All New Hawkeye #4 Review

Overview:

Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez continue their run on All New Hawkeye. Lemire brings his new take on Barton's Hawkeye and Kate Bishop's Hawkeye along with the telling of Barton's past. It seems the creative team have finally got the train going as far as creating a great installment especially when Fraction's run on Hawkeye has finally ended. It still has the comedy and action feel from Fraction's Hawkeye, and to Lemire's credit, he's building up a solid story. In the previous issue, both Hawkeyes have rescued the abnormal children from the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D and Barton's flashback recently showed him encountering with the Swordsman.

Synopsis:

The story starts off with Jacques aka The Swordsman teaching Clint how to shoot an arrow. Jacques gives Clint a few words of encouragement including the nickname Hawkeye. Later, they meet up with Barney Barton at the circus tent. Jacques talks to Barney in private and gives his brother high praises for his arrow skills. He also suggests Barney should start using his certain set of skills, so that his brother and him could stick around with the circus crew.

Later at the carnival, Clint is working at a booth and Barney is behind a tent with his dog and Jacques. Barney lets his dog loose to run free around the carnival. The dog begins to harass some of the people at the carnival. It catches the attention of a woman, then Barney manages to catch up to them. As he is apologizing to the woman, Barney does a slight of hand to snatch the woman's money which Clint notices. As the night goes on, Barney steals more and more money from random people at the carnival.

Barney confronts Clint as Clint is practicing shooting his bow and arrows. Barney pleads with Clint to accept what Barney is doing so that they can stay with the circus crew. Despite being against Barney's pick pocketing, there is nothing Clint can do, so he reluctantly lets Barney continue stealing. A montage ensues; showing Barney stealing money from anyone he bumps into, while Clint continues to improve his trick shooting skills.

Later, the Barton brothers meet up with the head of the circus crew, Ms. Carson. Barney gives the cash that he was able steal to Ms. Carson. However, Ms. Carson advises Clint to obtain the same amount of cash as Barney in order to stay with the circus crew.

Barton and Clint meet up with Jacques and his lady. Jacques tells Clint to stay behind as Barney, his lady, and him go off to do a job.

During the present day, the mutated kids are hanging out at Clint's apartment along with Kate Bishop. Later, Kate puts the kids to bed and talks about the files with Clint, but their dog is alerted by visitors. It turns out that Hydra has infiltrated Clint's apartment. A fight breaks out between Hydra and the Hawkeyes. Kate grabs the kids and makes a run for it to the top of the apartment building. Surrounded and outnumbered, the kids unleash a bright, blinding light to defend themselves and the Hawkeyes.

Review:

I have really been enjoying Lemire's run on Hawkeye since Fraction's run has been hiatus on a few occasions and has finally ended. Unfortunately, Secret Wars will negate the entire run by Lemire. The idea of running two stories that really complement each other was a really neat concept. For example, the interactions between Jacques and the Barton brothers mirrors the interactions with Clint and the kids. Despite no dialogue during the present day, I found that suitable because it kept the modern day storyline short and sweet. There was a good amount of character development in this issues especially with Clint's younger self as we see how him became the marksman and the relationship between his brother and him. Perez continues to draw stunning art for this run. I'm really impressed how he draws the story's modern day artwork which has a great call back to Aja's work on his Hawkeye. His artwork on the Clint's past looks stunning and does a great job on setting the past and present day story apart. However, this might be a turn off for some readers.

It really sucks that this run will be canceled when Secret Wars comes to an end. I would've liked to see where Lemire and his team take this series because it's starting to pick up story wise. If you give a crap about Hawkeye and have enjoyed Fraction's run on Hawkeye, I recommend giving this issue a read.