Book Review: Hawkeye Vol. 2 by M. Fraction et al.

Hawkeye Volume 2: Little Hits written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja, Francesco Francavilla, Steve Lieber, and Jesse Hamm

Clint Barton continues his adventures as the new owner of the apartment building where he lives. Mostly they are misadventures. Maintenance issues come up which are not as easy as you'd think they'd be. The Russians are a bigger problem. They keep harassing Clint and the tenants. They even have an assassin from the old country. Clint has lots of problems with women too. His current girlfriend is both trouble and in trouble, forcing Clint into a lot of fights. His protege, Kate Bishop, hangs out with him but is pretty much over hanging out with him because of all the drama.

I found the on-going story a little boring. Clint's down and out status just isn't fun or entertaining. Kate is a more interesting character. The art is really good. The color palette is tight; pages full of panels enable them to tell the story without a lot of dialogue. The drawing style shifts around which is distracting and more noticeable in a trade paperback that gathers half a year's individual issues. The final story in the book shows Clint's dog investigating a murder at the apartment building. That story was really well done and the highlight of the book. Too bad the other stories are all over the place.

Mildly recommended--better art than story here.

Book Review: Hawkeye Vol. 1 by M. Fraction et al.

Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon written by Matt Fraction and art by David Aja and Javier Pulido

Hawkeye (aka Clint Barton) is a characters who looks less interesting on paper than other Marvel heroes. As an Avenger, he has no superhuman abilities. He's an amazing shot with a bow and arrow, an antiquated weapon. He does have a quiver full of trick arrows. He has the graceful athleticism that every other superhero has, more or less. Hawkeye solo adventures seem like they would not be that interesting. In this book, the writer and artists come up with some good stories fighting organized crime or other "normal" bad guys. Clint is teamed up with Kate Bishop, who has taken over the role of Hawkeye after Clint was presumed dead a long time ago (a story too complicated to get into here). They make a fun team as mentor and mentee. Also, Clint is a lot more freewheeling in contrast to Kate's more stable character. In one adventure, a video tape of Clint assassinating a foreign terrorist has been found (the official story is Navy Seals killed the terrorist). The tape will go to the highest bidder but once it gets out, the reputations of Hawkeye and the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. will be tanked. So Clint goes to Marakesh to put his bid in at the auction where all the bad guys (Wilson Fisk, AIM, Hydra, Madame Masque, etc) want a piece of the action. The story has fun twists and action.

Overall, the book is good, giving a minor character his own chance to shine. Clint has a fun personality and enough moral code to show why he belongs on the Avengers. Some of the situations are more hard PG-13, with some arrows sticking out of eyes or some awkward intimate moments. Weirdly, an issue of Young Avengers featuring Kate and Clint is included though that story is clearly out of continuity with the rest of the book.

Recommended. I'll probably read some more of this series.

Book Review: Avengers vs. X-Men by J. Aaron et al.

Avengers vs. X-Men written by Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, and others; art by John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, and others

The comics industry is always looking for two things--a big epic storyline and an excuse for the heroes to fight each other. Fans are always debating who could beat whom if the heroes ever faced off against each other. Companies want a hook that keeps readers coming back for more. Have they pulled it off with this storyline?

The story starts with the discovery that the Phoenix entity (the one that drove Jean Grey crazy and to eventual death way back in the day) is coming to Earth. Presumably the entity is coming for Hope Summers (who apparently is no relations to Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclopes). She's a mutant whose destiny for greatness has been predicted since her discovery. She was the first mutant born after Scarlet Witch did something to reduce the number of mutants on Earth below 200. The X-Men and a bunch of the mutants (including Hope) live on an island called Utopia off the United States west coast. Once everyone knows about the Phoenix entity, Captain America and the Avengers want to take Hope into protective custody; Scott Summers and his X-Men want hope to embrace the Phoenix entity in the hopes that she will bring back the mutants. As the entity approaches, battle lines are drawn and the mayhem begins.

So the set-up is a little convoluted but this book contains enough explanation that it works as a stand-alone story. Back story is explained to get readers ready for the epic battle of epic epicness that ensues. The writers shoe-horn in a lot of characters (clearly hoping to please the fans) and have lots of battles all over the globe with all sorts of match-ups that are interesting and handled well. The main story keeps moving forward at a good pace and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

The book also contains six issues of a companion series to the A vs. X main storyline. In the companion, various battles between individuals are given in detail, though with a lot of humor thrown in for good measure. The companion stories are clearly fan service, the more outlandish being the more fun (like the Cyclopes vs. Captain America verbal abuse battle where they argue about who is a lamer character, or the Toad vs. Jarvis battle where Toad (who acts as a butler in one of the mutant schools) comes into conflict with the Avengers' master butler). Unfortunately there is a "Spider-woman vs. X-Women" that confirms a sexist attitude toward the female characters. Deliberate pandering to adolescent male attitudes is not good.

Recommended, except for that one page.