continue in print in ASMF.

Anyway, Issue # 30 of ASG was easily one of the most moving issues of this series. I could tell that DeFalco really loves this title and these characters, and really pulled out all of the stops to deliver one of the most emotionally moving stories that I have ever read. Too bad all the Spider-titles couldn't be written this consistently well.

This story proved to be quite a nice coda to the run of this title, as well as a delightful wrap-up to the final arc of this series. I truly enjoyed what Tom did in this story, and I truly have to say that I completely didn’t see the big reveal coming, even though I was looking for it.

Personally, I’m looking forward to reading the new series.

They tell me that Captain America is dead...

Still, according to this guy, Cap won’t stay that way for long, and here’s why.

1) In most cases, a comic book character only dies when it makes financial sense for him or her to do so.

2) In most cases, a comic book character only stays dead for as long as it makes financial sense for him or her to do so.

3) In most cases, a comic book character will come back to life when it makes financial sense for him or her to do so.

4)There’s not a tremendous amount of evidence to suggest the “death” of Captain America is any sort of exception to the above three rules. It is “most cases.”

He goes on for eight more reasons, but I truly think that he covers the most important, and certainly the most salient reasons above.

Growing up as a comicbook fan, I learned that you never believe in the death of a character until you see the body. These days, however, with the return of The original Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Bucky Barnes, Hawkeye, Superman, and Marvel Comics’ Captain Marv-Vel, all bets are off (Hell, I’ve even seen the still-dead Gwen Stacy wandering around the pages of X-Static presents Dead Girl), so I’m not buyin’ any company line, not yet.



You just watch, a year, maybe two, but certainly not as long as either Bucky or even Mar-Vel. Steve Rogers will be back, and no one is going to convince me otherwise.