Title: Hawkeye #17 Author: Matt Fraction Artist: Chris Eliopoulos (with David Aja bookends) Publisher: Marvel Comics Rating: T+ Release date: March 12, 2014 Verdict: Goofy looking, but Still Special! Hawkeye is not a character that has had a massive fan base during his “career”. Sure, he’s been around since the 1960’s, he’s an Avenger, he’s a ladies man… but he’s never been one of Marvel’s big names. Then Mark Millar made him WAY cooler in the ultimate Marvel Universe than his prime-universe counterpart, and Joss Whedon added him to the cast of the first Avengers movie, so now, by default, Hawkeye is one of the big boys. But Marvel didn’t have to go to all that trouble. Seemingly all they ever really needed to do was give him his own monthly book by creators Matt Fraction and David Aja, and the rest would have fallen into place. Matt Fraction and David Aja hit the comic scene differently, but they are known to discerning comic book fans everywhere as the main creative force (along with Ed Brubaker) on the short lived, but amazingly amazing, Iron Fist ongoing series from a few years ago. This is the kind of series where I was like, “Ok. Iron Fist. He’s kinda cool and I like Fraction…so I’ll check it out.” This then turned into my reading, and re-reading, every single issue of the series multiple times before the next book came out. It was THAT good. The art was so gorgeous, and the story was so engaging, that it was one of the best things on the shelves month after month. And even though Mr. Aja is not really a monthly artist, the series still killed it. Especially since the set up allowed for multiple artists per issue. Cut to a few years later, and Fraction and Aja teamed back up to bring us the life of Hawkeye…when he’s not doing the whole Avengers thing. We get to see Clint Barton, as well as Kate Bishop (the Young Avengers version of Hawkeye) live the lives of super-heroes without powers just trying to make the world a better place. We never see Avengering going on, but you never care. You don’t want to! There are already more than a half dozen monthly books with the team. This one doesn’t need them! This latest issue, issue #17, features only two pages of David Aja art, but happens to feature 18 pages by Chris Eliopoulos, the regular letterer on the book, done in his style that is reminiscent of Calvin & Hobbes Bill Watterson. This issue is about fun, non-denominational pantheistic celebrations, and friendship, while the last few have been a bit heavier. This is what I love about this series! We get all different kinds of stories in these pages. I suspect if these guys were trying to write a Captain America monthly like this, it wouldn’t work at all…but with a character like Hawkeye, it’s perfect. It’s perfect, because Clint Barton (Hawkguy!) is far from it. If you haven’t checked out this series yet, you should. There are trade paperback collections for the first two arcs, but if you really love Fraction and Aja, you should really come into one of the shoppes and order the glorious over-sized hardcover collection. The first collection has been released with the first 11 issues, and it is magnificent! Beautiful add-on’s and a sweet dust jacket. Creatively, nothing at Marvel is as good as this series right now. Do yourself a favour and come along with me and jump on this crazy bandwagon! See you all next time
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:07:59 +0000
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