So it is time travel after all? I guess he couldn't really be working with a partner if the message of the story is, "Clint is lying to all his friends," but I wouldn't have minded seeing Echo. Oh, well.
I liked seeing Natasha, but this book is crammed with guest stars who don't do anything aside from banter with Clint for a couple of pages and then disappear. Although I can't complain, because it gives me a chance to see how Otto renders them all so wonderfully.
Bryce is fun, and the Friends reference ("Pivot!") made me laugh out loud.
Night Nurse...I actually expected her to stick around until issue five. If this is really the last we're seeing of her here, then I don't think she was used to her full potential. She appeared in a handful of panels each issue, and only in the role of "Clint's girlfriend," as opposed to Linda Carter, Night Nurse. Her job was only mentioned offhand, we never got to see anything unique about her, like, for example, her steel spine and the way she stands up to bad guys despite not being a fighter...it feels like her role could have been played by almost any other woman in the Marvel universe and it wouldn't have changed the story. In fact, in his internal narrative, Clint never refers to her by name, only as "my girlfriend." It's possible that she'll come back and play a bigger part in the story, but we haven't learned anything about their relationship to explain why she would bother. I was amused by her going right from, "I think I'm falling in love with you" to dumping Clint in four seconds flat after finding out that he did something reckless and impulsive. He totally deserved it, don't get me wrong, but...who exactly did she think she was falling in love with? How long has he been keeping up the illusion that he isn't exactly the type of person who would do this sort of thing, and how long did he think he could continue keeping it up?
Daredevil! I'm thinking, in theory, Matt might not have figured out that Clint is Ronin; maybe he just thinks that Hawkeye is poking his nose into a Maggia crime scene for whatever reason. Except that even if so, Clint doesn't know that Matt doesn't know, so he would probably say something that gives it away within the first few seconds. Or, you know, maybe Natasha already told him.
The last page wasn't the kind of suspenseful twist that issue #2 was, but I still can't wait to see what happens next! |