Comic Conversations: Hawkeye the Avenger Who Is Just A Dude

Hawkeye #1 by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce was played by Alan Alda for 11 years in this summer's hit blockbuster movie "The Avengers."

No, wait. None of that is true.

You probably remember Hawkeye AKA Clint Barton from "The Avengers" where he was the dude with a bow and arrow working alongside the super soldier and a god. The first page even starts with an image of Clint falling backwards off of a building while shooting a grappling hook arrow just like in the movie and almost every commercial for the movie. However, in this, Hawkeye swings wrong, hits the building, lands on a car, and ends up in the hospital for six weeks.

From there he spends the rest of the issue out of costume and never uses his bow and arrow again. He seems more like a TV PI than a superhero. He goes to a barbecue on the roof of his apartment building, he infiltrates an underground casino, and roughs up some Russians who mistreat their dog.

Honestly, I've never cared about Hawkeye as a character. I've always been more of a DC guy so I just saw him as another guy with a bow and arrow showing up more than 20 years after Green Arrow showed up. Matt Fraction and David Aja made a Hawkeye comic that I want to keep reading about. I loved their work together on The Invincible Iron Fist so I was pretty keen on checking this out and they didn't disappoint.

This first issue promises that Hawkeye will return next month in "The Vagabond Code" and I'll be picking it up.