Hawkeye 20 - the finale*

[stubbleupdate]

Oh, to think of the adventures we could have had


This has been Marvel's best book this year.
The second best book was Hawkeye by Fraction and Aja.

*sort of.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

wow;... with no context this is confusing...


i love it, cuz, you know, kate... but i am still confused...

[stubbleupdate]

This is a one page scene.
It's (essentially) a one page story.
The context is at the top of the page.

[icon_uk]

Have to say, "Nope, sorry, that context doesn't really help".

[shadowpsykie]

Thanks

[shadowpsykie]

maybe i am blind... but i don't see the context.... i mean i get that it's a one page story. i assume the friend she is going to save is Male Hawkeye... but from what and who?

[ablackraptor]

Hawkguy is currently deaf, and has a hit on his head that the entire East Coast Criminal element is looking to claim. Kate found out and is trying to head back to warn him/help him fight it off, but needs to earn some money to do so since her dad cut her off when she moved to LA. All the people she's talking to are potential clients she's seen, save for the guy she called; he's one half of the nice gay couple who's wedding she saved who basically sorta adopted her and have helped her settle in. I forget their names, but they've been a rather nice pair of guys, if admittedly not very well-developed.

[shadowpsykie]

AH that makes sense now. okay. excellent. i got all of that except the why is she doing it... and i was only thrown off because she mentioned the friend she needs to save (otherwise i would have thought she was just a hero/detective for hire)

[thatnickguy]

....what context?

[stubbleupdate]

The advert

[thezmage]

I do not understand what she's supposed to be saying in the fourth panel.

[silverhammerman]

I think it's a reference to Tinder and other dating/hookup apps of that sort. Basically the user gets shown a picture of another user and swipes left or right on their phone depending on whether they find the other person attractive (right) or not (left). They are then free to message each other based on mutual attraction.

Basically it's just a joke about how Kate thinks the dude is hot.

[falkner]

I assumed it was something like that, but thought the opposite, except her saying she didn't like the dude wouldn't make sense... man, I hate this sort of pop culture references.

[silverhammerman]

Now that we're nearing the end of the road with this seriesare their any thoughts going into the finale?

Personally I found the alternating protagonist stuff and abandonment of the done-in-one format in the latter half of the series to be a little annoying. It made building up momentum as a monthly hard to do, though I'm sure it'll read better once it's collected.

Especially since it meant that we never actually got as much of Kate Bishop doing Rockford Files stuff as I would have liked to.

[ablackraptor]

I don't really mind the way its gone, though the delays did weaken the book. I think the drawn out story with Clint makes sense knowing that its building up to a climax to end the series, and though I do miss the single-shot story telling, I think that's how single-shot stories are meant to progress into. I think it might have helped if Kate got her own book or got a backup feature (or got the book bumped to fortnight release rather than monthly release), so Clint wasn't waiting two months to get resolution at the very least.

Saying that, as much as I enjoyed it, I am looking forward to the inevitable relaunch Marvel will do, and I hope to see who they bring on as the new creative team. It'll probably be very different, but at the same time, that's probably a good thing; that way, it won't be someone just trying to amp the style instead of doing their own thing.

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, oftentimes single issues stories transition into longer stuff. I prefer reading the short stuff, but narratively it makes sense to have that development. I strongly agree that doing the book twice monthly or splitting each issue in some way probably would have created a better flow than we wound up with. Hell, even doing full arcs and only alternating leads every 4-6 issues might have been preferable to the staggered storytelling that we got.

I'm definitely looking forward to whenever Marvel relaunches this book. It'll be a tough act to follow, much like the recently wrapped Ellis/Shalvey Moon Knight, but those first six issue of Hawkeye put the characters in a really exciting and flexible place for future creators to use them. Though this run has kind of moved on to something else, I think the framework it developed initially still has a ton of potential.

[mrstatham]

Personally, and I don't entirely like saying this because it implies that the Fraction/Aja stuff wasn't good, but I'd much rather read Fraction and Wu on Hawkeye with Kate in the lead than Clint. Clint's stuff has been good, but it just felt, at times, that it could have starred any 'screw-up' character Marvel happens to have, just insert the memetic stuff of 'aw, car' and Pizza Dog, plus living in an apartment block. The Kate stuff has been equally different than what Heinberg laid down in terms of what the character should sound like, but then I never really particularly felt Heinberg made anyone sound that distinct.

And as amazing as the sign-language issue was, I still don't understand why we only got that handful of Kate issues while waiting for it (which took at least six months, I swear to god). She deserved so much better, but then I'm not sure what's going on with Fraction at Marvel, lately. He seems to be wanting to cut his ties with Marvel as quickly as possible, based on the rather sudden end to his FF runs, not writing Inhuman, and now Hawkeye coming to an abrupt end..

[bruinsfan]

I'm kind of the opposite on that last point. I loved the treatment of Kate early in the series, but the later stuff just seems too light and... flighty? for the characterization of her that I prefer. It felt like Patsy Walker dyed her hair black, moved to LA, and started calling herself Kate Bishop.

[silverhammerman]

Characterization is a legitimate complaint. However I think it might be a deliberate attempt to show that without her support network of Clint/The Young Avengers, Kate becomes the same kind of screw up that Clint becomes when he isolates himself.

Keep in mind that as it's gone on this run has become very much about community and accepting help, if Clint's arc is anything to go buy, so having the same thing play out in miniature with Kate makes sense.