So far I’ve been pretty disappointed with this new volume of All New Hawkeye. The series is continuing to focus on the children arc, which was introduced in Lemire’s last volume of Hawkeye. In All New Hawkeye #4 a new arc begins. Find out if the series is worth picking up!
Plot
In the last arc the series focused on Clint’s childhood, now Lemire is focusing on Kate’s past. Kate is a lonely girl, who is tired of living a privileged life. Her goal is to be just like her father when she grows up, but that all changes after shocking revelations.
In the present Clint is looking for a missing Kate. Clint thinks that Kate is helping the Inhuman children in secret. He now is working with Shield to find Kate and defeat Hydra, who are in possession of the children.
Story
Even though I’ve felt that this run of Hawkeye has been lackluster, I was really excited to read this new arc of the series. I am a huge Kate Bishop fan and for years I have felt that writers handling her character should tell more stories about her family.
Kate Bishop was first introduced in the original Young Avengers run when Hulking, Wiccan, and Patriot crashed into Kate’s sister’s wedding. In this series we learned that Kate was wealthy with a well known family, but Kate wanted more in life. This led her to becoming Hawkeye.
After the first arc of Young Avengers we didn’t see much of Kate’s family. Even in the arc called “Family Matters” Kate’s family was the only one that didn’t have a focus. I wondered why there wasn’t any writer who wanted to explore her family dynamic. Now you may understand why I was really anticipating this issue. Was my personal hype worth it?
I will say my favorite part of this issue was the flashbacks with Kate, and I think there is a lot of potential for this part of the story. I really enjoyed Kate’s diary entries where she discussed her relationship with her father. Kate didn’t want to be like the other girls at her private school, she didn’t want to be like her mother, but instead she wanted to be just like her father.
She believes that children see their parents as super heroes or at the very least good people, and that night she found out her father was neither.
Even though I enjoyed looking back at who Kate once was, I don’t feel like it was enough for me to say this was a great issue because the present story was still very weak. This part of the story is still focusing on the children arc, which to me isn’t a very interesting story, and especially not a story that needs so many issues to be told. I wish that the series would finally move onto new adventures.
Another downside to the present storyline is that Clint still doesn’t trust Kate. Ever since these two started teaming up in Fraction’s Hawkeye run I’ve felt we have seen Kate and Clint a part more than together.
I understand that we needed Clint in this issue because it’s his series too, but the story would have flowed better if the issue focused fully on Kate. Maybe instead of focusing on the children arc. We could have seen a parallel between Kate’s relationship with her father in the past and in the present. We still don’t even know if her father knows that Kate is a superhero or how he feels about his daughter being a hero. Hopefully this will be explored in this current arc.
Art
Sadly the artwork is another negative I have towards All New Hawkeye. In the present story the artwork is too simple. This is evident in the scene between Clint and Maria Hill. Maria has lines for eyes and her facial expression doesn’t change throughout the whole scene.
The artwork in the flashbacks is also simple, and the coloring is too light. I like that the coloring uses watercolor, but it’s hard to see what is going on in the scene. It makes you feel less connected to the story.
Verdict
This arc is a slight improvement from the last, but the series still needs a lot of work.