Hawkeye Volumes 1 and 2 Review

Hey, this is Steve Blum, and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Welcome to The

Polebag. Join us as we dig out our latest comics

and discuss them with the rotating panel of the

GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this week's

holebag. Cap, your rookies are getting greener

every day. Huh, green? What I mean, spinach for

brains, is he's just a kid. It takes a lot more

than a superpower to do this job. It takes guts.

Hawkeye? You're in the superhero squad? Ms. Marvel

sent me here as a shield observer. Let me tell

you something, Mr. Eye. We S .H .I .E .L .D.

agents are here to defend the home front. And

mister, that's just where this super soldier

wants to be. Hello and welcome to The Pole Bag.

This is episode 26, and we are doing something

very rare, something that will come up in the

future. We are covering Marvel stuff outside

of Superior Spider -Man. I am, of course, your

host, TFJ Mike, and joining me is Ryan the Uneven

Flow. Yay. Yay me, that is. Wow. And I thought

I was going to be the Debbie Donner of this podcast.

Why? That wasn't down. Whatever. Anyway. Oh,

man. So the last time we heard from you was the

Marvel Then Marvel Now episode. What have you

been up to since then? Not a lot. I mean, a little

more podcasting, video gaming, and sort of the

usual for me. Uh -huh. And I forget who suggested

to me. No, I think it was either you or it was

JT I forget when we were doing the way back in

episode 20 when we're doing the Marvel episode

All right. Well, it was both of us. Yeah, I can't

remember that far back the The question was basically

like recommending books to people essentially

and Both of us had this in our top five and I'd

still argue it's one of the top five books running

right now Now, hell with it. I'm just going to

jump right into it. I'm going to take a wild

guess and say you hated it and I'm going to explain

why. It's not a superhero book. I mean, this

is Hawkeye by Matt Fraction is a book for, at

least I feel like it's a book for people who've

been reading comics for quite some time and are

just ... Looking looking for something else because

I can read like a hundred different superhero

comics any month every month from Marvel and

DC and one of my big complaints particularly

about the new 52 stuff is Well, I mean both universes

are guilty of this but A lot of it is just the

same old stuff. A lot of the storylines are being

rehashed, and there's certainly exceptions. There's

stuff like Dan Slott's Superior Spider -Man that

you mentioned is a great example of a superhero

book that's doing something that no other writer

has attempted before. But the other ones, it's

all very sort of similar. And Hawkeye is one

of the few that's completely out there to the

point that it's not even a superhero book. Hawkeye

on his days off. Yeah, and I don't outright hate

the series, but it really wasn't what I was expecting.

I didn't go into it with any preconceived notions

other than the fact that I remember... Hawkeye

from that really really crappy United We Stand

cartoon. I love his little appearances in the

superhero squad show and of course last summer's

The Avengers. That's pretty much all I know of

Hawkeye. What about Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

I have been able to get past episode 10 yet.

Oh dear. You should definitely continue watching

that. It's actually a good series. uh... marvel

everybody keeps telling me that i know i have

well and i have said this was before and i'm

going to be a broken record for those people

who have heard me say this in the two cast beyond

episode about avengers might use your house The

first 10 episodes, apparently people have told

me it was set up as a mini series or something

or one shots. And yeah, that's what it was. It

was broadcast. It was broadcast completely differently

originally. And it's sort of that first group

is basically just them getting together. Right.

Where what screwed me up with those is you would

end on a cliffhanger. Like I forget which episode

it is. the whole future that that that the time

traveling due to do that that does the time travel

of the law and whatever the hell his name is

i i don't know i don't care but it's like it

ends on that no like wait so is that where the

next step all know the next episode is how we

meet captain america and i'm like And you know

me, Ryan. I'm one of those people that you start

a story, I expect it to be continued. I mean,

if you're gonna stick to a strict storyline,

and obviously those first 10 episodes didn't,

but I mean, you know what I mean? It's one of

those things where... Also, you need to watch

more Breaking Bad, but anyway. No, I mean, it's

just... What do you mean you've tried? I've tried.

I can't... Between that and Weeds, I just can't

deal with shows that... Anyway. You're insane,

but anyway, no like the Marvel stuff it was originally

Completely different or it was broadcast differently

in the start and I don't know I actually like

the fact that there was individual ones. I mean

Justice League had the advantage of Having two

series that came before it with Superman and

Batman So they had already introduced a lot of

the characters that would go on to justice league

they didn't need to that but there's a way that

you could have done i forget some i was six seven

members of the avengers like core you could have

but i don't think it's i don't know what i was

just what What I'm saying is, if there are six

or seven core members, you could have still told

their origin stories without every episode feeling

like a one -shot. That's my problem with those

first episodes, and I'll get past it eventually.

I will. I'm too busy reading comics at this point.

But back to Hawkeye by Matt Fraction. And yeah,

it's Hawkeye on his days off, and I was expecting

his days off to be... little bit more eventful

and that's the thing for I think a lot of us

like I can read there's 20 different Deadpool

titles every month there's you know 10 different

Batman titles and it's really it's all the same

thing I mean Deadpool hasn't been richer written

interestingly since the 90s but for some reason

the dude bro crowd absolutely adore him but There's

all this stuff that's really just the same thing

over and over again and it's kind of one of the

things both Marvel and DC have failed miserably

at doing is Showing a lot of these characters

as actual people Normal people don't have you

know non -stop wall -to -wall excitement and

one of the problems with all the event comics

like Flashpoint or a versus X or whatever is

they never show any of the after effects of them.

