Hawkeye Cuts Out!

If you were to hold me down and force me to answer the question who is my favorite Marvel hero I might just answer Hawkeye the Marksman. It depends what day it is as Captain Marvel holds my heart and Ant-Man is just too delightful at times, but Hawkeye's everyman low-power awesomeness can be totally enthralling at times.

And he's such a hard luck type, or at least he was in the early 70's. An archer villain who was redeemed by becoming an Avenger, he persistently feels outclassed by his colleagues, so much so that he drops his bow and becomes the giant Goliath for a spell. When he tires of that he finds his way back to his roots slowly but in The Avengers #109 he completes that journey dropping his (as Hawkeye puts it) "Steve Reeves" togs and putting on his classic uniform. He ends up employed by a giant billionaire named Champion who wants to rule the world and thinks taking up archery will be the final link in that process. Weird but neat art in a rousing story.

In the next issue of the comic the Assemblers are summoned by Professor X to help the X-Men who have lost their comic and have been taken captive by their arch enemy Magneto. There is much helter skelter action but in the end some of the Avengers are captured and the threat seems all too real.

Hawkeye for his part left the team behind and heads for the cool climes of San Francisco to reclaim his one-time girlfriend Natasha Romanoff, the deadly Black Widow.She has become the partner (in more ways than one) of Daredevil but Hawkeye thinks the clock can be turned back.

So in Daredevil #109 he throws down with the blind superhero and the two fight here and there and pretty much everywhere to win the hand of the charming damsel. The damsel herself is having none of it and tells the two rams to knock it off, that she'll make the decision and not them. Then things get weird as the Avengers show up to recruit DD and Widow (and Hawkeye too since he's there) to help with the Magneto problem. Hawkeye opts out and angrily heads off.

In The Avengers #111 Daredevil and Black Widow fight alongside the Assemblers and free the captives and defeat the rather complex plans of Magneto. They fight some dinosaurs along the way too. DD turns down an invite to join the team (again) but Widow put out with the way he's been treating here decides to hang around a bit.

Meanwhile Hawkeye has gone off seeking some solace by looking for trouble. He finds it in the pages of The Incredible Hulk #166 when he teams with the Jadejaws to battle the deadly menace of Zzzax a living walking electrical nightmare. After a furious battle Hawkeye figures a way to defuse the enemy but the Hulk oddly gets the credit and Hawkeye is more than a bit miffed.

And that brings us to The Defenders, for in issue #7 the team must battle Attuma and more.

The action picks up as the Hulk and Hawkeye are still exchanging viewpoints on the recent conflict with Zzzax and the Hulk seems to be getting the upper hand. Sub-Mariner and Valkyrie happen along and as it turns out all of them join forces as the non-team dejour to face the threat of Attuma and his ally the former Fantastic Four baddie the Red Ghost. So Hawkeye's journey while not complete has taken him to that point where he will find his opportunity for a little payback against his Avenger buddies in the Avengers-Defenders War.

More to come.

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