Hawkeye: Blindspot #4 & Invincible Iron Man #504

Two Marvel comics on the agenda for today, one I've been looking forward to all month long(Hawkeye: Blindspot) and one I'm expecting big things from(Iron Man). Will they live up to my lofty expectations or will I wind up being disappointed??? Well, let's find out!

Hawkeye: Blindspot #4(of 4):

Summary: So after the events at the end of the last issue, Hawkeye is blind now. AND he's trapped in a room with his crazed brother Barney(who's going by the codename Trickshot) and Baron Zemo, the man who put all of Clint's recent misery into motion due to Clint taking away something Zemo loved(Moonstone). Clint let's his brother taunt him for a while while he tries to regain his bearings and remember where everybody was placed in the room. Having listened to Barney blather on for a while, and recalling the layout of the room, Clint fires a few trick arrows at his surprised brother, hoping to disorient him. Unfortunately, Barney recovers faster than Clint, and knocks Clint across the room, causing Clint to totally lose track of what was where. Now really blind, and practically helpless, Barney begins to nick Clint with several arrows, just to be an ass. Barney decides to beat Clint to death with his bare hands and begins to do just that, asking Clint if he had any last words, to which Clint responds, “Dad would be proud.” in reference to the abusive father both Clint and Barney had suffered beatings from as youths. That line completely infuriates Barney, allowing Clint to get the upper-hand by latching onto Barney's leg and delivering a beating of his own. Eventually Barney puts a bit of distance between the two and they both pull out their last remaining arrow... Clint throws his first, and a water filled arrow breaks under Barney's feet. Barney laughs that off and steps on the water preparing to throw his final arrow, a conventional and deadly one. Clint listens to Barney step in the pool of water and is able to anticipate the arrival of Barney's arrow by sound and catch it, which shocks Barney long enough for Clint to throw it back at him, pinning him to the wall by the shoulder, before he's able to knock out his pinned brother with a well placed right. With the battle between the brothers over, Baron Zemo emerges from the shadows and applauds the fight he just saw, telling Hawkeye that they were even now, since they had now both lost somebody they loved. Clint says nuts to that and tries to blindly attack Zemo by following his voice, but is in no real condition to defeat a fighter as skilled as Zemo, and is easily brushed aside. Zemo tells Clint that since he had won this round of their battle, he was releasing all of the money Barney had made back during his criminal days to Clint, making Clint a very wealthy man. Clint makes one last effort to get Zemo, but Zemo teleports away, just as Steve Rogers and Iron Man arrive on the scene to find Clint barely conscious. Later, in a lab at Avengers Tower, Clint wakes up and is surprised that he can sort of see again. Dr. Blake(Thor's civilian guise) informs Clint that his earlier usage of the Pym Particles to turn into Goliath had temporarily reduced the swelling in Clint's brain, making surgery a possibility. Blake tells Clint that they were going to use Barney's bone marrow(as per Barney's wishes) in an attempt to help Clint's own body regenerate the damage done to his occipital lobe, hopefully curing his blindness. A quick surgery later, and Clint wakes up able to see again. After thanking his friends who had stuck with him throughout this mini(Blake, Iron Man and Steve), Clint heads into Barney's room to find out why his brother had given his bone marrow to help Clint. Barney explains that HE wanted to kill Clint, and that he wanted to do it when Clint was at 100%, not as a blind man. Clint tells Barney that he refuses to give up hope that one day they'd be working together, but Barney is insistent that he WILL kill Clint eventually and that he'd never forgive him. A few days later, Clint heads back to the funhouse where the climatic final battle began, as well as the place Clint first became Hawkeye and Barney became Trickshot, and decides to use his new fortune to fix the place up and make it a place of redemption.

Thoughts: Well, I first want to say this... I LOVED this mini-series. The first three issues were absolutely phenomenal. This issue was really good too, but there were a few things that bugged me... Clint's battle with Barney(and to a lesser extent Zemo) just seemed too evenly matched... I mean Clint was fully blind during that fight, but was more than able to hold his own. Yes, eventually Barney did put Clint down, and Clint was able to outsmart his older brother by making him angry, and thus careless, but Clint catching the final arrow BLIND and firing it back at Barney, hitting him RIGHT in the shoulder and pinning him to the wall was a bit much for me. I can only suspend my belief so far! Other then that though, I have no real complaints here. Clint got his eyesight back(which is something that HAD to happen), he also got his brother back(somebody who can become a serious threat to Clint, and hopefully the Avengers), and still has heat with Baron Zemo. So yes, as one of the biggest Hawkeye fans you'll ever find, I'd call this mini-series a RESOUNDING success, and I'll tip my hat to Jim McCann(writer) and Paco Diaz(artist) for providing me with a Hawkeye mini-series that I'll remember for years to come.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.That's a great catch... For a blind man!!!


