Originally Posted by
Kurt Busiek
I had some ideas, but was mostly plotting the book organically. So I knew that was a springboard for future developments, but I didn't yet know what they were going to be.
One way it could have gone would be:
A. Something happens and Hawkeye finds out. He's offended and wants there to be some sort of justice done, but there isn't any, because no court of Earth is equipped to prosecute someone for murdering an alien off-planet.
B. Kosmosian soldiers arrive on Earth to arrest Karla, having finally finished some sort of internecine struggle and wanting to execute her. She gets dragged back to Kosmos, but Hawkeye and the Bolts follow, because he wants to make sure it's justice that's done, not vengeance. And he's not sure that being tortured in the Kosmos-verse (as Atlas was) is any sort of humane punishment.
C. Once back on Kosmos, they find out that the factions that have taken powers are brutal assholes, and there's a rebellion in the name of the decent people there. Hawkeye and the Bolts aid in the rebellion, and Karla ends up winning the key conflict that puts a good ruler on the throne. She gets pardoned for regicide, and shoots that in Clint's face -- she's not guilty of anything, ha!
D. They go back to Earth, but Clint and Karla's relationship is now soured, and he knows how manipulative she can be. So now it's Clint vs. Karla for the soul of the team...
But it could have gone some other way, as well.
kdb