Marvel Review: HAWKEYE and video EVIDENCE

[lydamorehouse]

Some time ago, a friend and I had been IMing and she'd asked me about where to start with comic books as an Avenger movie fan.  I'd told her about several of the collected volumes I enjoyed, and particularly mentioned that, as a Marvel movie fan she might want to check out the four volumes of Ed Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA: Winter Solider and Strazynski's re-boot of THOR, since clearly elements of those had appeared in the movies.  Being polite and not raised by wolves, I asked, "So, what are you reading?"

She recommended the new HAWKEYE (by Matt Fraction).  So, I checked it out. I read both of the volumes that the library had: HAWKEYE: My Life as a Weapon and HAWKEYE: Little Shots.

I've decided that maybe I'm too old for this title.  The main artist is someone called David Aja and his art is very... what's the word I want?  Kind of "indy"?  I'm not sure.  Here's what it looks like:

I can't say I dislike the art, but it has a flat, slick feeling.  The stories follow Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) in his life in New York City.  This is one of the things I tend to really adore about Marvel, in general, which is that a lot of the story is about what a screwed up life Clint has made for himself and how much it honestly sucks to be nothing more than a sharp-shooting archer in a team full of super-soldiers and gods.  Clint gets banged-up.  A lot.  Actually, you kind of start to wonder if Hawkeye's real superpower is the ability to get fairly seriously wounded and still live, despite not having a mutant healing factor. They also do some fun things with his stupid-a$$ arrow collection (because, seriously?  How dumb is that?).  At one point during the story he decides what he really needs to is organize everything and you know, maybe mark them with tape or something, so he doesn't accidentally reach for the smoke-bomb when he needs the exploding tip.  The trip to the hardware store to get tape becomes it's own adventure, of course, in the way of such things, and he ends up randomly using whatever comes to hand, as it were.  That's just funny.

But Clint really isn't that interesting on his own.  Frankly, he never has been.  When my cousin Laun and I used to play pretend Avengers, I would often be Hawkeye because... well, back in the 70s, it was clear Hawkeye was the hip friend to Captain America.  And he was handsome, clever, and charming.  (I always liked playing the hot guys.  Charisma 18+ FTW).   But, kind of an empty slate, really.  At least from my reading, which admittedly wasn't terribly deep.  Laun was always the bigger Avengers fan.

I'm not sure the reboot does Clint any favors.  He's constantly upstaged by more interesting cameos, including one by his adoptive dog, Arrow (shown above.) HAWKEYE: Little Shot has a series of misadventures with the women in Clint's life, complete with Romance Comics style covers, in between each section.

But, a lot of people called each other 'bro,' and a lot of the action was kind of disjointed in a way that made me feel... tired, and too old for this title.  Also?  Who prints this stuff so small?  I needed my reading glasses!

Yet, I'm glad I read it.  There was a tiny little throw-away scene that kind of fascinated me.  It showed PowerMan (aka Luke Cage) and Spider-Man (Peter Parker, 'natch) sitting around Avengers/Stark Tower playing video games.  Peter was in his Spidey suit, like he often is, hanging upside down with his legs crossed, like he does, and apparently getting his ass kicked by Cage.  It occurred to me that I bet Spider-Man sucks at video games.  I bet he sucks because a big part of his ability is his Spidey Sense.  I bet he spends a lot of time getting blind-sided by stuff that seems, from his perspective, to come out of nowhere.

Also, can we talk, Peter?  You were the only guy in "uniform" at the mansion/tower.  What's that about?  (Truth? I suspect it's because Parker is actually intentionally nondescript.)

Well, so I guess my recommendation:  Go ahead, give a try, with a caveat--it's very... arty, maybe 'modern' even.  I don't even know if that's a bug or a feature.  Milage will vary.

And, in other news, there *is* video from Wednesday night:

Watch on YouTube

It's a lot of reading, but if you want to hear my squee about Anime and random things, skip to the last five minutes or so.

Comments

[seawasp]

If I was recommending stuff I'd recommend Simonson's run on Thor. The spirit of the movies has partaken a lot from the 1980s, which is probably why they haven't yet sunk like stones. If they head into the Iron Age I'm outta those theaters SO fast.