Invincible Iron Man #504: (Fear Itself tie-in)

Summary: We get started with th Grey Gargoyle watching one of the Serpent's hammers land in Paris. Curious, he approaches it and becomes one of the Serpent's Worthy. As for the star of this comic, Tony Stark tells Pepper Potts to hire Bethany Cabe(who has worn the War Machine armor a while back) as the head of security for Stark Resilient, especially since he'd be busy dealing with the Fear Itself stuff. Pepper doesn't really want to, since Tony had been romantically involved with Bethany(who hasn't Tony been romantically involved with?!), but Tony puts his foot down and rushes off to Paris to see what had happened there. Upon arriving, Tony's senses pick up NO life signs anywhere in the city. Tony lands and is horrified to find nothing but stone statues that used to be people. A man sneaks out of his home and tells Tony to get out of the city before it was too late, but alas, it IS too late and the now super-charged, Serpent possessed Grey Gargoyle(along with his big-ass sledgehammer) turns the man into stone before turning his attack to Iron Man. Tony rapidly realizes that the Gargoyle can't seem to turn Tony to stone, but is WAY stronger and faster then he's ever been before, knocking Tony through several buildings, as well as through several stone people, breaking them to Tony's horror. Tony tries to take the battle to Gargoyle, and is simply decimated by the Gargoyle. The Gargoyle beats Tony to the ground, and slams his sledgehammer into Tony's face, as Tony tries desperately to get a mayday out to the rest of the Avengers. After the sledgehammer shot, Tony is left a broken, battered, bloody and unconscious mess. Eventually Tony comes to and realizes he was buried under something very heavy. Tony climbs to the surface and is stunned when he realizes that he was buried under hundreds of broken statues of former people.

Thoughts: Wooooooo, now THIS was a GREAT comic! The ONLY knock I had against it was the stuff with Pepper and Bethany. Honestly, I could care less about whether Pepper was jealous of Tony's relationship with Bethany. Besides that though? I loved every page! Unsurprisingly Matt Fraction did a great job with this Fear Itself tie-in(I mean he should! He's the architect of the story!), and the sense of dread while Tony was in the silent City of Lights was palpable. The Grey Gargoyle(who I've always seen as a joke of a character) came across looking like a MONSTER, and completely squashed Iron Man in a matter of a few pages, something you don't see happen very often. To say I'm looking forward to the next issue of this series is a HUGE understatement!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Nighty night, Tony.

Deadpool #35 & Hawkeye: Blindspot #3

Two Marvel reviews here, including one that gets the prized perfect score... Yes it's prized! To who? Um... Well, to me, but still... Whatever, on to the reviews!

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...

Quick Hits: 3/17/11

Finally, X has come back to his blog! I've finished up most of the really tough schoolwork that's been hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles, so all I have left is the little daily junk I have to take care of. But for now, my group projects and formal papers are out of the way. That means I can FINALLY devote some much needed time to my blog and provide some comic book reviews. I only have two reviews to post today, a DC and a Marvel, but they were both quite good. Now if all goes according to plan, I'm hoping to post a good 10 reviews for tomorrow... Yes, that's right, TEN! Now there's no way I'll be able to make those reviews as in depth as my normal reviews, so I'll just be hitting the main thing that occurred in each book, giving some thoughts on the comic, posting the score and a scan. I haven't decided what to name that post, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Okay, enough from me, let's start things off with the insanely awesome Hawkeye: Blindspot #2!

Hawkeye: Blindspot #2(of 4):

Summary: We get started with Hawkeye still trying to run down any leads he can to figure out who killed his mentor, Trickshot. After mopping up some street trash and learning nothing worthwhile, Hawkeye is confronted by his longtime friend/mentor, Steve Rogers. Steve tells Hawkeye that he wasn't fit for active duty, with Hawkeye's impending blindness and all, but Hawkeye naturally doesn't want to hear it. Knowing the only way to get through to Hawkeye was with violence, Steve attacks, and the two longtime Avengers battle. Steve appears to get the upper-hand, after he damages the cowl Iron Man created to compensate for Hawkeye's blindness, but Hawkeye manages to use a tactic he learned from Steve himself way back in the day to put Steve down with an electric arrow... In a word, everything about that battle was AWESOME. From there Hawkeye takes off on his skycycle and gets in touch with Maria Hill to see if she had learned anything new about Trickshot's death. Hill tells Hawkeye that there were traces of Plexiglas and sand that was found around the NYC area on Trickshot, and Hawkeye thinks back to Trickshot's last words about never wanting to step foot in a carnival again, which leads to Hawkeye realizing that Trickshot had most likely been held at Coney Island. Hawkeye starts towards Coney Island when an explosive arrow attaches itself to Hawkeye's skycycle. Hawkeye sees it and leaps free, landing with a thud on top of a train right before the skycycle explodes. As he begins to get to his feet, the mystery archer from earlier approaches Hawkeye and Hawkeye realizes that the archer appeared to be his dead brother Barney(!!!).

