Hawkeye

After months of tension, Young Avengers Eli Bradley (Patriot) and Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) have decided to go on a date. They take a horse drawn carriage through Central Park and both are nervous and regretting giving this a shot.[1] However, the date is interrupted by Ronin who was posing as the carriage driver. He has come to test Kate to see if she is worthy of the mantle of Hawkeye.[2]

He quickly kicks Eli in the face, taking him out of the fight and begins sparring with Kate. He is impressed with her fighting moves and hands her a business card, he tells her to show up at the address the next day with her bow and to tell no one. With that, Ronin leaves. She then goes to check on Eli and they both agree to leave the park. However, when Kate refuses to call their outing a date, Eli gets mad at her and when she tries to say she just wants to be friends, he tells her that he doesn’t want to hear that on top of everything else that happened tonight. He tells her that he’ll see her at their clubhouse tomorrow and storms off.

The next day, Kate goes to the address on the card and scopes the place out for an hour. It doesn’t look like a supervillain lair and her name is with the doorman to be let in. When she takes an elevator up to the apartment, she is greeted by Clint Barton, formerly known as Hawkeye. As it turns out, this is the temporary headquarters of the New Avengers.[3][4] She is shocked to learn that Clint is alive after he was reported killed in battle.

Clint takes her to a target to test out her archery skills. He tells her that in order to keep his bow — given to her by Captain America when Clint was dead — she has to shoot two perfect bullseyes with one arrow cutting the first in half.[5] To show that there is nothing special about his unique bow, Clint wants to compete against her with a cheap bow he bought in a sports shop. When he pulls it off, he tells her to leave the bow and tells her it was nice meeting. When Clint leaves the room, Wiccan (Billy Kaplan, who was Kate’s back up) cancels his invisibility spell now that the coast is clear. Devastated, Kate tells Billy that she plans to walk out without crying in front of the Avengers and then see if she can make the Hawkingbird name work for her, she also begs Billy not to tell the others about what happened.[6]

However, Billy can’t help but tell his boyfriend Hulkling (Teddy Altman), who tells Stature (Cassie Lang), who tells the Vision (Jonas), who tells Patriot. Eli cannot believe that Kate lost her name and her bow to Clint Barton and berates her for it. Kate gets upset and tells him off before going to the training room to blow off some steam with a punching bag. While the others watch from the sidelines, Speed (Tommy Shepherd) shows up and sweet talks Kate. He then suggests they go out on a date to a dive bar that doesn’t card people and she accepts. Tommy gets an ugly look from Eli when he kisses Kate on the cheek. The two head out and after a few drinks, Tommy asks what happened and she suggest they go outside to talk about it.[7] After he hears how she lost her bow, he convinces her that they should break into the New Avengers hideout and steal it back.

With the help of Tommy’s super speed, they manage to sneak into the lobby elevator unseen. On the ride up to the Avengers condo, the two kiss. Inside, the lights are all out and nobody is around. As they search for her bow, Kate finds a photograph of Clint as Hawkeye taken around the time he first joined the team. Seeing him with Captain America, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, she can’t help but notice how close to her age they all were at the time.[8] When they find the bow, Kate wants to go back home right away but Tommy still wants to hang out. When they hear the New Avengers returning they both quickly find places to hide. Kate leaps out onto the balcony. It is Ronin and Luke Cage and they are talking about the Young Avengers. Clint is trying to convince Luke that they should be training these new kids because they are the next generation of Avengers. Cage is reluctant to take up the task because they already have their plates full at the moment.[8]

That’s when Clint detects a hint of lilac and notices that somebody moved his old photo. He then tells Luke that these kids pull some boneheaded stunts the world needs these kids in it and their being part of the fight is something that Captain America would have wanted.[9] He then looks out onto the balcony and makes eye contact with Kate who is still listening in. She whispers thanks and leaves.

Later, back at the Young Avengers clubhouse, Kate manages to pull off the splitting arrow technique when Ronin shows up. He tells her that stealing back his bow was a bold move and that next time she breaks in somewhere try not wearing perfume and sticking around to eavesdrop. However, he hasn’t come to take his bow back, saying she took it fair and square. Instead he has a gift to give her. He tells her that she made it clear what she stands for and therefor earned the right to the bow and the name Hawkeye. When Kate opens the package she is shocked to see that it is the photo from earlier. He tells her that the Young Avengers need to keep doing what they are doing, learn, make mistakes, and grow. That’s what the picture signifies. He promises her that the New Avengers will always have their back. After hanging the photo on the wall, she turns to thank Clint, but Ronin has already disappeared into the night.

