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Widowmaker #1-4
Hawkeye & Mockingbird/Black Widow: Widowmaker
Black Widow, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Ronin = All-out espionage excitement! Across the globe and separated, Natasha, Clint and Bobbi are targeted by the deadly Ronin…whose true face has been revealed! What is this mystery man or woman’s endgame? What startling new place will it take our heroes? And which hero will be completely rocked by the shocking end?
Collecting: Widowmaker 1-4, Solo Avengers 14-16
Collecting: Widowmaker 1-4, Solo Avengers 14-16
136 pages, Paperback
First published April 20, 2011
6 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Jim McCann
197 books31 followersJim McCann is an award-winning writer of comic books, television, and theatre. He worked on several films and music videos before he was accepted into the ABC Daytime Writer Development Program. During that time he wrote for the popular ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. Upon moving to New York, he found a position at Marvel Comics, where he remained for six years, working in publicity and PR.
He wrote several critically acclaimed Marvel HAWKEYE series before branching out into creating his own comics and graphic novels, as well as other projects. His first graphic novel, RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN, won the comic book industry's top award: Best Original Graphic Album. He has since gone on to create hit series such as the space-heist LOST VEGAS and the ongoing top-rated series MIND THE GAP, both published through Image Comics.
McCann earned his BA in Communication Arts, Electronic Media as well as a double minor in English and Theatre from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.
He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he is represented by Chelsea Reed at CAA and managed by Stan Spry at The Cartel.
He wrote several critically acclaimed Marvel HAWKEYE series before branching out into creating his own comics and graphic novels, as well as other projects. His first graphic novel, RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN, won the comic book industry's top award: Best Original Graphic Album. He has since gone on to create hit series such as the space-heist LOST VEGAS and the ongoing top-rated series MIND THE GAP, both published through Image Comics.
McCann earned his BA in Communication Arts, Electronic Media as well as a double minor in English and Theatre from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.
He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he is represented by Chelsea Reed at CAA and managed by Stan Spry at The Cartel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
February 16, 2021
Hawkeye and Mockingbird return in an amped up spy story. It turns out Hawkeye's Ronin alter-ego once belonged to a racist Japanese leader back in WWII and it's now coming back to haunt him. McCann's got a great knowledge of Marvel's history and uses it to full effect.
February 23, 2022
Yeah I hated this lol. In my Black Widow reads there are a lot of ups & downs and this was really fucking down. The first issue was okay but then in the second issue it changed artists to now have Natasha tits out and then when it went back in the next volume, her costume stayed trash. Except for a couple shots where huh, the zipper does in fact work despite evidence otherwise. I've ranted about this before but I will every time because it is absolute bullshit to draw her this way, in a stupid sexy outfit that is completely impractical and ugly. Why would her tits be out for fighting!! It was funny though because then Bobbi was drawn in the exact same way, with the exact same cleavage that it looked like they just copy and pasted. Choke.
The story was basic and was just meh. Clint was annoying and then Natasha didn't really feel like Natasha but maybe I was just already pissed off because of the terrible art. The ending was so abrupt and disappointing too. The average rating really didn't lie.
The story was basic and was just meh. Clint was annoying and then Natasha didn't really feel like Natasha but maybe I was just already pissed off because of the terrible art. The ending was so abrupt and disappointing too. The average rating really didn't lie.
February 16, 2021
3.5 I’m rounding it up to 4 because I love these characters, Black Widow is one of my all time favorite Marvel characters so I love seeing her get books. Hawkeye and Mockingbird are also one of my favorite Marvel couples (please get them back together already). This is a crossover between the Black Widow and Hawkeye and Mockingbird at the time so each issue rotates between both creative teams. It’s a very solid spy story with a pretty interesting reveal on the main antagonist. The ending gets a little weird (there’s an exploding volcano at some point).
May 17, 2018
2 stars | I like Hawkeye, love Bobbi and Natasha, but I knew a series about all three of them was just too good to be true. So glad I didn't have great expectations because this was meh at best. The plot was pretty simple and the illustrations were not my favourite (can we stop dressing female superheroes with "sexy"/revealing costumes, please?)
March 1, 2016
Hawkeye is my favourite superhero. And Hawkeye and Mockingbird is one of my favourite fictional couple. I should have adored this.
The problem (aside from the way too revealing costumes of Black Widow, Mockingbird and Fantasma, but I'm used to sexist outfits in the superhero genre by now) is the lack of emotion. This comic is all plot and sarcastic remarks, without any real emotional connection between the characters. Sure, Hawkeye and Mockingbird get one panel looking at eachother with Bambi eyes and the narration from Black Widow's point of view make us understand the character a bit more.
But that's not enough. You need more than that to make your readers feel real emotions, real fear when the characters are in danger, real sadness when they feel betrayed.
The problem (aside from the way too revealing costumes of Black Widow, Mockingbird and Fantasma, but I'm used to sexist outfits in the superhero genre by now) is the lack of emotion. This comic is all plot and sarcastic remarks, without any real emotional connection between the characters. Sure, Hawkeye and Mockingbird get one panel looking at eachother with Bambi eyes and the narration from Black Widow's point of view make us understand the character a bit more.
But that's not enough. You need more than that to make your readers feel real emotions, real fear when the characters are in danger, real sadness when they feel betrayed.
October 29, 2011
I really enjoyed the first couple of Hawkeye and Mockingbird series. Adding a character I love like Black Widow seemed like a no-brainer to me. Sadly what I read was a strange hodge-podge of unconnected storylines and obscure tangents. The fact that there were two sets of creators showed the lack of cohesion a good story needs. The characters all seemed like odd versions of themselves and no one shined. The villains were terribly lame and the “reveal” was beyond pointless to readers. Add the lack of any consequences to the extremely rushed art and you have a huge disappointment. Overall, this is a sad letdown.
