Hawkeye: Blindspot #3(of4):
Summary: This issue starts off by filling us all in on why Baron Zemo was so angry with Hawkeye... Basically Zemo swore revenge on Hawkeye after Hawkeye ended the threat of Moonstone back during the Thunderbolts/Avengers x-over from several years back... The fact that Jim McCann mentioned that is just amazing to me. Anyway, being a man of his word, when Hawkeye returned from the dead after House of M, Zemo saw that he had another shot at revenge on Hawkeye. With the two moonstones Zemo managed to acquire after the Avengers/T-bolts story, Zemo began searching Egghead's old hideouts, and discovered the body of Barney Barton in a tube. It turns out Barney DIDN'T die during the climatic battle on Egghead's space station, but came damn close. Figuring he'd be able to use Barney in some revenge plot against the Hawkeye, Egghead stashed him in the tube, but was eventually killed by Hawkeye(by accident!), leaving Barney to float in the tube for years. Zemo wound up freeing Barney from the tube, and with the uber-powerful moonstones was able to fully resuscitate Barney... That explanation is AWESOME! Okay, flashback over, on to the present. Clint recognizes the archer who struck him down last issue right away, but refuses to believe that it's his long thought dead brother. To that end, while dodging Barney's attacks, Clint gets in touch with Maria Hill back at Avengers Tower and tells her to run a DNA scan on the hair from Barney they found on Trickshot's body and compare it to Clint's own DNA. Maria runs the scan, and sure enough, it comes back a 99.9999% match to Clint's own DNA. Now positive that he was somehow facing his “dead” older brother, Clint tries to talk sense into Barney, but gets knocked out for his troubles. Later on Clint wakes up at Coney Island, strapped to an out of control roller coaster. He manages to get free before plummeting to his death, but is immediately targeted by Barney, who is trying to make a pincushion out of Clint. Barney taunts Clint, proclaiming himself the new Trickshot, before blowing up the stands for a ferris wheel. Before getting squashed by the out of control ride, Clint takes some Pym particles and turns into Goliath(!!!!!), stopping the structure, but weakening himself due to the rush of growing so rapidly. Clint reverts back to normal size, but due to the swelling in his brain(that was rapidly taking his eyesight), as well as the rapid shrinking, Clint passes out after staggering into a rundown funhouse. Clint wakes up to see Baron Zemo and Barney standing before him, where Zemo explains to Clint exactly why he was messing with his life. Clint is surprised that Zemo was still holding a grudge over Moonstone, with Clint accusing Zemo of being sore that Moonstone chose him over Zemo. This infuriates Zemo, who is still claiming that his grudge with Clint was over his word, not a woman. Clint tries to protest, but Zemo whacks Clint across the brow with his sword to shut him up. Zemo tells Clint that he had figured out Clint was losing his vision, and tosses Clint his eyesight replacing cowl, since Zemo didn't want to battle and kill an infirmed opponent. Clint pulls on the cowl, but unfortunately for him, he's taken one too many blows to the head by this point and goes fully blind, with his brother and Baron Zemo standing in front of him, both out for revenge.
Thoughts: Awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!! Jim McCann, you are The Man! The way he explained Barney's death away, as well as Zemo's involvement in Barney's “rebirth” was absolutely, 100% believable. Not only that, but Zemo's reasons for wanting revenge on Clint also put a huge smile on my face... I hadn't read the Avengers/Thunderbolts trade in quite some time, but I could vaguely remember the scene where Clint had to take the shot to rob Moonstone of her mind, thus ending her threat. After reading this comic, I pulled out the trade collecting that older mini-series, and McCann absolutely NAILED the events there, and how they related to this mini-series! Zemo DID swear revenge on Clint at the end of that mini-series, but was robbed of it, since Clint died soon thereafter during the Avengers Disassembled storyline... I'd count myself as one of Clint and Zemo's biggest fans, but even I had forgotten about Zemo's threat! The fact that McCann based this mini-series on that one little scene from a mini-series from 6 years ago is just fantastic! I don't think there's anything left for me to say here... For me, a fan of the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, Hawkeye and Baron Zemo, THIS right here was absolute comic book perfection. Thank you, Jim McCann.
Score: 10 out of 10. Yeah, a perfect score. Oh, and FYI, this WILL be my Favorite Mini-Series of the Year come 2011's year end awards... Just sayin'.
