Okay, so it’s only one issue. But after breezing through Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye #1 debut this week, that whole “no way” to the idea of a solo Hawkeye film may just turn “yes way, bro.”
So long as the adapting screenwriter takes out all of the necessary “bro’s.”
Oh, Russian. I get it. I’ve done security at a sports bar that loads up on plenty of all-too-similar Tracksuit Toughs who throw papa’s “real estate” around like it’s empty nicotine sticks. Regardless, these broskis make for very entertaining barriers in Clint Barton’s supposed normal life. Even the very relaxed introduction page lets fans in on the comic’s primary focus: how Hawkeye spends time when he’s not on Avenger duty.
Even if you think you know everything about the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ resident Robinhood, you don’t. He lays rest in the NYPD’s 79th and 81st precinct (read: “Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, son, the livest one!”), grillin’ with local tenement folk, saving aimless pizza-chowing muts, and — only fittingly — practices some not-so-deadly games of dexterity via rooftop bottle-shots. From the sounds of it, this Hawkeye’s a lot different than the Navy S.E.A.L. mentality portrayed by Jeremy Renner in The Avengers (and previously, Thor), but imagine if the actor was able to take this type of turn?
We’ve witnessed just how street and gutter Renner could get with The Town. Hey, maybe it’s stretching to see the soon Bourne Legacy star play the eclectic side of Clint — and again, it’s only been 20-pages — but I could totally see this being Tarantino’s first superhero film. Think Jackie Brown meets Robinhood meets The Avengers.
Silly? Yes. Dope? Even more-so.
The Jackie Brown vibe in this book comes courtesy of Fraction’s artist partner from his superb run on Immortal Iron Fist, David Aja. The penciler has sort of that whole throwback thing going for him — slightly more Sean Philips of Criminal than Darwyn Cooke of DC: The New Frontier. The linework is certainly clean, but with enough bold to represent one of Brooklyn’s murkiest neighborhoods (these guys are superheroes; they can’t all live in Forest Hills and get away with it, Pete). The hip, panel-narrative placement is more impressive, decorated by the burnt oranges and sweaty summer browns of colorist extraordinaire, Matt Hollingsworth (Daredevil, The Punisher).
Hawkeye #1 even sports the use — an extremely rare case — of a dozen panels on the page, far from your typical new-gen widescreen fair. No lull, whatsoever. Even with Clint putting away the purple get-up and deadly vanesticks for this undercover Shaft streetbeat, I wouldn’t expect Frac to shift away from the man’s work as an Avenger, entirely, either. That was nearly promised in Mark Waid’s Daredevil, and, hell, the gang’s all there in this week’s #16 — still kicking the same vibe and kicking the same amount of ass.
There’s no doubt this creative team has the credentials to send Clint Barton to the dolo frontlines once again. And, quivered with this new hip “indy” aroma, the Hawkeye comic should be around long enough for the film rumors to start sinking in.
- Buy: Rotworld Prologue. Best friends Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder join forces and colors (the red and green, yo) for a pair of prologues, in their respective Animal Man and Swamp Thing #12 issues, to battle Anton Arcane and the rest of the utterly-disgusting underworld. Ugly has never been this beautiful.
- Say yes: To Booker T becoming Smackdown‘s new GM. It couldn’t get any crazier than AJ becoming RAW‘s new GM, could it? Oh, shucky ducky!!!! (As long as the WWE allows Book to keep mentioning “what it takes to make it in this ‘bizness’,” then I’m all for it.
So the whole Whoopi From The View thing on commentary didn’t quite cut it. So let’s give him a raise!
- Buy: No other Marvel books could touch the term consistency like Daredevil, Invincible Iron Man, and Ultimate Spider-Man. This week’s offerings were no exception. If you’re not already buying these titles, then I have no idea why you’re even reading this. Well, okay, that wasn’t very nice. Say 2 Our Fathers and 2 Hail Marys, then buy the back issues or trades from your local comic shop (or Amazon) when you gather enough clam to do so.
Carl Winslow returns to comics. Say no: Marvel’s really vague clues to who their new creative teams are going to be this November. No, only because it’s painful not to see any art teasers!!! So far we have Waid and Leinil Francis Yu on “Indestructible” Hulk; Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. on “Soldier” Captain America; Kieron Gillen and Greg Land on “Invincible” Iron Man; Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic on “Worthy” Thor; Simon Spurrier and Tang Hen Haut “Legacy” X-Men; Fraction and Mark Bagley and Mike Allred on “Family” Fantastic Four and “Extended” FF, respectively; and MarvelNOW’s craziest announcement this week, Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan joining former Walking Dead artist Tony Moore on “Chimichanga” Deadpool. WHO? Well, Posehn & Duggan are esteemed comedy writers whose infamous comic work, “The Last Christmas” was ironically penciled by Remender, who, as many of you [should] know, scripts up a a great Pool in Uncanny X-Force and has, even more ironically, collaborated with Moore on the wild Punisher story, “FrankenCastle”. Let’s hope all this “tying up loose ends” makes for a wildly extravagant Deadpool book still grounded enough for the 616.
you write your posts with so much whimsy!
You can’t go wrong with Aja and Fraction tends to do “hipster” comics better than mainstream ones.
best Hawkeye review yet. Like this site man!
That would be a fun movie to watch! Similar to Waid’s DD? Definitely going to grab this title.
great review!
I wonder what he’ll do with Fantastic Four? Hickman is going to be hard to follow.
Now, I notice Hickman is only doing Avengers. Does this mean he’ll do… Wolverine? That’d be insane.
hello, that is a cool report on hawkeye! it gave me exactly the information i was looking for!!
I couldn’t agree more. The coomraispn is laughable really. In most of the reviews I’ve seen, the reviewer freely admits they’ve read very little DD. Just some Bendis, a issue or two by Stan Lee, Born Again and the final part of the Elektra saga from Miller’s run. I love that reviewers are loving the new issue, but anyone making the Stan Lee coomraispn have very little knowledge of DD past what someone told them was essential DD stories, so I don’t put much stock in what they say regarding DD’s history. I’m so glad you brought up Miller’s run. I’m so tired of how people exaggerate how dark it was. It makes me wonder if they’ve even read the entire run or if they just have crappy long term memory. There were so many funny interactions with Turk and some great comedic moments at Josie’s Bar that you rarely saw in the more recent runs. Guts in particular is a great issue with a nice dose of humor. The humor displayed iss pretty dry most of the time and often subtle so maybe it just doesn’t stick with most people.
. Daredevil and Batman both had the same problem. Frank Miller wrote the diienfng modern stories of both, but the creators and writers that followed only paid attention to the dark , edgy , and cool aspects. They seemed to forget the fun, the whimsy, and the triumph. Even as Born Again , which is my favorite comic story of all time, became the template for the modern Matt Murdock story, writers and fans seemed to forget that it had a relatively happy and triumphant ending. Millers first run on DD was downright campy by todays standards. Some fans just can’t have fun with comics. It has to be deadly serious and dark or else its just campy kids books.