Kate then goes to see Eli who is playing video games and interrupts him with a kiss. She tells him to give her more time to sort out her feelings for him. He accepts this request, telling her that he’s not going anywhere.

Recurring Characters

Young Avengers (Hawkeye, Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling, Stature, Vision, Speed), New Avengers (Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Ronin, “Spider-Woman”)

Continuity Notes

1. Kate’s inner monologue mentions how she can face Kang the Conqueror and sass Captain America. She is referring to the Young Avengers first mission together in Young Avengers #1-6.

2. Ronin was the previous Hawkeye starting in Tales of Suspense #57. He used this identity almost consistently for years until his death in Avengers #502. After he was resurrected in House of M #1-8, he decided to abandon his Hawkeye identity as depicted in New Avengers #26. He started took up the Ronin identity in issue #27 of that series and will maintain it until he goes back to being Hawkeye again in New Avengers (vol. 2) #1.

3. This story follows the events of Civil War #1-7, where the government passed the Super Human Registration Act, requiring superheroes to register with the government. Many of the New Avengers broke off from Iron Man because they did not support this law. Following the end of the war, the anti-registration side lost making the New Avengers outlaws and they lost their home at Avengers Tower. This “temporary” headquarters is a condo owned by Danny Rand, which the New Avengers moved in to in New Avengers #38. Previously they were staying at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum from New Avengers #27 through New Avengers Annual #2. From here they will move on to Captain America’s apartment in New Avengers #48.

4. Among the New Avengers present we see Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, or at least that’s who she appears to be. In reality, this is a Skrull spy named Veranke who took Jessica’s place circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1. We’ll learn this in Secret Invasion #3 and New Avengers #42.

5. Captain America gave Hawkeye’s old bow to Kate as a gift and his blessing to call herself Hawkeye in Young Avengers #12.

6. In Young Avengers #4, Kate geared up with the weapons used by Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and the Swordsman. At the time, the team suggested she call herself Hawkingbird, but she hated it.

7. It’s interesting to note that Kate is wearing a dress that patterned after a short lived costume he wore between Avengers #98 through 108. It’s often chided as his worst costume ever.

8. Hawkeye joined the Avengers with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #16.

9. Luke is really understating what’s going on. At the time of this story, the New Avengers have discovered that there was a Skrull posing as Elektra in New Avengers #31. This is a precursor to a planned invasion of Earth that will primarily take place in Secret Invasion #1-7.

10. Clint refers to Captain America in the past tense. This is because, at the time of this story, Steve Rogers was seemingly killed by an assassin in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, he was shot by a chronal bullet that has sent him living his entire life in a constant loop. He will be rescued from this purgatory in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.

Topical References

• Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Patriot are all shown playing a video game and while playing one is chanting “chainsaw!” over and over while the other screams “I hate you!”. This is a reference to the Gears of War video game franchise. One of the weapons in this series is a chainsaw that is incredibly powerful if you know how to use it properly. It became a bit of a meme that new players would get totally wrecked by a more experienced player armed with a chainsaw. That’s where this dialogue comes from. Based on the date of publication, this comic came out 2 months before the release of the 2nd game in the series. That said, this should be considered a topical reference as you can replace it with a more contemporary example. Particularly, when you can see that our characters are playing with XBox 360 controllers, which are now obsolete.

• When challenged to shoot an arrow through another, Kate says that it is impossible as they tried it on MythBusters. This was a popular show on the Discovery Channel that ran from 2003 to 2006 where engineers attempted to determine if something commonly believed was true or a myth. In episode 38 of that series they tested out the possibility of splitting an arrow in half with another arrow and re-tested it in episode 51 and it failed both times. However, Kate here is missing the nuance of the test. In the show they were trying to replicate the feat in the 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood where the titular character (played by actor and inhuman monster Errol Flynn) pulled off this feat during an archery competition. The challenge was to replicate the feat using arrows from the time period in which the story of Robin Hood took place. Meaning, that it was impossible to pull off the feat using archery technology of that period. The context is important here, because you can actually pull this off with a modern bow and arrow if you’re skilled enough. That said, the reference to MythBusters should be considered a topical reference because you know there’ll be some other show that will try this.

• Kate brags about having an American Express Black Card, which is one of their high end credit cards. This is topical as AmEx is a real world brand.

• At the bar, Speed orders Kate a Red Bull mojito. Red Bull is a popular energy drink and topical because it is a real world brand.