All-New Hawkeye #2

Hawkeye wasn’t supposed to touch the thing, but in typical Hawkeye fashion, Hawkeye in fact touched the thing. Because of this a whole lot of weird things are going to start happening. 

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Ramón Pérez
Colours: Ian Herring with Ramón Pérez
Letters: Joe Sabino
Cover: Ramón Pérez
Publisher: Marvel

All-New Hawkeye continues to be a strong artistic masterpiece that tells a compelling story of who Clint Barton is while setting up what Clint Barton and Kate Bishop are about to do. 

As it turns out Hydra’s secret super-weapon, Project Communion is in fact, three creepy looking kids whom Kate has now let free of their Hydra confinement. In this moment we see Lemire’s understanding of these characters, Kate deserves the mantle of Hawkeye completely and she’s more like Clint than she’d like to admit, doing what Clint would have done in the exact same position, and responding defiantly when told not to do something. Kate holds her own as her own character but she very much follows in line with her Hawkeye handle and if readers haven’t fallen in love with her yet, they’re getting exactly what they want in snark from a Hawkeye story. In fact the balance between both Hawkeyes is handled stunningly well, both quipping with each other, and both sharing the ability to be the mature one, the funny one, or the rational one in any given situation. Lemire handles their dynamic smoothly and it’s an absolute pleasure to read, and there are certain scenes in this issue that highlight that. 

Not only is the relationship between Hawkeyes handled smoothly, the entire story flows in fact, between Clint’s backstory of his start with the circus and his current predicament against Hydra goonies (and these mysterious weapon children!), the storytelling isn’t choppy at all. As a certain event happens from the past, a similar action will happen in present, often with similar dialogue as well, and while there’s no explicit correlation to the two events, it’s a great way of storytelling, establishing Clint as a character for new readers starting into a new series, and still telling a new exciting story for everyone. 

If the story wasn’t clear enough as to what stories belonged to one another Pérez’s stunning artwork takes away any of the hard thinking work for readers— which harbours no complaints because the varying art styles are amazing, along with the colours. The bright, bold colours keep the series fun and upbeat along with it’s practical style— what’s cool to see though is how the colours become muted when Clint loses his hearing ability, reflecting Clint’s own perception of what’s happening, which also plays into the beautiful wash of colours of Clint’s past, like a hazy memory or dream with only certain colours being vivid with emotion. 

Hawkeye’s latest series continues to be a strong series with it’s creative team hitting every point out of the park, as the story itself only becomes more strange. Who are the mysterious children, and just how dangerous can they be? Kate has certainly developed an affinity for them, but whether it was wise of her to bring them to SHIELD has yet to be seen.