It's one thing that annoys a lot of people. And

this entire book is basically after effects or

stuff in between. It's just something different.

And I think that's why like so many people and

a lot of the critics and everyone has kind of

latched up latched onto it. Yeah. And and again,

I'm one of those people that For me and Marvel,

it's Spider -Man, the X -Men, and that's, you

know, Iron Man. That's pretty much where I like

Hulk to me is interesting sometimes. Fantastic

Four, they're okay. And I'm specifically speaking

my you know growing up watching the cartoons

and stuff a lot like a lot of the Marvel characters

Specifically Thor I don't the only time I enjoy

Thor is when he's being comedic in the superhero

squad show I do not care about Thor whatsoever

and the movie Avengers 2012 made me care about

Hawkeye, and I really did want to enjoy this

what really makes me not enjoy the matte fraction

series is Bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro,

and oh god. This looks bad every fucking page

Yeah, I love that actually I like the the tracksuit

mafia being Sort of the big bad guy for this

is another sort of entertaining Aspects of it

It's entertaining that they use the tracksuit

mafia, but it's not entertaining when they say

bro a thousand friggin times. I mean, that's

like the new Turtles series. Krang, you must

put this thing where the Krang needs this thing

to go. I mean, it... It just... and Hawkeye.

This looks bad. Oh my god, this looks bad. Oh

wow, this looks bad. Ten reasons why this looks

bad. It's like... You he can't get away from

his own goddamn catchphrase and it just pissed

me off the whole time I was reading like the

first two issues I was fine after that between

volumes one and volume two which we are actually

gonna talk about both volumes in this episode

I just I stopped caring. I just the only the

times that I really cared about this book and

the story is like when he's having adventures

with his dog although we'll get to something

later that I just don't get why people love it.

Please tell me it's not like the issue that's

told completely from his dog's point of view

which was phenomenal. I just... I can't see...

I'm a dog lover Ryan. I can't see another comic

this year getting named like... Best yeah best

comic. I don't think anything's going to Clear

this it is fantastic It looks good. I Just I

don't know. I couldn't really I couldn't really

fall We'll get to it what I do love about this

is how they lay out the covers in the in the

in the trade lines I love that I love how simple

these covers are that they're not They're not

your average My god super splashy image on the

cover to entice you it's kind of like a subtle

thing and it goes back to what you were saying

The minimalist sort of retro style if you're

looking for like some of the or in my opinion

anyway the best of all cover artists at doing

that is Dave Johnson who did 100 Bullets. He

did Jason Aaron's Punisher Max covers. He's basically

just a cover artist now and he is phenomenal

at that style. The entire cover isn't taken up

with color or pictures or anything like most

covers usually are. And yeah, there's something

sort of neat about that and different about it.

Yeah. And I will say, by the end of volume one,

I got sick of seeing all orange and blue colors.

Because issue one, when he's, oh, this looks

bad, and he's falling off the building, it's

all orange and red. And then we switch to a different

part of the story. and it's all blue -ish. I

don't know if retro is the right word, but it's

not an art style, and it's not a coloring style

that I'm used to reading. I don't dislike it

because of it, but after a while, it's like,

hey, can I see some different colors besides

orange, blue, and green, please? The colors used

depend on the characters in the story. and it's

something kinda neat. You especially notice it

in the second volume. Yeah, the second volume

I thought was a lot brighter and we'll get to

that down the line, but this first issue is basically,

it's Clint telling you a story of basically how

he rescued the dog. Yeah. And he keeps saying,

it's not my dog, it's not my dog, and by the

end of it he's like, yeah, it's my dog. It's

it's interesting and I do I don't know I just

I really do enjoy it but at the same time there's

like so many things about it that just Like I

don't think I'll ever read this this book these

books again. I really don't I've read them once

I got it. I get it I'll say right now reading

both volumes did not entice me to add this to

my to my monthly list I'm reading so much other

stuff that I'm more interested in interested

in at this point That I just I just can't add

this it's just Where we want to start with this

as far as the overall story goes Well, you summed

up issue one fairly. Well, I mean continuing

on I mean a lot of the rest of the book is Hawkeye

rips off well, rips off a group that's ripping

off of a group of the sort of super villain mafia

types in New York. Is it this volume or is it

the second volume that we get the reveal of Kingpin?

I think it's the second volume. Kingpin's in

volume one, though. He's one of the people who

gets ripped off. What is it with Marvel and not

knowing how to create villains for their... I

wouldn't say that... clint is a lesser -known

character but he's more like he's not a spider

-man he's not a Wolverine he's a secondary is

a second -tier character but anymore okay well

i mean since avengers he and his book the sales

are right up there i mean Uh, I'm trying to think

of like... My point here is why does Marvel always

have to feel like they have to rely on throwing

Kingpin into every fucking book as the main villain?

We get it. Kingpin is the kingpin of crime. He's

the head of the New York underworld. We get it.

But I mean, come on, give me a different villain.