Awesomeness!!!Deadpool #35:
Summary: The rival for the love of Deadpool's space-wife, Obb, heads to Id, The Selfish Moon, where Deadpool was planning on blowing the addict moon to pieces. Obb pulls a ray gun on Pool, which Pool quickly takes away. Obb then begins to cry about the fact that he loved Pool's space-wife, while Pool himself had momentarily forgotten he was even married! Pool explains that he can sympathize with Obb, but wants to continue the conversation AFTER he'd blown Id to bits. However, Pool runs into three problems... 1) The nuke he brought onto Id had already begun counting down, 2) the spaceship he had brought to Id was only large enough to carry Pool or Obb, and 3) Obb didn't want to live without the love of Pool's space-wife... So what's a merc to do? Pool's ship flies away from Id, just before it explodes, and Pool arrives back at his base, where his space-wife was waiting for him. The ship opens, and Obb walks out, followed by Pool, who had hacked off his arms and legs in order to fit both himself and Obb in the ship. With that, Pool gives Obb and his space-wife his blessings to get together, before passing out. Pool wakes up and is thanked by the alien who hired him to destroy Id, but Pool doesn't want to hear it since his heroic deeds in space would never be known back on Earth. Pool meets up with his space-boss, his ex-space-wife and Obb and tells them he wanted to head back to Earth, takes a ship and leaves.
Thoughts: Meh. This was an okay comic, but it didn't really leave me feeling anything... It was kind of like chewing a piece of gum. Fine while the flavor was still there, but not something you'd remember once you spit it out, or in the case of this comic, finished it... Wow, what a weird comparison... Anyway, Deadpool's adventures in space were okay for the most part, but I'm definitely glad Pool is heading back to Earth, where he belongs.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Leave it to Deadpool to taunt a drug addicted moon...
Nice to see I'm not the only one who thought this comic was good; I actually BOUGHT it, instead of just downloading it.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering, is there ANY CONCEIVABLE WAY though that the conclusion is going to be able to wrap up the awesomeness in an acceptable fashion?
Uh, I was referring to Hawkeye Blindspot in my previous comment, oops.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, always great to hear from another fan of this mini, because Jim McCann did some AMAZING work here.
ReplyDeleteAfter I posted this review, I was actually wondering the same thing... I mean Clint is pretty much in a situation where there's almost NO way out. He's REALLY stuck between a rock(Zemo) and a hard place(Barney)! I can't imagine Clint is going to remain blind(if he does, I'll be REALLY upset!), so there has to be some way to fix that. If it was just his eyes that were the problem, I'd say that Barney has a change of heart and sacrifices himself at the last minute to save Clint and then donates his eyes to Clint... However, that doesn't work since it's not Clint's eyes that are the problem, but his brain... I seriously don't see how Clint is going to be able to come out of this with his eyesight intact, which is what's so AWESOME about this comic... For once, I honestly have NO clue how the story is going to wrap up. I will say this, I hope Zemo manages to escape(I guess he kind of has to because of the Fear Itself comic), I hope Clint gets his eyesight fixed, and I hope that Barney has a change of heart and winds up joining up with Clint, because I know I'd buy a Hawkeye/Trickshot team-up book. I'd probably buy two copies! :D
What about you, Boleniana? Any ideas as to how you think this series is going to end/or how you hope it'll end?
Currently I can "see" two main paths for it: either there's an unsatisfying deus ex machina which taints my memory of the entire series, or not everything's resolved in the next issue and it gets dealt with in a future miniseries (or future issue of an ongoing series). There's always the possibility of something coming completely out of left field that leaves me going "Wow, I have no idea what just happened but it was awesome," but as that outcome depends on the writer coming up with something I'd never even considered, I can't qualify it as anything other than Unknown, and thus I never see it as a potential path.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to get his sight back EVENTUALLY, no question about that; the only question is how and when. I'm hoping it's not at the end of the next issue, because there's a bunch of interesting things yet to be played around with about it. Remember, it's only been a day for the guy; we haven't seen him do anything other than freak out. Also, it's been built up as a serious issue that can't be easily fixed if at all, so any hasty resolution would feel like a cop-out.
I'm more of a casual comics reader; I stop into the comics store to buy manga, and I look over the shelves of comics. If something seems interesting, I download it; if it's REALLY interesting, I buy the next issue. I don't read comics by title or author, but by storyline. It's rare that I'll read more than five consecutive issues of something, unless a) it's a long, good, story, and b) I can download the necessary back issues.
Basically, not only do I not have your wealth of Hawkeye knowledge, all I know about his position in the current Marvel universe is what I've gleaned from this miniseries and the comics packaged into the Hawkeye/Widowmaker file I'd downloaded (most of which I've forgotten). Can you enlighten me on that issue please?
I'd personally love another Hawkeye mini-series continuing the events of this one in the near future. Especially with the same creative team. I still feel that Clint gets his vision back by the conclusion of this mini, if only because he's currently a member of the Avengers. I know that's a lousy reason, but I can't help but think that the next issue will put everything back to the status quo from before this mini started. I HOPE that isn't the case, but who knows...
ReplyDeleteThis mini-series actually does a pretty good job of giving a brief history lesson on Hawkeye. It kind of glosses over a few big things, such as his marriage/relationship with Mockingbird(who I was hoping would co-star in this mini), but for the most part it does a great job giving an overview on who Clint Barton is. As for Widowmaker, I honestly don't have much to say about it. Like yourself, I pretty much forgot about it too! It really didn't make much of an impact on me...