Here we are at a brand-new issue of Hawkeye: Freefall, and wow, did the creative team hit the ground running and hard. I would recommend that you go back and read issue #4 before diving into this one, as it’ll help to refresh things since that issue dropped back in March. Plus, it has Daredevil guest starring, and you can’t go wrong with that.
What we know so far is that Clint is tired of the Hood running around causing havoc, so he does what any hero would do: stop the bad guy. Yet, as Clint has decided to don his Ronin costume and do some very questionable things in order to stop the Hood, we are forced to ask: does the end justify the means?
I have one word when it comes to Otto Schmidt’s art: WOW! We are getting pages of fights and drama that show Clint is really going full throttle on his war against the Hood. There is a great two page spread that Otto has crafted that reminds me of a movie montage with all the ways that Clint is going after the Hood’s operations.
We do get some guest stars in this issue with a return of Spider-Man but the best is seeing Otto draw Captain America. I love this confrontation with the three and how Night Nurse steps in. Plus, we get to see a huge development in the relationship between Night Nurse and Clint, which reminds all of us to never stand up your significant other.
Matthew Rosenberg did a great job with his script in this issue. So much comes to a head with Clint’s actions over the course of the series. I like the way Rosenberg has Clint act in this issue, especially with the opener of having Clint and Kingpin talk and see if there is a way to stop the Hood. It’s great the way the Kingpin acts in this situation, always looking at ways to get what he wants without owing anyone — very spot on with his character.
One thing that was a bummer that I was hoping could’ve been played out better was the moment of Count Nefaria possibly coming on to help Clint. So, if you go back to Bendis’ run on Avengers/New Avengers, you’ll be reminded that Hood dated the Count’s daughter, Madame Masque, and had to face the Avengers because of Hood’s actions. This could’ve been a moment of some great confrontation. But hey, who knows? Maybe that could still happen. I hope.
Matthew really does a great job bringing it all together and having this issue act as a huge setup for the next issue without this feeling slow. All throughout this series, we have seen Clint do some wild stuff, and in this issue we see him kick it up quite a few notches and having some meetings with people that might be dragging him further down the hole.
I do like that Clint did take it to a personal level by attacking the Hood on his birthday — I won’t spoil it, but it is funny and would really bum us out if it happened to us. The last couple of pages really start to show the dominos falling down on Clint, and boy do they fall hard. We see Clint owing a favor to a criminal, major changes to his inner circle, and having to have a face off (or should I say, mask off, considering the costume exchange and cover to next issue) with a major villain who has ticked Clint off before.
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