This is the same way I felt when I read Kevin

Smith's Daredevil and at the end Mysterio was

the fucking villain. Are you fucking kidding

me? Fucking Mysterio. Well, if you're in New

York, I mean the kingpin essentially runs everything

you kind of need to have them in there And I

mean alternatively it's kind of an odd criticism

coming from somebody who reads a lot of the Batman

villains where there's only about six villains

and they just get reused in each issue and granted

I mean Snyder's changed it a little bit, but

He hasn't changed it enough No, they're still

I mean Joker should have killed Damien end of

story. It's still the same like grouping No,

I know but it's like like Okay My thing is if

you're gonna create a if you're gonna have a

villain story based around you can put any any

major villain in there I want it built up to

where you're not gonna see it coming and I obviously

didn't see Kingpin coming here, but it's like

to me doesn't at this point doesn't Hawkeye warrant

having his own villain or somehow I don't know

you can go back to the the old cliche of hey

my best friend is a kid grew up to hate me and

became a villain you know I don't know you could

do anything any number of things other than hey

we're in New York let's just rely on the kingpin

of crime In this case, it makes sense, though.

This isn't a book about the villain. They just

need somebody that the audience is pretty much

instantly going to know and not have to describe

at all. The other half of it is it's unfortunate,

but Hawkeye has never held down a consistent

solo series, so he doesn't have much of a rogues

gallery. I will say again about the art and the

way it's laid out, like an issue too. I love

how they show us that Clint has cut out the newspapers

and I love how they work in the storylines. Vagabond

Code, a Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, Hawkeye adventure

by Matt Fraction. I love how they work that into

the newspaper. I think that is really cool and

really interesting as far as how they lay it

out and all that. But yeah, issue two is basically,

Clint is a circus kid, much like Dick Grayson

was. Okay then. I think I prefer it better in

DC's hands. Like you said, issue two is basically

him stopping people who are ripping off the other

people, yet he rips off both people. Both groups,

yeah. Yeah. I mean, pretty much. I will say that

I do like the friendship relation. How old is

Kate supposed to be? Damn it. I can't remember

off the top of my head, but certainly younger

than Clint. Yeah, I know they say she's younger

than he is, but I do like their quote -unquote

friendship. I do like their camaraderie. I think

that's really, really cool. Issue three is all

about Cherry, apparently. Yes, she will be a

recurring character, not to mention how Hawkeye

gets his or Hawkeye's bitchin' muscle car. mm

-hmm yeah I like this storyline at first I thought

it was gonna be because again I was going in

with the not too many notions of what to it I

wasn't going in with many expectations here good

or bad I was just kind of going into a blind

and but one of the expectations I had was at

some point it's gonna be him and Natasha somewhere

and I thought that chariot was gonna eventually

end up being Natasha apparently that's not the

case No, and although Natasha of course shows

up in the second volume, but anyway, yes. Yes

at the same time, so Yeah, yeah at the same time.

So um, but yeah, he's he's got to save her and

Some of that like I mentioned earlier how I like

the newspaper stuff with the art But some of

the ways that the the art is is laid out Like

there's a couple of times where he's practicing.

It's not directly in this issue is just what

I'm remembering There's like a couple of times

where he's practicing and Kate's talking to him

and the way it's laid out is him doing single

shots and then one letter for single shot I just

I don't like that. That's something I don't don't

really care for But I mean back to issue three,

some of the stuff I liked, artwork wise especially,

was the sequence with the car chase was really

well done. The sequence with the introduction

of each of the old school 80s style trick arrows

before he uses each one of them was cute. Yeah,

it was. And then at the end, I mean, they did

the opposite. But yeah, that was... Mean that

pretty much sums up the third issue and I mean

like I mentioned before cherry the girl from

it will be a recurring character in the series

You know and then we have a two -parter the tape

one of two. This is issue four Apparently this

is supposed to be an Avengers storyline on his

day off where some people get a hold of some

tape that has him doing Stuff he's not supposed

to do. I believe doesn't kill somebody or something

Yeah, that's what I thought it was The it's interesting

to see Captain America here does that guy ever

take his Mask off. Yeah, I mean for a lot of

it. I like the fact that this was the first time

that Kate got to do and Kate Bishop gets to do

a whole lot of solo stuff in it. And she really

establishes herself in it. Yeah, I enjoy her

as the quote unquote lady hawkeye. You know,

I think she has a great character. She somewhat

Somewhat, but not totally reminds me of Barbara

Gordon is bad girl a little bit, but obviously

much younger Paralyzed oh wait, we wrote that

out anyway stop stop stop stop See yeah, this

one is basically recovering the tape with Kate

doing a lot of the stuff here Again the colors

It's so strange what I guess you say Aja I don't

know the David guy that does the the pencils

and the illustrations and stuff It's so interesting

how they use colors in this series I was complaining

earlier about the greens blues and oranges and

we still have more green and orange here but

then they switched to like almost a Faded muted

blood red for the background for the walls and

a couple of the pages in this issue. It's interesting.

I'll say that But the overall art style is more,

to me, is more muted for the background and having

the characters pop off the page, which is a good

thing. Yeah, and Azure shows a lot of versatility,

especially considering that the seventh issue,

which might be my favorite, and that's the start

of issue. Or sorry start of the second trade

in the seventh issue. The artwork is very different

and there's significant or significant significantly

more use of color in it's then any of the other

issues really right I Love how they do these

These character shots of each character speaking

or then over the character next to them speaking.

