It's a fresh look into the life of everyone's favorite Avenger!
With Kate Bishop back at his side, Team Hawkeye is thrown into a new adventure spanning two generations of avenging archers! Past and present lives collide as Kate and Clint face a threat that will challenge everything they know about what it means to be Hawkeye. The past and present merge as Hawkeyes Barton and Bishop race against time to save a group of innocent kids with devastating powers.
What makes a hero? And what breaks a hero? Hawkeye and Hawkeye will experience both. A boy at odds with his big brother. A hero out of sync with his partner. Team Hawkeye is fractured. Things come to a head as Barney, Clint and Kate learn what it means to carry the name Hawkeye.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
Trying to follow up one the most acclaimed superhero comics of late is an unenviable task for anyone and Jeff Lemire has his work cut out for him. Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye has become the template for the humerous, character driven, low key super hero book and his run on the book is recommended reading for comic book readers.
In order to smoothly transition into his take on Hawkeye, Lemire does a few things right: the Kate/Clint banter is back…
…he continues to explore the relationship Clint had with his brother Barney…
…and the art (present tense, see first gif) is reminiscent of David Aja.
Lemire dials down the humor and amps up the pathos and saves you a seat in the flashback-way back machine. Using flashbacks is a tricky business, the flashbacks should at least have some sort of tenuous hold on what’s happening in the present action, besides both being about kids and making tough choices.
Present – Clint and Kate rescue a trio of kids with unique powers from Hydra.
Past – Clint and Barney run away from an abusive foster home and join the circus.
But the circus isn’t all scary clowns, pinheads and bearded women, it’s about making some career choices.
And the powered-up kids?
Bottom line: Lemire’s storyline holds up until the last couple of issues, then logic and what’s apparently a misguided fast-forward plot device derails the book. The flashback art works until you get to those panels where you’re guessing what’s going on.
Three and a half stars rounded down.
Presenting Skottie Young’s Hawkeye, a version of one of the alternate covers:
This was so much better than Matt Fraction's run. Things actually happened in the book. The book goes back and forth between the current story and tales from when Clint was a kid. In the current story Clint and Kate free a doomsday weapon from Hydra that maybe they shouldn't have. Ramon Perez's art is almost a clone of David Aja's.
Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez have the unenviable task of following up one of Marvel’s most celebrated titles in recent years, Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye – but they’ve risen admirably to the task and hit the target with a damn good comic!
Lemire decides on a mix of past and present as he goes back and focuses on Clint’s difficult childhood with his brother Barney as they were bounced from one abusive foster family to another before literally running away to join the circus!
Meanwhile in the present, the Hawkeyes rescue some kids being experimented on by HYDRA – before realising SHIELD are in on it too! With two massive organisations with (supposedly) differing alignments on their trail, will the two best archers in the Marvel Universe (and their trusty dog) be able to give these kids a shot at a happy childhood?
Though it’s titled “All-New Hawkeye”, it’s still the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye characters – deaf Clint and Kate – and of course the beloved Pizza Dog; so it’s basically a misnomer as the only difference is the creative team. The change behind the scenes is instantly noticeable as Lemire’s approach isn’t as funny as Fraction’s. That’s not to say his script doesn’t have its moments but generally it’s a fairly average story without that crackly energy or a satisfying ending.
It’s an origin story of sorts as we see Clint get his nickname, the inspiration for his classic outfit, his original moral compass, and how he got started on bows and arrows, all of which is kinda corny and pointless. Lemire keeps Clint and Kate’s relationship fun and light for the most part which makes the forced fight between them towards the end feel all the more contrived. Parallels between the past and present repeating are a major theme and Kate punching Clint felt out of character and done in service to that theme more than anything.
By far the big draw (pun intended) on All-New Hawkeye is artist Ramon Perez who produces one of 2015’s most breath-taking comics here. He draws the childhood scenes in stunning watercolours and the present in a convincing Aja facsimile albeit in his own style. Colourist Ian Herring assists in giving the past a romantic look with all that purple and stark primary colours for the present – wonderful choices!