Thoughts: Well, this was all sorts of awesome. It seems like this mini-series is a love letter from Jim McCann to all of us Hawkeye fans out there. The flashbacks were flat out awesome as they were last issue, and they took us from Hawkeye's first tentative steps as a hero, to joining the Avengers, to becoming Goliath, to the(apparent) death of his brother Barney. As for the scenes set in the present, anytime Hawkeye and Steve Rogers are together in the same issue I'm beyond happy. Their fight was awesome, with Steve simply looking out for Hawkeye's safety, while Hawkeye, in true Hawkeye fashion, doesn't want anyone's assistance or pity. Hawkeye beating Steve by using strategy he learned from Steve all those years ago was also a great touch. As for the mystery archer apparently being Barney, that caught me by surprise... I'm still not sold that the archer is Barney, I'd still prefer it if it was some unknown child of Barney. With Baron Zemo as the mastermind behind all of this, it is very possible that he took somebody and had them look and act as if they were Barney to play with Hawkeye's mind. So I'm NOT quite sold that this archer is actually Hawkeye's long thought to be dead brother... But who knows, maybe it is! God do I love this mini-series...

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Awesome. Just plain awesome.


Booster Gold #42:

Summary: This issue begins with Booster returning to the present after spending 5 years trapped in a jail in the future. From there Booster regales his sister and Rip(as well as us) with a tale of how things went while he was incarcerated. After having the cell to himself for a while, Booster ends up getting a new cellmate, the Perforated Man. Booster tries to make nice with PM, but PM is a certifiable nutjob and just wants to rant, rave and occasionally attack Booster. Booster finally has enough and takes a swipe at PM and is stunned to see that the two of them were no longer in their cell, but were way back in the prehistoric past. Booster spends a few days running from PM and the dinosaurs before he has enough of that and attacks PM, which sends them back to their cell. The guards come in and break up the fight, and Booster wants to know why the guards didn't realize that Booster and PM were gone for so long. The guards tell Booster they had no clue what he was going on about, and Booster realizes that although he had been gone for days, only a second or two passed at the jail. Booster and PM fight on and off and jump back and forth through time until PM has a moment of lucidity and explains to Booster that he was crazy because he a disease known as chronal leprosy, which caused him(or just various parts of his body) to jump back and forth through time uncontrollably. PM tells the shocked Booster that Booster himself also had the early stages of chronal leprosy. Booster wants to know how PM could possibly know this, before he realizes that PM was actually a future version of himself. PM tells Booster that he was doomed to have a hellish final few years, and this issue ends with Booster accompanying PM to the end of time where they could both die in peace.

Thoughts: Well we know Booster didn't take the old dirt nap at the end of this issue since he's narrating the story, no? I also guessed the identity of the Perforated Man pretty early on since Booster was dropping some pretty massive hints about it throughout. Besides those two things, I actually enjoyed this issue a lot. The story was fast paced and interesting. Plus it wasn't dripping with unfunny comedy, which is always a good thing!

Score: 8 out of 10.Pfft, my hand is always vanishing. I don't freak out about it.

Hawkeye: Blind Spot #1, possibly the best comic book EVER!!!

Okay, so here's the story. Before I read this comic, I was planning on putting it into one of my Quick Hits posts. However, it was so incredibly, staggeringly, amazingly, mind-blowingly good that I decided to give it its own post. So there's the back story, here's the comic.

Hawkeye: Blind Spot #1(of 4) Writer: Jim McCann. Artist: Paco Diaz.

