All-New Hawkeye #1 Review: No More Mr. Nice Hawkguy
Reading time: 4 minutes
What do you do when someone hands you one of the best titles in comics? You do what Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez do in All-New Hawkeye #1, you find a brand new emotional core for your main character and pull the string as far back as it can go, you honor all of the previous source material, and you craft art that’s innovative of the namesake crafted by former creators.
Aim: Hawkeye perfectly nails the Barton’s legacy.
Everything that All-New Hawkeye does is exactly the right way to change and distort the character for new stories. That’s something that not every Marvel All-New Now comic has been successful at. Ant-Man and Squirrel Girl both changed and repurposed the personalities of their own leads, which led to a sort of disconnect of the franchise and continuity. Yes, Marvel is publishing a lot of books right now, but none of these stories exist in one singular Universe. They are all part of the same huge world and their characters and backstories need to be represented as such.
Trick Arrows: It also keeps true to the supporting cast from before.
Hawkeye goes to great lengths in order to be faithful to all these different heroes. The series is not completely changing the worlds of either character that is a lead in this comic, instead, it searches for a new angle within both heroes. The flashback sequences in the story lead towards the genesis of what made Clint and Kate such complicated heroes in the first place, while seeding the relationship of Barney and the others. This series does so many things right where everything could have gone horribly horribly wrong for Marvel’s new premiere archer. Barton and Bishop present their usual self deprecating back-and-forth in a brazen manner that starts the comic on just the right foot.
Shot: Perez is nothing short of stunning.
It’s impossible to talk about this series in any sort of depth without mentioning the paintbrushes of artist Ramon Perez. His style has graced the world of comics for a couple of years now, and has led him to some of the very top flight characters in Marvel. If the House of Ideas does feel the need to publish something called Hawkeye or with the name of Hawkeye, he’s probably the creator that you would want forging the way towards new stories featuring Clint Barton that support the legacy being crafter around the hero. To a certain degree the artist is interpreting previous artist David Aja’s work with a different lens attached to the surroundings. The shift works quite well, as fans would have a harsh reaction to completely dismissing the rest of the previous works at the company.
Point of Impact: Let’s talk about something uncomfortable.
The new Hawkeye tackles something head-on that’s rarely been addressed in the space of comics: child abuse. The funny books are first-and-foremost a medium about great stories, and at the Big Two it’s admirable to see someone pushing a medium in this direction. Bendis’ Alias perfectly captured certain issues of sexuality that have garnished the Bendis storyline as a cult classic, just for the amount of respect given to this subject manner within the space of this first issue, this comic will already be heralded as something that is truly important. Besides, turning up the more dramatic elements of Fraction and Aja’s masterpiece are truly something to commendable.
Sniper Pills: For next time.
The only aspect of this tale that falls short for me is the cliffhanger, in that it is just a little vague in the context of the story. This issue is light on plot and heavy on emotion. Hopefully the flashbacks will bleed into the main story more and this book will start to feel deeper and more personal in time.
Bull’s-eye: Yup, this is pretty good.
It’s always incredible to see a piece of media come right out of the gate as a fully formed statement of what it is, and what it intends to be. With ongoings having shorter runs than they used to and the market being so crowded right now, everything above is virtually a necessity in launching a new series. All this is in addition to the fact that this comic was passed down from a team that left an incredible impression of the character. It’s annoying to have to talk about legacy so much instead of just saying that this is an incredible tale that’s worth your time, but it is a great comic that’s worth your time and the legacy aspects only make this tale stronger. Perez and Lemire are burning new ground into Marvel’s famed Avengers archer, it’s your job to look past the previous run and embrace the new book and creative team with open arms.
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