Early on there’s a double splash page designed to mirror a pond’s surface which is drawn in a dreamy watercolour as the panels swirl amongst them – it’s not only gorgeous but your eye effortlessly follows the correct sequences of panels from left to right across both pages to left and right again in a zigzag pattern. When Clint and Barney’s abusive foster father appears the (Hawkeye) purple watercolours become red symbolising the danger and violence he represents.
One character holds a sword to another’s throat, the perspective in the reader’s first person so we’re looking up at the person holding the sword but the character in our place is reflected in the blade. The cover to issue #3 has the character of the Swordsman holding up his sword with classic Hawkeye in the blade’s reflection, ingeniously showing us the influence this guy had on Clint in later life while also cleverly placing Hawkeye in the cover.
One sequence has Clint in the present running from HYDRA with the watercolour of his younger self reflected in the glass opposite also running. Perez beautifully incorporates the parallel stories together in his art so one issue has the past storyline playing out silently in the bottom panels and then in the next it’s the present underneath with the past at full volume. It’s not just a pretty comic but its panels are designed intelligently, imaginatively and stylishly at the same time.
I can’t emphasise enough how good the art in this book is. Ramon Perez did an incredible job in Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand but outdoes himself on All-New Hawkeye. It’s such impressive work that elevates the quality of the book far beyond Lemire’s writing.
Comparisons to Fraction and Aja are unavoidable and All-New Hawkeye isn’t as awesome as their books were but it’s still really good. Lemire’s script and story is just ok but Perez’s art saves the comic and pushes it into the realm of greatness (a bit like the current Black Widow comic where Phil Noto’s art easily outshines Nathan Edmondson’s work). Hawkeye is a title that continues to have some of Marvel’s best and most interesting art and that alone makes it worth checking out.
The reasons I am reading this comic are 1) I was curious how the celebrated Fraction-Aja run might get followed up and 2) I am a Jeff Lemire fan. But I prefer Lemire's indie comics, not so much his superhero work. But it occurs to me that Hawkeye is a good Marvel hero choice for Lemire because he is not a superhero, has no superpowers, and Fraction set him up as a regular guy, and this is the kind of story Lemire does best.
Lemire also does melancholy father-son or parenting stories, they abound in his work, from Essex County through Sweet Tooth. And so they enlist a fine artist, Ramón Pérez, to match the tone of (especially) his flashback/origin stories, with swirling emotional (sad) watercolors, which contrast with his Hawkeyes present, which is closer to Aja's style, as if to create some continuity with their run.
There's (spoiler?) child abuse stories in the origin story and in the Shield story that takes place in the present, so this is the perfect kind of empathy-generating story for Lemire. It's less edgy than Fraction, less smartass, less funny, less great snarky dialogue, because Lemire doesn't do that stuff quite as well, but he does do character and feelings well, and this run looks promising. I'd say 3.5, maybe edging toward 4 for me.
Lemire takes up the reigns and continues with a lot more narrative driven approach than Fraction. The two Hawkeyes are just as fun as ever, maintaining the chemistry and witty banter despite the shift in writer. The story flips back and forth between present and past as the two stories roughly parallel each other. Regardless of the link, the flashbacks aren't nearly as interesting, boring even. Furthermore, the art transition between current and past events is oddly jarring as the two styles are so different that it feels like you're reading something else enterirely. It's at its best when the two Hawkeyes are interacting, the rest is hit or miss.
Lemire had some incredibly big shoes to fill on this title. Fraction's Hawkeye is a modern classic, a book that I feel confident will still be read a decade from now. No, Lemire doesn't quite hit that mark, but he comes awfully damned close. He's missing some of the humor, but the characters are there. This is definitely the same Kate and Clint as before. There's a lot of flashbacks in this volume, kept distinct by a really cool sort of watercolor effect in the art. I ended up liking these flashbacks a lot more than I had thought I would.
