Black Widow’s extremely tenuous, in-name-only connection to the Spider Family has recently been cemented with the use of alien goo, and though that isn’t necessary context going into Black Widow & Hawkeye: Broken Arrow, it does inform our story. It might trigger the acute disorder known as ‘symbiote fatigue’ in some readers, as both Widow and Hawkeye have been relatively safe under the symbiote-repelling Avengers umbrella for years.
You knew this would happen, however briefly.
Marvel Comics
The symbiote isn’t the point of Broken Arrow – this is a book that’s more concerned with the long history between our titular protagonists than it is their contemporary standings in the Marvel Universe chonology – but it does play a major part in two key instances of dramatic tension and resolution. It doesn’t steal the show; neither does it help a somewhat superfluous overarching plot.
That ostensible plot: Hawkeye is wanted for the assassination of a Russian diplomat, and has gone to ground in Madripoor. Widow – an ever-strong member of the Hawkeye Relief Society – seeks out to save him from what we’re promised will be a smattering of dangerous hit men. An old villain plays a major role, but the primary moving action of the book is that interpersonal history.
The history is integral to the detriment of all the other moving parts of the plot; the hit men angle never pans out, Hawkeye’s apparent treason is never addressed by either world governments or public consensus, and Damon Dran – the villainous mastermind – is reduced to a sort of placeholder plot gimmick, providing an easy sort of conflict for our heroes to overcome.
Marvel
This isn’t to say that Broken Arrow lacks for action, intrigue, and satisfying moments; it’s a compelling read, however subdued the conflict. Writer Stephanie Phillips all but revels in the chemistry between Nat and Clint, a relationship that she both streamlines and deepens in an ongoing series of flashbacks to Silver Age adventures (also collected here). The joy in pairing these characters is that they work even when they don’t work – they work because they’re always somehow in opposition to one another in their collaboration.
You see, Clint is always screwing up and Nat is always covering for him in spite of that. Here, we see a symbiote-influenced Hawkeye skip out of their team-up only to get captured by Dran and tortured. It’s never the plan, on Widow/Hawkeye team-ups, and yet it always seems to be the plan.
Marvel
Phillips nails a sort of frustrated love between the characters – Widow’s exasperation, Clint’s pouty “I can do it myself, Mom” attitude – and that camaraderie overshadows even the symbiote fatigue; we’re delighted by their history enough to overlook unspectacular climax and resolution.
Artist Paolo Villanelli covers the action sequences a delivers on the creepy aspects of a Widow-wielded symbiote in such a way that the book feels more action-packed than it might be; the Silver Age aspects are handled with an adept modern update of now-laughable costume choices (and now-classic Iron Man armor), so the book visually sings.
Marvel Comics
Black Widow & Hawkeye: Broken Arrow isn’t a book that sets out to revolutionize or refine its characters, or even to move them to new places on the game board that is the Marvel Universe. Rather, it manages to celebrate them, to serve as a reminder of their storied relationship. It puts a nice little spin on the classic history without making too many waves; even mired in symbiote-having modernity, the two protagonists seem unchanging.
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