[lydamorehouse]

Okay, I should probably go Google this before I ask, but is Simonson's run the one that included Beta Ray Bill? Because: Beta Ray Bill.

But, I don't know if there's anything that would make me run from the theaters. I feel too old for some of this, but it's all so much like... home, and, so far, the movies always give me something that makes me remember all the awesome of my youth. I mean there was even a nod to Dr. Donald Blake in the Thor movies....

Though maybe it helps that I'm not a SUPER fan of the teams they've picked. We'll see how I feel after the FF reboot.

[seawasp]

Yes, Simonson created Beta Ray Bill. My review of The Mighty Thor, with particular mention of Simonson, is here.

The sad thing about the FF movies is that they got the TEAM right. I LOVED their chosen actors and they got the characters down. They somehow managed, inexplicably to screw up DOCTOR DOOM, which was the real failure of both movies.

OTOH, if they hadn't failed we probably wouldn't have gotten Chris Evans to be Captain America, which would've been a crying shame.

[lydamorehouse]

I read your review and so the first thing I have to say is: OMG I played Villains & Vigilantes, too! My take on the Thor movie is a little different mostly because, while I skimmed through a lot of the Thor title in my youth, I never INVESTED like you did. I totally agree, however, that Simonson clearly made concepts that should have been ridiculous and made them MADE OF AWESOME. Because: Beta Ray Bill. Really, 'nuff said, as it were.

But, I kind of got more interested in Thor when, as I say above, Straczynski rebooted that title... though admittedly, I only got eight or so issues into that. So I'd never been in love with Thor previous to the movie. (What can I say? Maybe it was my dyslexia and the fact that Thor always had that stupid font when he talked.)

I also have to agree with you about Chris Evans. I ADORED his Cap, but I actually liked him quite a bit as Johnny Storm, too, and I liked the little Human Torch nod in the Captain America movie because, even though he was looking at the Torch of the Invaders, it was still a Human Torch....

It is amazing the extent to which there was Doom Fail in the movies. Victor von Doom is actually one of my favorite villains of all time. I read an entire FF paperback novel partly because it retold some of his origins. I really am kind of surprised (and maybe you know if this HAS happened) that he and Magneto don't ever sit around and talk about WWII, given that the NAZIs went after the Romany as well as the Jews. It's kind of fascinating to consider that their mistreatment there twisted their souls in a similar way, though, weirdly, Magneto is far more--I dunno, righteous? Or sympathetic, maybe?--given that he's very clearly trying to make sure the bigots can never win again, should they come for Mutants. Probably Doom doesn't talk to Magneto, because Magneto isn't smart enough. Doom is clearly kind of a Moriarty analog to Reed's Holmes.

Oops, tangent! Sorry about that. I could talk comic books all day!

[seawasp]

The Doom Fail is utterly inexplicable to me. Doom's EASY. Put me in his suit (with a corset, I admit, to hide my failure in physical form) and I could do him ranting without a frickin' SCRIPT. He's Darth Vader crossed with a mad scientist. This is one of the easiest and most iconic villains ever made. How could you screw it up so badly?

Doom's entire schtick is being the Big Boss, and he's 100% human. Magneto wouldn't have much to talk about with him, and the two would quickly come to blows, with Magneto mocking Doom's metal armor, and Doom revealing an anti-magnetic shield, and Magneto overpowering it, and Doom draining Magneto's power to boost his own, and so on and so forth.

[lydamorehouse]

I completely agree with you here. 100%

That would be fun to see, too. I wish someone would write it.

[seawasp]

I'll note that Spidey is more protective of his secret ID than virtually all characters, to the point that if he's interacting with other heroes, even ones who KNOW that ID, he will still tend to stay "in character" as Spider-Man.

[lydamorehouse]

That's an excellent point about Peter. Did you read Civil War and all of that? It turns out Peter had really, REALLY good reasons to keep his secret identity secret, too. Much, much more than other heroes, partly because he very much LIVES in Queens and has a life and vulnerable people in his life that he can't always protect, because, you know, they also live in the neighborhood.

