Hawkeye #13 Review/Spoilers

[Prof. Warren]

I could post my thoughts on this issue in the Kate Bishop Appreciation Thread but this book is so good - not just this issue but every issue of this run - I think there needs to be more individual attention given when an issue arrives. It's an outright crime that this book should have to struggle to find an audience. Seriously, for anyone who hasn't given it a shot yet, this book is freaking great!!!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

To nutshell it, issue #13 is the first of Hawkeye's Legacy arc, "Family Reunion", and it fittingly brings Kate and Clint back together. Both have cases that they need the other's help on. Kate wants Clint to help her possibly-still-alive mother and Clint, as Kate finds out when the two of them are targeted while meeting outside a local pizza shop, is on someone's hit list.

That someone is Eden Vale, a protege of the Swordman's, who we first met in the Generations: The Archers one-shot. Given that Clint's problem involves someone out to actually kill him, Kate puts her mother situation on the back burner momentarily to help Clint.

When Clint and Kate confront Eden again after their pizza shop encounter, they find she has some kind of teleportation abilities. She also has the power to "pull" people through time as long as she possesses a sample of their blood. As she cut Kate during battle, Eden's able to pull Kate away to her HQ where she explains her vendetta against Clint (she blames Clint's rebellion against the Hydra regime for making a target out of Nevada, in which her daughter was one of the innocent civilians killed) and makes Kate an offer - help Eden kill Clint and she'll reunite Kate with her mother.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Issue after issue, this has been the single most effortlessly charming book out there. Writer Kelly Thompson and artist Leonardo Romero (along with colorist Jordie Bellaire) are every bit as solid a trio of collaborators as the Waid/Samnee/Wilson team. Thompson's handle on the Clint/Kate dynamic made the Generations issue on the best of those one-shots and that entertaining chemistry continues here.

Speaking of the Generations issue, I thought those weren't supposed to have really happened so only Kate should remember it but, you know what? Doesn't matter. Maybe they are in continuity and if they aren't, that's what No-Prizes are for. Bottom line, Clint remembers his and Kate's earlier encounter with Eden.

As usual, action and humor are in full supply here. As funny a book that this is, there's never any lack of classic superhero action, always depicted with an impeccable eye by Romero.

It's just a great read and it really deserves a lot more love and attention from readers. Hopefully the new arc and the presence of Clint will draw some fresh attention to it.