This is a very enjoyable comic that explores Clint's youth in alternating scenes with he and Kate rescuing some very odd children from a Hydra lab. Lemire and Perez had very large shoes to fill in following up Fraction and Aja's run on the title, but they I think that they did quite well. The flashback scenes are done in very striking pastel watercolor, and the contemporary sequences are very much like Aja's style. The end leads into the "Old Man" storyline of which I wasn't a huge fan, but I liked the writing on this one very much. The exchanges between Clint and Kate are terrific. Make Mine Marvel -and- excelsior, true believers.
Hawkeye Vol 5: All New Hawkeye collects issues 1-5 of the Marvel Comics series written by Jeff Lemire with art by Ramón Pérez.
Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, are sent by SHIELD on a mission to find a weapon cache. Unbeknownst to the Hawkeyes, the weapons are actually three children who have been mutated into a doomsday device. The duo must struggle if they turn these kids over to the authorities or try to help free them.
It’s so hard to judge this book on its own mantle with it following Matt Fraction’s iconic run. Throughout Clint and Kate’s story, we get flashbacks to Clint’s past escaping violent authority figures until they find refuge in the circus and being trained to be an expert archer, but also a thief. The art in the book is great and really adds to the emotion. The book ends with an interesting cliff hanger so I am interested to see how everything plays out!
So, this is the one we were all waiting for; the one that would answer the question 'How the Hell do you follow Matt Fraction's astounding run on Hawkeye?'
Well, Jeff Lemire and co. have definitely risen to the challenge! They've managed to maintain enough of the style of Fraction's run to keep the fans happy while also, incredibly, stamping their own personality on it. I think a round of applause is due to these guys, just for not fumbling the ball at the end of the pass. (Look! A sports metaphor! From ME! Crazy...)
The story itself is split into two halves; the 'present-day' half follows the two Hawkeyes (Clint and Kate) as they raid a Hydra facility and the 'flashback' half tells a story of Clint's childhood. Lemire actually manages to make the beats of each story resonate with each other; that's darned good writing there, son!
The artwork is also beautiful, with the present day sections being drawn in ink in a similar (but not identical) style as that which was used throughout Fraction's run and the flashback scenes lovingly painted in watercolours, with a limited (but bloody effective) palette.
In fact, the only thing I wasn't keen on was the ending of the final issue. I'm not going to give any spoilers away but Clint suddenly seems to act completely out of character, making a decision I don't believe he'd ever make. Basically, Kate's reaction mirrored mine and, for that reason, I'm choosing to believe this was intentional and I'm going to trust Lemire to make me feel better about this event in volume 2...
Really liked this one, it's a back and forth to Clint's younger days with his brother Barney to Kate and Clint rescuing some kids from Hydra and oh man does it hit you right in the feels, it's super depressing but such a good read. I liked this one instantly where as with Fraction's work it took me a while to get it so it may be vice versa with some readers not loving this because it is a huge change especially with the artwork which is beautifully done but you do kinda miss all the boxes and the layout of the previous volumes. The ending left me just staring at the last page for ten minutes like what???? What is happening right now?? So i'm excited for the next volume, definitely a good cliff hanger and this is so worth your time picking up it's a really good read. (The next volume starts over at #1 because of the secret wars (finally that shit is done with, geesh) but you'll probably have to read this volume to appreciate what is going on and why Clint now looks like an angry Santa Claus.)
Like many have said before me, Jeff Lemire had an uphill battle following the great run of Matt Fraction. Damned if he didn't nail a bullseye though! Great work!
I liked getting a better look into Clint's background with the circus and seeing how his past ties into his present with Kate. Lemire and Perez make a good team, but I have to admit that I didn't like Volume 5 quite as much as I liked Fraction and Aja from the previous installments.
3.5 Stars. Really wish I could round up this to 4.
Lemire and Perez had the really hard task of continuing Hawkeye's series after Fraction's and Aja's run, which happens to be one of the best comics in the past years and they did a pretty good job in this volume.
