Kate: Capes, crime, and horror. Capes, crime, and horror…
Dan: What’s that?
K: Capes, crime, horror. Since we started this blog, we’ve read some pretty bitchin’ comics. But after awhile, they kinda start to blend together. And they all fall into the same three categories: Capes, crime, and horror. What’s a girl gotta do to read something fresh? Something DIFFERENT?
::LIGHTNING STRIKES A SHELF FILLED WITH OLD ROCKFORD FILES REEL-TO-REEL TAPES AND STEVEN SODERBERGH DVD’S AND 1970’S MARVEL COMICS::
HAWKEYE #1 appears on the shelf.
D: Huh. That’s odd. I didn’t even know we had that shelf.
K: ::blinks:: So?
D: So.
K: So???
D: So let’s get to it. Let’s read the thing already!
—
K: So. You know how you’re always talking about your list of Perfect Movies? Well, HAWKEYE #1 just made my list of Perfect Comics. It just is… perfect. It starts with the synopsis on page 2 and the tone is set from there.
D: Right! This is our introduction to Hawkeye as told by Matt Fraction. “This is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger. That’s all you need to know.” BOOM! This is the concise storytelling we’re always crying for.
K: The storytelling feels like a Steven Soderbergh movie. Fraction doesn’t waste a panel. Every panel moves the plot forward. In fact, this is one of the few comics I’ve read that I forget I’m reading a comic. The artist, David Aja, is a freaking wizard or something. The transitions from scene to scene, the flash forwards and backwards, are done in such a way that I felt like I was watching a Soderbergh flick instead of reading a comic.
D: ::frowns:: No JLo in the comic, though.
K: Nope, but we’ve got a supporting cast consisting of the tenants in Clint “Hawkeye” Barton’s apartment building, and the building owner/Russian mobster Ivan. Also introducing Arrow the dog, The Sensational Character Find of 2012.
D: Seriously, how awesome was the introduction of the dog to this story?
K: I hear that! The way Fraction slowly introduces the pooch into the story you have no idea how important he will be in the end. And you love that darn dog so much by the end of the story…
D: You’re so schmaltzy.
K: SHUT. UP.
D: And that brings us back to the artist, Aja, and the way he portrays the dog. The subtlety to his expressions, his mannerisms are just perfect.
K: Just like the book.
D: It’s books like this that give you hope that the comic book industry still has a place for new stories, told in innovative ways. Books that, when you finish them make you smile and say, “Damn. What a great comic.”