I think that's really interesting What the hell

is shadow we were doing in this issue? This is

my main complaint about all all companies label

your fucking page numbers people it's the page

where Mr.. Fisk of the hands the hand says yes,

it's getting not it's getting hot in here. Let's

see Let me see two yards now. Two things down

from that, there's a character that looks just

like Shadow Weaver from Masters of the Universe.

It's right before the issue ends, actually. I

doubt it's meant to be. I know, but... And then

we've got the end of the issue with Madame Masque.

Yes. Thoughts on issue four? Well, I mean as

I'm just summing it up as a two -parter it's

four and five there and sorry six is the start

of the second trade but anyway Like I say four

and five. I liked the spy stuff. I liked the

further sort of establishment of Kate Bishop

and It's I mean the entire series a lot of it

revolves around their relationship where Hawkeye

is quite clearly interested in her and she's

interested in him, but they're both absolutely

terrible at saying anything to each other. One

of my absolute favorite portions of the entire

run is Hawkeye's dog trying to cover his eyes

when two of them are talking to each other. Because

anyone can see that they're interested but they

can't say anything right at all to one another

And even the dog is ashamed of them. So yes Now

what really kind of Screwed me up with this is

at the end of this you have Instead of Hawkeye

number six you have Young Avengers presents Hawkeye

Young Avengers presents number six and this is

basically how Kate and Clint met Yeah, it's an

actual like straightforward Story out of a superhero

book Well know what what screws me up is is that

with that issue? it says young avengers number

six and then immediately in volume two we start

out with at least in the one that i have it starts

out with issue seven of hawkeye yeah the cover

is there for seven it's meant to be a splash

page i don't know why it's placed there rather

than later on okay but it's yeah it's actually

issue six i got confused as all hell when i i'm

like wait a second issue seven where the hell

is issue six and then it goes back to issue six

yeah sorry yeah they let's try that again it's

deliberate it's just they i think the reason

is seven is just out of order of it and they

wanted to keep i have no idea i mean uh seven

is the or sorry six is the first issue that uses

actual dates in it. It's a six days in the life

of. Issue seven has the date of October 29th

in it. For whatever reason, they were out of

order. So I don't have the individual issues.

I started picking this up at I think 10 So I

have no idea if it's just a trade paperback misprinting

or it might be a misprinting I don't know but

you're right issue 7 does start with October

and maybe it is a misprint Maybe it should say

issue 6 instead of 7 or or they meant to flip

the covers or I don't know if I had the individual

issues I know but I don't yeah Regardless the

first issue of that trade might be one of my

favorites. It's a sort of like deals with Clint

being in New York for the fairly recent hurricane

that hit Yeah, it's basically Hurricane Sandy,

right? Yes. Yeah Yeah, this is a very interesting

story. I feel I like this Yeah, and it's one

of his neighbors and it's his neighbor's father

and the two of them going out to sort of try

to Both convince him to go someplace safer, but

also try to you know prep and hopefully save

the house and What I liked is it has one of the

most human moments you'll find in a comic series

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how much I want

to give away or anything but the moments between

Clint just trying to advise Gill on how to deal

with his father Post his mother's death and everything

is really well done Yeah, it is. The story is

very very well done Seeing Kate in that dress

is interesting. Yeah With the the bridesmaids

dress. Yeah, I think that's purple and the Hawkeye

colors Of course, I Don't know I'm not like Ryan

is obviously he's been entrenched in the last

70 years of comics knowledge I'm not has there

ever been a series where it's just been About

two people in a relationship that are superheroes

Not mainstream not in like the DC stuff Yeah,

see I think I would be more interested in this

of seeing the adventures of Clinton Kate every

month Because the two of them to chemistry The

fact that she's kicking him out of his own apartment.

Yeah, I mean that's a fair point I love that.

That is so hilarious. In some ways the series

works best when it is the two of them although

you know the stuff with him. The series works

well basically when everyone's just actually

being a person in a lot of ways because Clint

doesn't deal well with people but he's able to

help his neighbor or he doesn't deal well with

Kate but neither of them deal well with people.