Even though the volume is called ''All-New Hawkeye'' both Lemire and Perez continue with the same characters and artwork that the past volumes established. Clint is still deaf and keeps struggling when it's time to do the ''right thing'', the banter between Clint and Kate is still one of the highlights of the story and we even have moments with Lucky, our pizza dog.
There are two stories, the main present one follows both Hawkeyes trying to rescue some kids being experimented by Hydra. The action and adventure start from page 1 and soon they'll realize these kids aren't just wanted by Hydra, but there's another organization searching for them.
The second story, which happens parallel to the Hydra mission, is a series of flashbacks from Clint's and Barney's childhood. We see them struggling as they move from one abusive foster home to the next one... until they find the one place they can call ''home''. But this home isn't pretty either and it's heartbreaking seeing the first cracks in the brother's relationship and also watching Clint being forced to make decisions that will mark his life.
The Art varies from story to story, in the present day one, Perez tries to ''imitate'' Aja's style but still gives it his own touch. The flashbacks however are quite different, it is a watercolor style in purple tones, but when the story turns violent or darker the colors shift to pure red. It was a great technique that really makes you feel for Clint and Barney. There are some panels though, where the designs are very difficult to distinguish and I wish Perez could have made a better clean work there.
My main problem with this volume is Kate's portrayal. At some point she starts to complain about Clint and she doesn't stop blaming him until there's a moment when she just straight out punches him. It felt quite forced because Lemire tries to parallel both past and present stories, so it looks like Kate's behavior there was only another way to mirror both. It felt so out of character and I feel so protective to both Hawkeyes and their relationship.
Also, the cliffhanger at the end... ugh, I didn't like it all.
Overall I really enjoyed this volume, I like that this story continues with the same incarnations from Fraction's series and I really liked that Clint's and Barney's relationship was a main focus. But the ''out of character'' was a big issue for me and I had to round down the rating to 3 stars.
Taking over "Hawkeye" after the monumental success of the Fraction/Aja run is a big task so the question is - do Lemire and Perez succeed or do they crumble under the pressure?
Well, it’s not as great as Fraction’s. But it's still pretty good. prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay, pretty good.
It’s a fun, yet conventional, take of the archers and their corner of the Marvel U.
The story starts with Kate Bishop – aka Hawkeye - and Clint Barton – aka Hawkeye - infiltrating a Hydra base. They're looking into something called "Project Communion" which thankfully has nothing to do with Chuck Austin's "exploding holy communion wafers" plot from his turn of the millennium X-Men run. Please, don't ask.
What they do find is a group of mysterious, mutated kids with dangerous abilities. Kate, feeling sympathetic towards them, frees and befriends them.
"Kate Katie Hawkeye is better than Clint Hawkeye" they proudly proclaim. And hey, they aren’t wrong.
The rest of the book alternates between "now," with more Hydra conflicts, and “then," flashback sequences taking place during tween Clint’s time spent with his brother Barney Barton in the circus.
I love that Clint and Kate are still sharing the Hawkeye name and Lemire nails their banter, which is as entertaining as ever.
Their relationship was one of the highlights of the previous run, so I’m glad to see Lemire keep that intact.
Ramon Perez on art does his best David Aja impression in the main story and switches a more dreamlike, though sometimes confusing to follow, watercolor style for flashbacks. Perez keeps the archers in their Aja costumes, which is a plus.
The standalone stories that made up Fraction's run are done away with in favor of a more serialized story. Less slice of life, more kicking Hydra butt. There are no rooftop barbecues or trying to fix the cable.
For my money, I liked the uniqueness that came with superhero slice of life, but this story’s ending certainly has me intrigued for what might come next.
Well I expected worse...so that's good. This is a direct sequel to Matt's run and tries to keep up the same dialog/art. Does it do that? No and yes.