So, that's a really good point. It works in canon for him to be like that, but I also think that, from an artist's perspective, Peter is a average white guy who has brown hair and eyes and isn't really terribly recognizable given all the various artists who have portrayed him throughout his long career, you know? And the Spidey-suit is instantly recognizable no matter which one you put him in.

[seawasp]

I bailed from Marvel in the late 80s, when INFERNO finally broke this camel's back. What little I knew about Civil War kept me far, far, FAR away from it, partly exemplified by the fact that Tony Stark/Iron Man was on one side of the debate, and Captain America was on the other.

Tony: You've been an Avenger for HOW long? You've worked with Cap for HOW many missions? He's even TRAINED you. And here you are, arguing morality with Captain America.

Let me repeat that for you. You are ARGUING. MORALITY. With CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Who argues morality with Captain America, Tony? That would be... the Red Skull? Arnim Zola? The Hatemonger?

NAZIS, Tony. NAZIS argue morality with Captain America.

You are WRONG. By DEFINITION you are wrong. If there is any single moral absolute in the Marvel Universe, it is that Captain America knows what's right and wrong. If you're arguing with him, YOU ARE WRONG. And by Thor, you should KNOW THIS.

This entire Civil War thing should never have happened.

[lydamorehouse]

Uh, to respectfully disagree, the argument in Civil War was never that simple, shown by the fact that even Peter Parker (standing in here for Every Reader) couldn't decide which side to be on. The events of Civil War are triggered by a superhero screw-up. A team of super-powered teenagers try to save a school from a shooter, only things go horribly wrong and there's a meltdown, like, literally. Tony Stark is on the side of the government, which is saying, "Look, this is crazy. We need better regulations on heroes."

Which maybe, once they start demanding that people give up their secret identities and "register" might seem OBVIOUSLY wrong, but, if you'd been following since... Avengers Dis-Assembled you might get why one of the lead Avengers might be on board, given that the Scarlet Witch nearly unraveled ALL OF REALITY because she was having a kind of psychotic break... and maybe having some kind of fail safe might have been helpful.

One of the issues Marvel has always been far more willing to explore than DC is the mundane cost, what happens to human BEINGS who have no other recourse than to cower while Thunder Gods and Rage Monsters and their enemies destroy THEIR HOMES. Collateral damage is a REAL ISSUE. When the Hulk smashes, stuff gets wrecked and, even with Cap trying to make sure things are contained, people can get injured accidentally. (And Iron Man and the government's point? Cap isn't always on hand, and not everyone thinks about that... especially mutants whose powers can just appear overnight and suddenly they're heroes? How about a little training first, eh???) This was Tony Stark's position. It's not automatically wrong, just because Captain America is so focused on not allowing some new Hitler to rise that he still thinks Americans should be willing to put everything into some kind of 'war effort'/Victory Garden every time some new baddie shows up.

Moral compass, my ass. He *was* ultimately right, but not for his original stance. Things got messy when the government tried to make superheroes comply and some of them objected... and ended up in the Negative Zone prison REED RICHARDS BUILT FOR THEM. (Smartest guy in the world thought this was a good idea, and it nearly tore the FF apart.) That was the moment, BTW, when Peter squicked. He was like, "Huh, Reed, is this cool?"

So, yeah, maybe some of it was kind of 'ripped from the headlines" kind of simplistic, but I loved it. I loved the connections they subtly (and no to subtly) made to 9/11 and Guantanemo and all the current events of the time.

I will always adore Bendis for letting Captain America and Iron Man be both simultaneously wrong and right about this issue. Because, for me, that give Civil War some real teeth, something *I* could sink my teeth into too.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

[offcntr.livejournal.com]

I think it's because he's embarrassed to be seen in his raggedy-arsed poor kid's clothes in a penthouse superhero suite. His uniform's probably the only thing he's got without patches.

[lydamorehouse]

Ai! Frank! You just gave me Spider-Man FEELS!

You're probably right. That's one of the other things I love about Marvel.... some people are rich and some people are poor, and that includes the heroes.

[seawasp]

Hey! Last I knew being an Avenger carried a pretty sweet paycheck with it. Peter should be able to get a few new sets of clothes, at least.