Yeah, and that's kind of the strong suit and

what the this series overall is about. It's two

people just being people Yeah, pretty much I'll

have more to sort of add on that near like after

we're done when it's some things up, but yeah

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's just the great

that that's just so interesting and I don't know

if, because I'm looking at the trade now and

I've got the two cover pages open. I don't know

if that's supposed to be a splash because issue

six is basically a red arrow pointing well. Arrow

pointing down with with Clint in his bow. It's

basically the same as the cover. Yeah I don't

think it's meant to be a splash I mean if I had

to guess I'd say either the covers are meant

to be switched or It's possible just because

of publishing or whatever they move them around

See even if they did something along the lines

of just You could keep the covers the same just

change the numbering like have have it say issue

six were supposed to say issue six and have it

say issue seven were again we don't know cuz

we don't we don't have the single issues people

but uh... i'll tell you this with issue six this

is these five days or whatever else yes six days

in the life yes six days in the life this was

some weird stuff for me as far as the art layouts

It's something I've never I've only been reading

comics since last October people I've never seen

layouts like this It's interesting. I don't dislike

the layouts, but it for me. It was almost hard

to follow Like which panel am I supposed to be

reading first now? This is one of those types

of things And it's Christmas time yay Well still

page to page I mean the panels are still Roughly

in order They are but instead of like No, the

yeah, you're right. They're in order But instead

of taking up half the corner of the page to say

Tuesday December 18th What I'm used to seeing

is something in like where Hawkeye says if only

dr. Druid was still alive Like I'm used to seeing

like a note Like if that if that image of Hawkeye

was a little bit larger and large I'm used to

seeing the date inside the image not on the actual

page itself outside of panel is what I'm saying

is is what kind of threw me off there. It's so

weird seeing Wolverine and Spider -Man in snow.

Another thing I mean most of the books ignore

passage of time or the holidays and everything

else too is another sort of thing They did slightly

differently or you'll get Christmas specials

Yeah But anyway, yeah, I mean that issue is what

it says it is it's basically it's six days in

the life of Tony Stark's only appearance in the

series thus far Helping him try to set up his

Tivo slash Whatever Hawkeyes equipment is meant

to be television and everything else. I Love

that. I thought that was so great him arguing

with the cable guy Well the cable guy in this

yeah, and we're arguing about yeah Setting it

up and everything and Tony said basically just

wants to like buy a whole new setup and have

somebody do it Yeah So So awesome it does continue

at least briefly the tracksuit mafia stuff Yeah,

he's like yo, bro I wish you just put a single

arrow in every single one of those people you're

thinking of the other guy whose books you're

reading and it's not arrows he uses Wait what

you're thinking of the I was making a punisher

a reference. Oh, no Those aren't arrows though

Hawkeye's not Frank. He doesn't run around killing

people But I'm sorry the trash is the only reason

why I want yes I do agree with you the tracks

you having the tracksuit mafia kind of be his

His villains is interesting, but Jesus Christ.

They need a new fucking saying holy crap I mean

they're meant to be annoying and also to be honest

who the hell doesn't know people like that I

do My big the big thing in Ottawa is everybody

uses the word like too much and the wrong way

And I know I've done it too on podcasts, which

annoys the hell out of me, especially when I'm

editing them. But yeah, on to the next issue,

which is 8, and we're back to everything actually

being numbered correctly again. Yes, I love issue

8. Oh wow, issue 8 was amazing. Because you have

these classic looking comic covers. Yeah, all

the sort of like 50s style and the number or

I shouldn't give that away whatever that they're

They're there for a reason and they're actually

important to the plot in the end of the issue.

But yeah, it's a very 50s style art and the 50s

style stuff continues at the start when they

show Jessica Jessica black widow and crap. I

can't remember Hawkeyes X Bobby. Yes, anyway,

but yeah when they show the three of them to

it sort of continues with that and cherry at

the start Yeah, and I love and I think one of

my main problems not necessarily with the series

but one of my main concerns was the entire time

I read this I was like okay I get it it's his

day off but why is he never in costume and the

only time I ever really see the Hawkeye mask

is in these covers oh and when it's covering

up nudity yeah that's true I meant to mention

in volume one I do love how well I do love how

overall so far Matt fraction I love how instead

of figuring out or writing out Actual other languages.

He just puts in French stuff here. Yeah I thought

I did really really enjoy it. Yeah Spanish sounding

stuff Yeah, I really did enjoy that stuff as

far as the writing goes so I don't People don't

don't get me wrong. I don't totally hate this

series, but at the same time it's not Don't know

all right, so we've got not necessarily gonna

be for everyone. Yeah, yeah And apparently we've

got doomed love and the first part of this is

my bad penny and Yeah, you've got there's a idea

of them. Yeah of yeah the professional spy says

and my ex -wife says and my friend girl says

oh boy no but I love I love this issue I thought

this issue was damn good because it's almost

like reading because they throw in these classic

covers and I get that it's it's part of what

comes into it later because they throw in these

classic covers instead of it just being a straight

-on cover and then the the panel -by -panel stuff

until the issue ends. It almost feels like these

are all mini stories in issue eight. It really

does, and I enjoy that. I thought that was great.

Yeah, and I mean, continuing with that too. Nine

is almost mini stories as well. It's a continuation

of it, and it's essentially the story is each

of the three women Not necessarily introduced

but each of the three women in Hawkeye's life

plus Kate all sort of like visit him or visit

cherry and That's sort of like the the main What

brings things forward in that issue? Yeah, it

does And I will say one thing for Hawkeye's uniform.

He does eventually put a t -shirt on with the

bullseye on it. Yeah, with basically his logo

on it, which is kind of funny. This is very funny.

Give him an Irish accent, and he can almost be

a villain. Yeah, and at the end of 9, we see

the A, like everybody Hawkeye had used, like,

damn it. Anyway, at the end of the issue, or

near the end, everybody Hawkeye stole money from.

Kingpin, Owl, oh jeez, who the hell else is in

there? Hammerhead, a lot of the other, now I'm

flipping through the pages, I gotta stop that.