Right off the bat I fucking LOVE the art...for the flashbacks. The current day art is just okay, and feels cheaply made compared to the old series. HOWEVER, the flashback art is wonderful and I can't get over how much I enjoy it.
Also I really dig Kate in this, as she feels actually characterized to make her have a plot. She's screwed up, young, but good art heart. Clint seems more bumbling idiot than usual, and only in issue 4-5 do see some character growth.
However, this isn't funny in the slightest. Matt was freaking amazing at hitting comedy moments and this series never does that (though it tries). Overall it's a decent read, not horrible, but is in the shadow of what came before.
I really liked Fraction's run, so the bar is set pretty high for me, so much that I wasn't even going to bother trying to read this. However, it showed up in my library so what they heck, I'll try it.
And...it's just "ok". The story arc is split between a mission now where Clint and Kate recover a "weapon" and then aren't sure what to do with it afterwards, and a flashback to Clint's youth when he first lands at the circus and meets the Swordsman. The art on the flashback portion is kind of cool, having a sort of water color effect with muted colors. The modern art attempts to mimic Aja's work and it just isn't there, at least for me. It's close, but a little rougher and not quite as imaginative, but serviceable.
I think I enjoyed the flashback stuff better, because it filled in the basics of what I know of Hawkeye's origin. It isn't clear whether the modern (or flashback) story finishes here or not.
I was really nervous going into this because I loved Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye run so much, and i was worried this would disappoint me but it quite enjoyed it. It definitely doesn't live up to Fractions run but it was still enjoyable. My favourite thing by far is the art. The art in the flashbacks is stunning, I love the water colours and how magical it makes everything look.
This isn't as funny as Fractions but it still had it's moments. The interactions between Clint and Kate were great in the first few issues but in the last issue it was so weird and the fight felt a bit too forced and Kate punching Clint seemed out of character to me but other than that I didn't have any problems with the characterisation.
Seriously though the art is fantastic SO good i loved it so much.
(ignore me, I'm going to spend my day reading comic books so I can trick myself into believing I'm not actually 30+ books behind schedule this year) I actually really liked the artwork here even though some of the flashback scenes were a bit too vague and difficult to understand. What I really didn't like and was extremely surprised by was the "twist" at the end of the last issue. I'm excited to see where they go with this.
Volume 5: All-New Hawkeye probably worked best with its flashbacks coloring (pun both intended and unintended) Clint Barton's troubled Iowa childhood. As for the present-day story-line - it was just okay, saved mostly by the cheery and righteous presence of Kate Bishop. However, it falls short of the near-consistent high quality of the previous Fraction / Aja / Hollingsworth volumes.
Wow. Even though I don't like the art as much in this one as the previous Hawkeye's, the story and parallels are just AMAZING. If you read a Hawkeye comic, read this one. (And all the others) Because, like I said before... Wow.
3.5/5.0 — not entirely sure how I feel about this.
All-New Hawkeye is a continuation of Matt Fraction's run on the arrow guy, only it has a different creative team behind it. The backstory's good, told in beautiful watercolors. The running story is icky, it mimicks Aja's art. The two stories run parallel for us, which MOSTLY works. There's no crackling dialogue like erstwhile, but there is more pathos since this volume surveys child abuse.
Jeff Lemire + Hawkeye=a match made in heaven! I freaking LOVE Jeff Lemire and to have him write for the All-New Hawkeye is a dream come true. He does not disappoint. This collection is a blast to the past as you go back to see Hawkeye's childhood and the foundations of what makes him who he is today paralleled with a modern day story with Team Hawkeye (Clint and Kate) saving some very powerful "children" from a variety of forces that eventually leads to something catastrophic. Or so it implies. The artwork switches back and forth between the two stories with Hawkeye's childhood story done in these muted, pastel colors that look like paintings. It's a stark contrast between that and Perez's signature style and it really works to bring you the harsh reality of the present and the dreamlike quality of the past. Can't wait for the next part of the story!