Review: We kick things off with The World's Greatest Marksman, Hawkeye, along with a few fellow Avengers, preparing to take on a group of villains. After some verbal jousting Hawkeye fires the first shot and misses the villains. Badly. Regardless of that miss, the Avengers put the villains down, and head back to Avengers Tower. Tony Stark approaches Clint and tells him that he's been reviewing the past few battles Hawkeye has been a part of and noticed that Clint's accuracy has been steadily declining. Tony brings Clint into a medical room where Clint is surprised to discover Dr. Donald Blake and Steve Rogers. Tony explains that he took a scan of Clint's head earlier and discovered some swelling in his brain(as a result of a blow to the head Clint took during the Widowmaker mini-series). Clint then learns that not only is there nothing that can be done to relieve the swelling, but that it was diminishing his depth perception, and would eventually lead to total blindness. Tony tells Clint that he can rig up a few devices that would help with Clint's vision for the short term, while they try to figure out a way to halt the blindness before it has progressed to the point of no return. Clint refuses Tony's devices and asks to be left alone, still shocked by the news. His teammates leave the room and Clint puts his fist into some brain scans before flashing back to a scene from his childhood, straight through to his initial meeting with the Swordsman. After some thought, Clint heads out to see Tony and to take him up on his offer of assistance. Tony gives Clint a new cowl that would give him near radar-like vision, as well as a pair of sunglasses that would function similarly to the new cowl. Clint thanks Tony for the “toys” and flashes back to just after his legs had been broken thanks to the Swordsman. From there we relive Clint's first meeting with Trickshot, the archer who would train Clint to become Hawkeye. We go over Trickshot's betrayal of Clint, and his initial meeting with Iron Man, who inspires Clint to become a costumed hero in the first place. The flashbacks end with Clint breaking away from the(at the time) villainous Black Widow and thinking about joining the Avengers. Back in the present, Clint receives a mysterious phone call and is taunted by some unknown voice, while Trickshot's unconscious body is tossed into the lobby of Avengers Tower. Clint rushes to his onetime mentor's side and hands him over to Dr. Blake. After a some tests, Blake reveals that Trickshot had been seemingly tortured for an extended amount of time(probably at least a year), and that his cancer had returned. In other words, Trickshot wasn't long to the world. Blake leaves Clint alone with Trickshot to say his farewells and Trickshot awakens momentarily to tell Clint that he had been forced to train somebody. Trickshot explains that this archer hated Clint passionately and that he was nearly as skilled as Clint himself. Trickshot apologizes for all he did wrong to Clint and dies. From there we head to an abandoned section of Coney Island where an archer dressed all in red walks into a room to meet with Baron Zemo(!!!). Zemo asks if the archer had delivered the message to Hawkeye and the archer responds that Trickshot had been dropped off. The archer talks about how he's waited for years to get his revenge on Clint, and Zemo tells him to be patient, since it was nearly time to bring Hawkeye to his knees.

Thoughts: This was without a shadow of a doubt the BEST single comic book issue I've read in a LONG time. Possibly years. I actually read it TWICE it was so good! And then I wrote this review and used the comic as reference so I could go through it a third time! It was that good. As I'm sure several of you know, I am one of the biggest Hawkeye fans around. I have the entire West Coast Avengers run, every issue of Avengers Spotlight, all of the various Hawkeye series that have been released over the years, his Thunderbolts appearances, etc. In other words, when it comes to comic book characters, Hawkeye is in my personal top 5. That's why this comic was such a treat. You can tell Jim McCann did his research. He KNOWS this character. Hawkeye speaks as I'd expect him to speak. He acts the way I'd expect him to act. He wrote the perfect Hawkeye here. Not only were the words perfectly done, the art followed suit, with every detail from the flashbacks recreated in exact detail, right down to Clint's jacket from when he unwittingly served as Trickshot accomplice to a robbery. So kudos also need to go to Paco Diaz for the great visuals. So the dialogue was perfect, and the art was great, but what about the story? The story was as good, if not better! The internal threat Clint is facing is probably the most dire one an archer can face, the loss of his eyesight. I'd reckon it would be mighty hard to be a blind archer! Besides that, there's also the external threat Clint has to deal with, the archer who Zemo forced Trickshot into training. And to up the ante, this archer, along with Zemo withheld the medications that Trickshot needed to prolong his life, adding a personal layer to this story. And then there's Zemo... Putting Baron Zemo in the role of the mastermind behind this archer was sheer GENIUS! Clint and Zemo have some legitimate hatred from back when Clint led the Thunderbolts, a team Zemo always considered to be his. With Zemo having recently turned back to a life of crime, it makes PERFECT sense for him to go after Clint, especially now that Zemo has noticed Clint isn't at the top of his game. Finally, there's the mysterious archer. His identity is unknown to Clint and the Avengers(his voice was scanned after he called Clint and the Avengers computers came up empty), but he seems to know Clint, and on top of that seems to have waited some time to get revenge on Clint... My guess is that this archer is the son of Clint's dead brother Barney, but who can say? Whew... I can't think of anything else to say here... In all honesty, nothing I say can do this comic justice. It needs to be read. I mean hell, it's only $2.99, which is a dollar cheaper than most of Marvel's mini-series, and it's worth every penny. If Marvel jacked the price up to $10 for the second issue I'd HAPPILY pay that price. I could seriously go on and on about this comic, but I'll end this review here. This was the first issue of this mini-series. It's only four issues. The price is a VERY reasonable $2.99. Buy this comic! If you've ever been a fan of the Avengers you owe it to yourself to read this! Even if you don't know squat about Hawkeye besides the fact that he's an archer, you should STILL buy this comic! Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Score: 11 out of 10. Yes, that's right, an 11. If I can give one comic a -356 for a score, why can't I give this one an 11? It truly was beyond perfect.Awesomeness, thy name is Hawkeye!