Anyway, a lot of the guys that he robbed way

back in the second issue have, are all together

in agreeing to allow the tracksuit mafia to hire

somebody to go after Clint, hoping to kill him.

Yeah And apparently that guy came from hell yes,

although he was also a Yeah, yeah, and I'm big

on the look on the villain here Let's just say

I don't expect it to be somebody that Frank would

fight or something like that But you know he

looks like a really evil. I'm or Evil okay evil

mime. I was gonna go for a piss -poor copycat

Jack Nicholson younger version of Jack Nicholson's

Joker, but Like, hey, he can't cover up his entire

head with his makeup. I guess that's maybe the

point. So it doesn't look like a total Joker

ripoff. But yeah, that guy is just weird. Yeah.

And the majority of issue 10 is his backstory.

Yeah. And this is where the bright colors kick

in. It's interesting. At the same time, it, for

me, kind of takes away. I don't know. I have

a hard time when you pick a style that you want

to do your book in. Like, the whole time up to

issue 10, we've had these muted colors to make

the characters pop. Muted oranges, greens, blues,

whatever, yellows. And now, hey, let's turn a

flashlight on and have all the cockroaches scatter.

Yeah. You know, it's just like... Not a bad analogy,

I suppose. Wow. But yeah, Issue Ten is pretty

much his story and why he's around. I do like

how they do the panels on the page where the

explosion happens. I really like how they do

that. It's almost like it's a ripped up or shredded

up photograph. I think that's really, really

cool. No, this issue is very, very interesting.

I also think it's an attempt to finally give

him a bit of a rogues gallery and give him somebody

to go up against. And that, in a lot of ways,

is how this trade or this grouping of trades

ends, because the eleventh issue is essentially

a retelling of events from the previous one.

but as seen through the eyes of a pizza dog or

arrow or whatever you want to name him, but Hawkeye's

dog. Hawkeye's dog or maybe Kate's dog, who knows

since he decides to go with her at the end of

it. But anyway, I agree that that issue is a

little difficult to follow or it can, but I mean

it's also told through the perspective of a dog

who are not known for their attention span versus

the average person. Right, and you can clearly

tell with what, you know, the first page of Hawkeye,

I believe it's Hawkeye and Kate. You know, he

says what and then there's a bunch of, and then

there's a bunch of murmuring and then there's

me and then help and then more murmuring. So

you can tell that it's from the dog's perspective

because the dog is only tuning in on certain

words. it's interesting i i somewhat like it

but not really i just it's just strange to me

like if if they really wanted to highlight pizza

dog give him his own one shot don't waste an

entire issue on him and silence and the internet

is now dead i'm still okay with it i I think

it was, it's awesome for me if that's my favorite

issue or the earlier one we mentioned, seven,

but I liked moments out of seven. I think I like

this one better overall. I don't know, I enjoyed

it. I enjoyed the entire thing, the entire, like

both trades, the series thus far because it is

something different. Yeah, and I enjoy it. I

enjoyed it as well. I enjoyed it in different

points and in different points I was just screaming

my head off is like oh come on Quit using your

goddamn catchphrase quit. You know villains quit

you quit using your damn catchphrase Get a new

friggin catchphrase. I Mean overall I enjoyed

it. Is it something I'm gonna continue on on

a month -to -month basis probably not Is it something

I'm gonna go back and read? Probably not, actually.

Probably... After this episode airs, I will probably

go trade this in so I can get credit for other

stuff that I wanna read. And I think my main

problem with Pizza Dog is not necessarily the

character himself, and it's not necessarily the...

It's more so that I read comics for the writing.

You know? And there's no... Because it's told

from the perspective of a dog, it has to be visual.

You can't, because obviously dogs can't talk.

you know i did that that's one of the reasons

why i'm not i don't outright hate issue 11 but

at the same time it was like okay then that's

interesting it's interesting because you'll get

well we're gonna end up getting into this when

we talk about uh rukka's stuff but one thing

greg rukka did brilliantly with his punisher

run was he let the arts tell the story versus

anything else part of that is because frank doesn't

talk much uh... in fact i think pizza dog has

more dialogue than frank castle at points but

you know there's there's something to be said

for getting out of the way of the arts on occasion

especially when it's as well done as marco to

shadows in that series and continuing some of

the stuff with frank castles well with the punisher

Fraction famously has what is I would say not

even debatably the worst run in the history of

the Punisher comics with his nightmarishly bad

war journal run and it's weird to me seeing how

He can understand and get one character that's

just a normal guy and he missed so completely

on another and a lot of that is because he made

the decision with Hawkeye to focus on his life

outside of the Avengers and outside of being

a hero and Just being a person and he can't do

that with the Punisher because he's not a person.

