Hawkeye #18 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (story), Annie Wu (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: Kate ruins her newfound sense of stability by adopting a cat.

The Review: With us heading into a year and a half’s worth of issues, and still no end in sight for what can loosely be called Hawkeye‘s first “arc,” I’d prefer Fraction focus on events with Clint and save the Kate stuff for later. Anyway, Kate’s adventures as a public detective in L.A. have been rather hit-or-miss in terms of quality. If anything, there’s an even bigger lack of direction on her side of this series as Clint’s.

That all changes substantially as this issue marks the return of Madame Masque, who sends two graphic reminders to Kate that her grudge isn’t over. One of those reminders involves Kate’s mysterious trenchcoated mentor, a.k.a. “Cat Food Man,” a.k.a. Harold H. Harold (“[W]hat does the ‘H’ stand for…?”—”Harold“). Even though it’s sort of ridiculous that Fraction waited until the last minute to give the guy a name and backstory, only to—spoiler alert—kill him off pages later, at least Harold unloads a real, overarching mission for Kate.

As with his previous appearances, Harold does most of the heavy lifting in the investigation department, saving Kate from embarrassing herself with further fruitless web searches. It’s his past as both a journalist on the “weird murder beat” and a Hollywood writer that uncovers connections between a Dorian Gray sort of deal from his publisher (“Impossibly young, impossibly firm and toned and beautiful forever[.]”) and Count Luchino Neff, “short for Nefaria,” and his daughter Gia, a.k.a. Madame Masque. As I understand it, Masque has a bit of history in the making of bio-duplicates and gene-manipulation; this is apparently the secret Harold finds in her home: “like they were trying to make copies.”

Hawkeye #16 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (story), Annie Wu (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: Will Kate get to the bottom of her latest case?  God only knows…

The Review: Because I am nothing if not obsessive-compulsive when it comes to pretty much anything, I had something of a panic attack when I picked up this issue and saw #16 on the cover.  Fortunately, one frantic Bing search* later revealed that it was Marvel that had switched things around for reasons I didn’t bother to investigate.**  Anyway, the last Kate-centric issue of Hawkeye was so good, it’s not as if you’d mind seeing her again this soon.

This time around, Kate tackles the delightfully messy celebrity culture of her new hometown.  For Kate, the complicated melodramas of Will Bryson (a trademark-skirting stand-in for Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys) and his brother Grey are an anathema for her usual stridence.  Indeed, she sinks herself into the Brysons’ lives believing there’s “a case” behind the conflict, only to discover it was simply the byproduct of “being nuts and stoned all the time and richer than God[.]”  Such is the way of a P.I., to discover the human frailty behind the crime.

Young Avengers #14 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (story), Jamie McKelvie, Emma Viceli, Christian Ward, Annie Wu (art), Matthew Wilson, Lee Loughridge, Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: You can bet this evening will end with a rousing chorus of “We Are Young”.

The Review: So we’ve come to the conclusion of Young Avengers’ relatively short-lived run, and what a conflicted run it has been.  While it was certainly the It Girl series when it premiered, much of its hip luster has rubbed off since, revealing more of a mixed bag underneath.  As you can see from the activity on the Comic Book Resources forums, there’s a great deal of debate on whether Young Avengers has lived up to its ambitious promise.

I can cop out and simply cite some hard numbers, like the fact that last month’s issue sold only 23,790 copies to get a Comichron rank of 92.*  Diehard fans may protest that numbers don’t mean everything, and they’re right, but these dispiriting figures do indicate a disconnect between the story Gillen’s been telling and the wider readership.  Something along the way must have turned people off, to the tune of an almost 50,000 sales drop from the first issue.

Hawkeye #14 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (story), Annie Wu (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: She got more bounce in California than all yours combined.

The Review: Apologies for the long delay between reviews, but I’m sure you understand when I say I really needed to take advantage of the holiday break.  With Thanksgiving behind us, I hope everyone is counting their blessings right around now.  I, for one, am very thankful to have a title like Hawkeye on my monthly pull list.  After so many titles fraught with implausible plots and high drama, it’s refreshing to get a comedic dose of street-based entertainment.

That’s especially the case with this issue, which once again gives Kate Bishop a star turn.  I’d say Kate has really been the breakout character of this series, charming readers with her irresistible blend of confidence, sensitivity, and strong moral compass.  In fact, she reminds me a lot of Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, which is a big plus in my book.  What draws you to both characters is how little division there is between their civilian and costumed selves; whether suited up or not, their personalities remain essentially the same.

Batman Beyond Unlimited #18 – Review

By: Scott Peterson (writer), Annie Wu (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist) 

Back-up by: Adam Beechen, IV (writer), Adam Archer (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist)

The Stories: It’s a two-for-one deal on Batgirls and Terry teams up with the Metal Men.

The Review: Though it’s the last issue of the series, you’d never know it. This month’s installment of Batman Beyond Unlimited is all about what’s to come.

The big news for most people is the introduction of the new Batgirl, a concept that’s been played around with numerous times, as far back as the second season of the show, but never came to fruition. Indeed, the main story is all Batgirl, all the time, with none of that pesky Batman to get in the way.

Some people might complain that their not getting their monthly dose of McGinnis, but he’s in the backup, so worry not and enjoy. Scott Peterson makes the wise choice to ground our tale around a familiar character, Commissioner Barbara Gordon. If you’ve ever loved Barbara, especially her slightly embittered Beyond incarnation, you’ll be in heaven for this issue. This story is thirty pages of pure Gordon badassery. Admittedly, Barbara needs a little help with the heavy lifting, but the woman’s pushing seventy and the issue opens with her jumping off a roof and taking out two roided up gang bangers, so I give her a break. Best of all, the issue hints that she was holding back! I love it!

The new Batgirl is a pretty great character too. The decision to give her a more contemporary looking costume avoids the risk of dating the character and hints at just how tough she is. Terry always had that muscle enhancement batsuit to protect him. This girl follows the long line of bat-ladies to take on the mantle without permission and, presumably, doesn’t have access to schway tech like that. It’s just her, a couple of escrima sticks and your face out there. Throw in a brusque but never obnoxious personality, the skills to back it up, and a beautiful character design and you’ve got the makings of an incredible character.

Hawkeye #8 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (story), David Aja & Annie Wu (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: Clint finds an unlucky Penny.

The Review: On a team populated with mutants, super-soldiers, technological geniuses, and literal gods, a mortal archer (albeit a masterful one with plenty of other skills besides) may be the only character you can truly relate to.  What’s really great about Hawkeye, which Fraction makes more and more apparent with every issue, is that he’s not just an entirely human hero; he’s a hero who’s entirely human as well.

Although every superhero writer would like to claim that they make their characters as true-to-life as possible, only a few succeed in making these costumed crime-fighters resemble actual people.  Fraction does it by writing the most natural dialogue possible.  And by this I don’t mean he renders strings of witty repartee as popularized by sitcoms, Aaron Sorkin, and all CW/WB shows in an attempt to mimic the rhythm of real-life conversation.  What Fraction does is just as noticeable, but done with greater thought to how real people speak.