Jeff Lemire and Ramón Pérez's All-New Hawkeye picks up from where the Fraction/Aja run left off, and really tries to continue a lot of the stylistic threads that were started in that run. There's a little more thematic depth to be found here than in much of Fraction's run, but the story here is split up across two timelines, and one of them is far more interesting than the other.
We see a lot of flashbacks to Clint and his brother Barney's childhood, detailing how they ran away from their foster home and joined the circus, and how Swordsman Jacques Duquesne took them under his wing. Things get morally uncomfortable for Clint when he starts to understand how this particular travelling circus makes much of their money. The other storyline takes place in the modern day, and involves Clint and Kate investigating a rumored superweapon housed in an Antarctic Hydra research facility. This storyline is far less interesting and feels like a series of clichés, though there is a nice moral conundrum near the end that deserves to be explored far more than this story provides the space for (though the ending teases that there's more to the story in the next volume).
I feel like Lemire's banter between Clint and Kate is a bit better than Fraction's, and the personality conflicts between the two Hawkeyes is perhaps a little more fleshed out here. One puzzling thing is that the dog Lucky, who most definitely died at the end of Fraction's run, has been retconned back to life, with no mention at all of why or how. Considering that this is something I tremendously disliked about the previous volume's conclusion, I can't begrudge Lemire too much for silently deciding that the dog's wound wasn't fatal after all (though I have to wonder how Fraction feels about this since it removes some of the emotional impact from his ending).
Ramón Pérez's art has the unusual distinction of being beautiful and ugly all in the same volume. During the flashback sequences, the stylized watercolors are just gorgeous to look at, while the modern day panels feature art that I would describe as sloppy and sketchy, with flat and boring colors. It certainly provides a stark contrast to the flashback scenes, but having half of the book appear ugly is probably not the result they were going for. The coloring duties on the book are shared by Ian Herring and Ramón Pérez, so I'm not sure which one to praise for the beautiful pages and to blame for the ugly ones. It's a bold stylistic approach, in any event.
World: The art is good, I did not know what to think with a new team as Aja created a visual language that was so unique to Clint and Co. I did not know what Perez would be able to do give it something different. Man I was wrong, those water colors are fantastic and the jump between the present and the past is stunning. The world building is great also, I'm not a Marvel person (well I've read a lot now but still a DC person) so Clint's piece of the world is interesting to me. It's more of the Fraction part of New York but also Lemire brings it even closer and more intimate which is great.
Story: The story was great, the two parallel stories meshed perfectly and the art helped inform the stories. The tone and pacing was good and hit the right emotional beats. The story was a bit expected and the ending was what you knew was going to happen, except the last 3 pages I did not see that. Overall a fun and very strong first arc from the new creative team. Lemire is good with characters just like Fraction but Lemire is even better with quiet moments that are about emotions and self reflection and he brings it here (it's Sweet Tooth and Essex County like in tone...the past story).
Characters: Clint and Kate just keep getting better, Lemire is also just as good with the banter and the interaction and with Project Communion the characters are given a morally grey dagger to the heart, it's great for drama. This was their show and their relationship was so well done. But we also can't forget about the past story which also had Barney and their mentor which was also a nice look at where the brothers came from.
A very strong first arc following Fraction, big shoes to fill and Lemire does it well.
Sempre fui mais fã do Arqueiro Verde da DC. Só que esse Gavião Arqueiro atual é baseado em sua versão Ultimate, com visual bonito (sem o traje clássico-cafona-ridículo-de-máscara-de-carnaval), com uma atitude assassina e ligação com a Shield. Esses são alguns elementos que me levaram a valorizar o personagem e foram incorporados ao universo Marvel convencional. Lemire dá sequencia de certo modo ao trabalho mostrado em "Gavião Arqueiro. Minha Vida Como Uma Arma" de Matt Fraction e David Aja, que é muito bom. Por isso valeu a leitura. É divertida - desnecessário dar a sinopse da história - e tem uma arte muito competente. Leiam!