He's a horrible person and He doesn't have that

life outside of it. And so yeah, it's I don't

know it's Different in a lot of ways and yeah,

this isn't gonna be a series for everyone But

I really do feel like it's a series everyone

should at least try I think some people are gonna

love it other people not so much. I Think people

that have read Clint as the Avenger as as Hawkeye

For the majority will really enjoy this as a

break me as someone who Outside of certain cartoon

stuff barely in obviously the movie Barely knows

that much about him. It was it was a hard sell

for me I don't totally hate either volume. I

don't hate the series on in general I just there

are points where I really loved it and there

are points where it made me want to pull my hair

I heartily recommend like the rest of Avengers,

which is one of the best Superhero cartoon series

in quite some time Because it's yeah, but I mean

it's as good an introduction to this sort of

version of Hawkeye as you really need Yeah, I

don't have a whole lot of experience with Hawkeye

because frequently is not part of the Avengers

When I'm reading it, I only sort of come and

go from that series and some of the others and

half the time He's not even there. I think the

first oddly enough. I think like the first time

I use that word again, whatever the first time

I can remember reading about him was House of

M, in fact, which was post Avengers disassembled

where he dies at the time. Don't worry, he gets

better, obviously, but... Obviously, yes. Yes,

every comic book character ever will get better

from death. Except Ben. Except Uncle Ben. Yeah,

that's true that was what was the old rule it

was there's only certain people who can remain

dead and Somebody had to cross off a bunch of

them because they came back. I think I Mean,

I remember specifically Jason Todd was one he

had remained dead forever and finally they'd

randomly decided to bring him back Back yeah,

the one the only one I know of that has always

stayed dead unless it's an alternate Timeline

or an alternate universe is uncle Ben. He is

not Alive in the Marvel mainstream. Yeah You

know you and that's that's fine with me because

again, you know stuff with cartoons like the

old spidey series where you go to a different

time or a different dimension or you know and

oh hey this this uncle ben is still alive yay

but still in the real world he's not and that's

and that's fine with me um but let's uh let's

take a quick audio break i'm gonna try to find

Some Hawkeye clips, and we'll be back with final

thoughts and ratings after this. I'm Dane Lamont.

My co -host Jake Williams and I cover the good,

the bad, and the hilarious. I'm the punisher

of comics, movies, and news. Do you like chummy

co -host banter? We got that. You need to get

your fucking attention, man. No, you need to

fucking pay attention to the fucking movie. You

want kick -ass guest interviews? How about Mike

Barron and Tom Jane? No, I like a little bit

of grit in my cigars. Do you want carefully considered

in -depth analysis? I mean, yeah, just one best

picture at the Oscars yesterday. I mean, it's

no Terminator. Good luck with that. Punish your

body count. Twice a month on Geekcast Radio.

Well, Clint, you really outdid yourself this

time. Attention, Hawkeye! You are to stand down

by order of shield. Director Fury wants a word

with you, Barty. Good. because I want a word

with him too. We are back here in the pull bag.

Your final thoughts on the first two volumes

of Hawkeye? 87 out of 10. No. Listen, I kind

of wish that both Jonathan and I had remembered

this when we were recommending it to you. But

I mean, yeah, this isn't necessarily a series

that's for everyone. I think some people will

get it. and as i said before i do think it's

one that most people should try maybe individual

issues or something like that although part of

the problem with that is because of popularity

it's hard to find issue one and two and they

were uh... i believe issue one was reprinted

but i think that sold out most places as well

too so good luck getting a copy of it that's

part of the problem this is one that i think

people are gonna have to pick up a I don't think

people should take either of our words for it,

no offense for the rating, but it's kind of one

that you sort of have to read on your own and

give a shot. The bright side is the trades aren't

horribly expensive either. They're not. No, I

got them on InStockTrades .com for fairly cheap

and it was ... They only charge four bucks for

shipping unless you buy stuff over $50 and it's

free, but Yeah, no getting the money online getting

the trades is not that hard and it's not gonna

break your wallet at all Yeah, it's not one.

That's just in just in hardcover and sells for

40 bucks or something like that at least Yeah,

no. So yeah, I mean my final thought is it's

not for everybody. I think it's You know if you're

looking for something different Not even necessarily

if you have a background with the character just

if you're looking for something that's kind of

out there It's solid. Oh Yeah, most definitely

I'm looking at in stock trades comm right now.

