What If? Dark Reign #1

Review: This issue revolves around that totally out of character moment when Clint Barton(Hawkeye/Ronin)decided he was going to kill Norman Osborn. In the regular 616 Marvel Universe, Clint fails, and is captured by Stormin' Norman and his fake Avengers. In this reality though, Clint succeeds and puts an arrow between Osborn's eyes, becoming public enemy number one. With one of their own responsible for a murder, Captain America, Spider-Man and Mockingbird decide that they had to locate Clint before some trigger happy Osborn supporter did. After some sleuthing, Mockingbird locates Clint huddled in a park pretending to be a hobo, and after some thought, she decides to give him a fake ID and passport so he can leave the country, since it was obvious that nowhere in the US would be safe for Clint. Clint heads for a taxi, but is stopped by Cap, who punches Clint, but then allows him to run away... Huh? Clint makes a break for it, but is watched from a rooftop by a plainclothes Spider-Man. Clint decides to hide in a bar(?), but is soon accosted by both Cap and Spidey... So much for leaving the country I guess... While the trio argue over who was right and who was wrong, they catch a news bulletin and spot a madman threatening to blow up a hotel where the madman thought Clint had been hiding. Oh, and Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and their baby were in that hotel just to complicate matters even more. Spidey and Cap let Clint go, and he heads to the building, where he confronts the crazy man. Clint gets close enough to the nutjob to get his hands on the bomb trigger, but in doing so is shot and killed by a concealed handgun the madman had on his person, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Okay, in the interest of total disclosure, allow me to admit that a)I am, and always have been a HUGE fan of Clint Barton/Hawkeye, and b)I HATED the fact that Clint ever even considered killing Osborn, because it was SO out of character for him. So right off the bat, that's a big strike against this story from the get go. Did I like the story? No, not really. It wasn't that the story was horrible or anything, it was just that I hated that Clint could so callously kill somebody, along with a number of other little quibbles. I mean, why did Cap and Spidey allow Clint to go after the madman on the hotel rooftop alone? Why couldn't Spidey have been backing Clint up, and as such have been there to web the gun away at the last second? I mean Cap and Spidey just let Clint, who WAS a wanted criminal, run off to save the entire hotel building alone?! Bah, I could have definitely gone without reading this one...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.This scene seems vaguely familiar... All we're missing is Clint dressed in green and Osborn stuck to the wall!