Hawkeye #6

"Six Days in the Life of"
written by Matt Fraction
art by David Aja
colors by Matt Hollingsworth

Hawkeye has my problems!  He has other problems too, but he's also got mine.  I have no idea what's happening with the nest of serpentine cords that live behind my television either, nor do I have enough hands or coffee table space for my remote controls.  I can't call Tony Stark to help me out, but for a technological genius his solution—just buy new stuff, as though you're not going to have to set it up anyway!—is fairly disappointing.  But he shows up in a suit, so that must count for something.

This Christmas issue also features the return of the "tracksuit draculas" as they crash Clint's rooftop holiday party and kidnap him in matching 80s vans.  And there's nothing that quite says "holiday spirit" like a battered man in a Santa hat.  But threatened with the murders of his Brooklyn tenants by a very old mafia thug in a backwards Kangol hat sucking on an oxygen machine, Clint decides to leave town.  No doubt part of it is his nomadic carnival background, part of it his chronic undervalued self-worth, but Clint seems to have a habit of doing this.  Months after moving in and he still hasn't unpacked "like a grown-ass man" (Hawkeye: Little Hits: 32 [6: 6]).  And Kate, brilliant and honest as she is, reads his parting gift just the right way and calls him out on it.  His decision not to leave, despite the conflict with his attackers not actually being resolved, answers her de facto call to arms.

Fraction's Hawkeye, despite the superficial appearance of being highly episodic and quirkily aloof, is primarily about Clint Barton's slow acclimation to his expanding family.  The closest is, no doubt, Kate Bishop, who's probably the best friend he's ever had, but it's also about building relationships with his neighbors.  From the opening issue, when he acquires his dog Lucky, Hawkeye's been putting down roots.  His invitation to Simone and her children to watch Christmas specials in his apartment is further evidence of just how much he needs to be a part of a community, beyond that even of the Avengers.

[February 2013]

As collected in Hawkeye: Little Hits  (ISBN: 978-0785165637)