It is on sale. It's you say 45 % you can get

it for nine dollars thirty four cents on in stock

trades and if you only buy that and the second

issue it it's probably going to run you under

30 bucks to get both of these trades most likely

that's that's not a bad deal i love going through

them yeah volume 2 is also 934 so Twenty three

dollars total with four dollars shipping say

so that's not that bad at all. That's true And

I mean like I say yes. Yeah, that's right the

one yeah, that's for the first two volumes and

And as you know, I'm one of those people that

I want the entire story now. Yeah You know, so

that's why I that's why we did this as volumes

one and volume two normally how we do Trades

here in the pullback is we'll do a three -part

story arc for three episodes so take Transformers

Robots in Disguise volume one will be one episode

volume two volume three whatever but with this

I wanted to do it back to back because I thought

it was going to be one and it is I just thought

there was going to be more of a continuous story

in it and there is in parts and there isn't in

parts especially issue 11 that's Don't know Like

I said, I I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy it

enough to continue with the series Hawkeye is

not one of my I Must read this character Kind

of kind of superheroes and I get it. This is

not Hawkeye the Avenger. This is Hawkeye a day

off Hawkeye the guy basically. Yeah As, as Gil

put it, hot guy, pretty much, yeah. Um, the other

question I wanted to ask you, throughout this

whole thing, everybody knows he's an Avenger,

everybody knows he's, like, I don't, this whole

superhero secret identity thing, do people just

not fucking get that? Clint doesn't always have

one. I mean not everybody not he's kind of like

Iron Man Yeah Tony for the most part never really

had one either and there's a few of those in

the Marvel universe And I mean keep in mind like

in Clint Barton's case and in Tony Stark's case

the majority of the people in their life like

day -to -day life don't Are either people who

can take care of themselves or they just don't

have anyone that close We're not talking like

spider -man with an 80 year old aunt Who you

know is not gonna go toe -to -toe with dr. Octopus

or something but Yeah, yeah, I can understand

some sort of confusion over that there It's one

thing too. Is there anyone in DC who doesn't

have a secret identity? Um, I don't think so

out of the main ones that I read I love how they

work around the secret identity Specifically

in bad girl. I think it was issue I think it

was issue 19 or 20. Well, it was right after

the events of death of the family It was one

of those issues where she basically tells her

roommate But she doesn't she she tells her events

of what's going on in her life, but she doesn't

directly say hey I'm bad girl. I like how they

do that versus Keeping it a complete secret or

Keeping it not a secret at all. I like how they

do a workaround. I mean, it's Know a lot of people

are gonna kill me for this reference But it's

kind of like depending on which season of Power

Rangers you watch sometimes their identities

are secret Sometimes they're not and then that

pisses me off either way, but oh my the I just

like some of the different stuff I like the fact

that there are heroes that especially in Marvel

that have one because they need it and then there's

others that don't I mean when you read it the

Punisher is one of my favorite ones too because

there's somebody's that In the Max series, somebody

says, oh my god, you're the Punisher. He looks

at her and goes, everybody knows I'm the Punisher.

He doesn't have any identity and has never needed

one. I kind of like that too. It makes him a

little different than everybody else. Let's see

I don't see and we'll get to this down the line

when we eventually do a Punisher themed character

month here on the pullback, but I don't see why

Frank Castle would even need one every I mean

Everybody knows who he is and he operates out

of this everybody knows what happened to him

Everybody knows why he went down the path. He

went down. I don't see like Batman. Yes, Bruce

Wayne needs a secret identity Nightwing, you

could argue either way, but Punisher to me, Frank

Castle, has never needed... Does Bruce Wayne

really need... Does Batman really need one, actually?

Just sort of throwing that out there. This is

probably discussion for another podcast, but

does he really need one all that badly? I mean,

Bruce Wayne doesn't have people close to him.

It's basically... Outside of the movies, but

I mean talking about the comic books. It's basically

Alfred and that's about it. I mean There's nobody

else because I guess I guess the big thing would

be he needs his money so he can keep being Batman

and the gadgets and everything and Realistically

a police department. The first thing they'd probably

do is freeze his assets Yeah, all right, maybe

this was a bad example I don't know. I honestly

don't. That's a damn good question. That's kind

of like me surprising you right off the bat.

Which are you, Marvel or D? I don't know, honestly,

because Bruce Wayne is technically his mask.

He is. Ever since he was... He is Batman. That's

who he is. And Bruce Wayne is the cover. I don't

know. Well, I'll have to put a pin in that for

some time. Actually, that might be the point

here, is that maybe he needs Bruce Wayne to keep

himself grounded and keep himself a little sane.

Whereas you look at, if he was just Batman 24

-7, would he eventually become someone like Castle,

who has a tenuous, at best, grasp of sanity?

Well, I think the differences between the two

of them are even though both of them had family

members gunned down Frank embraced Killing. Yeah,

he roots went completely the opposite way. It

was like I will never kill I think like I say

I had When I give you a list Born was on there.

Yes born is one of the first books that postulated

or asked the question. Was he always the Punisher?

Did he embrace this long before that day in the

park? Because it asks the question, you know,

what does it take to make a person turn into

the Punisher? And it can't just be a single event.

And that was sort of came. Yeah. But anyway,

we're getting way up here. Way off topic. All

right. So. Final rating for me, I'm going to

give this. This is based on the GCN Universal

rating. It's zero to five stars, or also half

stars in there. I'm going to give Hawkeye volume

one and volume two a liked it three and a half

stars. I liked it to the point of there were

really cool things about it. Like I said before,

Kate and Clint's relationship, or friendship,

or whatever you want to call it. I do like his

style of taking bad guys down, but at the same

time I don't like it for the constant use of

catchphrases and all that stuff, and just the

constant change in art style and colors. shift

in art, the coloring doesn't really bother me.

It's the shift in art and the almost random telling

of the stories out of sequence on occasion, particularly

in the first issue, but it happens some more

later on as well. Kind of keep it from an almost

perfect rating, at least for me. Like I say,

this is one that's not gonna be for everybody.

uh... you want to tell everybody where they can

find you to interact with you online if they

so choose to do so no uh... for sure why not

and now the easiest way is just on twitter it's

uh... at night beats all one word night beat

as a transformer for people who don't know from

the eighties yes we'll have to talk about that

off air actually we should uh... at some point

you're gonna have to talk about transformers

prime that wrapped up too yes i know not on the

show though But uh, but yeah, that's gonna do

it for this episode next episode I think is either

a bat book episode or a spider book episode.

I'm not sure just yet Can it be both like which

one new spider bat? No We do not want to see

Bruce Wayne and and Otto Octavius meld minds

Alright make your great escape into comics and

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