Okay, This Looks Bad . . .

Hawkeye, vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon

Title: Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon

Author: Matt Fraction

Artists: David Aja, Javier Pulido

Color Artist: Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: Christ Eliopoulos

Associate Editors: Sana Amanat, Tom Brennan

Editor: Stephen Wacker

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T+

For Marvel fans who haven't picked up a Matt Fraction comic book, you are missing out. Big time. This revamped Hawkeye comic takes place after the whole "Ronin" escapade. (For those of you who don't know what that means, basically Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, was thought dead, but surprise, he wasn't. Anyway so he decided to come back as a different superhero - a ninja called Ronin. While he was going ninja stuff, Kate Bishop took over as Hawkeye.) Clint is back, doing what he does best, beating people up, and getting beat up with Kate occasionally at his side - usually to save him in the nick of time. 

Not only is the art fantastic, but the writing's great too. And, the book reads differently than most comics - it's not very linear, but that's because it's supposed to give  you a sense of what it's like to be disabled. Why? Because Clint Barton is deaf. "WHAT?" you may say, "That wasn't in the movies." No it wasn't, but Hawkeye has always been partially deaf - 80% hearing loss. Most of the time he does lip reading, the comic is supposed to give you a sense of how some people live, jumping from event to event and filling in the gaps in between. 

The story starts with Hawkeye falling through the air only to crash on a car - it then skips to a hospital scene. Maybe this is why Hawkeye feels so relatable - he doesn't actually have any super powers, which means that when he falls, he falls hard and then spend several weeks in the hospital - when he gets punched - he has to bandage it up, meaning that he is always bandaged in some way or another, and this superhero work? It's exhausting. 

The story continues to show the reader how Hawkeye got his dog - Lucky aka Pizza Dog, and how sometimes even heroes need back up. And Kate Bishop? She's pretty fantastic back up. Below I've included some of the art that has good quotes and scenes.

Yeah, so if you like comics, read it.

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