September 25, 2013
Natasha is GREAT, but everything else about this mini is nonsensical. Also, there is epic amounts of graphic violence against women, most of whom are nearly naked for no reason whatsoever. There's some lovely art mixed in, but over all this is a hot mess.
I'm splitting the difference with 3 stars, but that's arbitrary.
I'm splitting the difference with 3 stars, but that's arbitrary.
November 27, 2018
Blah, if Black Widow wasn't in this, I wouldn't have read it. She's great, and so is Bobby (probably my intro to her) but Hawkeye is just irritating. The story started interesting and then got convoluted and petered out at the end. Black Widow's big solution to save the day felt true to character, but it also felt rushed. I really did not like the art.
October 10, 2011
Not bad on it's own. But considering that I just read a couple of other Black Widow TPBs were the main villain turned out to be a former lover/colleague/trainer/teammate of her's... it's kind of getting old.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2014
Bien narrada y con el debido espacio para cada protagonista, esta aventura grupal se ajusta a los tópicos de "intriga internacional" que Marvel suele tomar prestados con eficacia. Algunos guiños para el lector veterano y un remate algo flojo, pero adecuado.
June 10, 2018
real review: 3.5
this was good. i didn’t really have motivation to finish it but i liked it.
this was good. i didn’t really have motivation to finish it but i liked it.
August 9, 2023
Contrary to the MCU's Black Widow, whom I love as a character, I am not very familiar with Marvel's comics version of the heroine. So this review is to be taken very much as the thoughts of a novice plunging into the comic book world of the Widow.
First and foremost, this volume comprises two stories: Widowmaker #1-4 by Jim McCann, Duane Swiercynski, David López and Manuel Garcia, and classic tales of Hawkeye, Mockingbird and the Black Widow from Solo Avengers #14-16. I shall focus primarily on the former, with some thoughts on the latter at the end of my review.
From a narrative perspective, Widowmaker has everything I would expect from such a story. Spy games, superhero action, humor, and wanting-world-conquest villains. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, thought it was complex enough, and welcomed the occasional twists.
In terms of characters, I felt this Natasha was a version I recognised, a version that was familiar to me, which is not something I had found in a few other of her comic-book stories I had quickly read-through. I was very pleasantly surprised. Natasha, you rock. Equally, Hawkeye is not a character I am at all familiar with outside of the MCU, but I have enjoyed his comic-relief personality in both Widowmaker and the Solo Avengers stories. Mockingbird and Fortune were new characters to me (ish), and again, I thought they were well-fleshed characters.
Pencil wise, this is always the most challenging aspect of comic books for me. I like realism, and comic books are either a complete hit or a complete miss. This one I rather enjoyed. Maybe that added to the whole experience.
The Solo Avengers was fun, although perhaps a bit too simplistic and scientifically-twisted a story to my liking. But I recognise this is the type of narratives that make up these comic-books. I just enjoyed the plot of Widowmaker a little better. The colour palette is also really not my style, but again, these are part of what made comic books at the time, or at least, it is the style I would personally associate with the era in which these comic books were written. The characters' interactions was highly entertaining though, and it was all quite a wild fun ride.
Overall, I had an enjoyable and entertaining time reading this volume, and really fancy delving further into the adventures of the Black Widow, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.
First and foremost, this volume comprises two stories: Widowmaker #1-4 by Jim McCann, Duane Swiercynski, David López and Manuel Garcia, and classic tales of Hawkeye, Mockingbird and the Black Widow from Solo Avengers #14-16. I shall focus primarily on the former, with some thoughts on the latter at the end of my review.
From a narrative perspective, Widowmaker has everything I would expect from such a story. Spy games, superhero action, humor, and wanting-world-conquest villains. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, thought it was complex enough, and welcomed the occasional twists.
In terms of characters, I felt this Natasha was a version I recognised, a version that was familiar to me, which is not something I had found in a few other of her comic-book stories I had quickly read-through. I was very pleasantly surprised. Natasha, you rock. Equally, Hawkeye is not a character I am at all familiar with outside of the MCU, but I have enjoyed his comic-relief personality in both Widowmaker and the Solo Avengers stories. Mockingbird and Fortune were new characters to me (ish), and again, I thought they were well-fleshed characters.
Pencil wise, this is always the most challenging aspect of comic books for me. I like realism, and comic books are either a complete hit or a complete miss. This one I rather enjoyed. Maybe that added to the whole experience.
The Solo Avengers was fun, although perhaps a bit too simplistic and scientifically-twisted a story to my liking. But I recognise this is the type of narratives that make up these comic-books. I just enjoyed the plot of Widowmaker a little better. The colour palette is also really not my style, but again, these are part of what made comic books at the time, or at least, it is the style I would personally associate with the era in which these comic books were written. The characters' interactions was highly entertaining though, and it was all quite a wild fun ride.
Overall, I had an enjoyable and entertaining time reading this volume, and really fancy delving further into the adventures of the Black Widow, Hawkeye and Mockingbird.
September 28, 2020
Seguimos con las aventuras de los espías más famosos de Marvel, y en este tomo, de hecho, nos vamos a encontrar con la colaboración de James McCann y Duane Swyerzinski (creo que se escribe así, que el apellido es complicadillo) para unir los caminos de la Viuda Negra y los de la agencia dirigida por Pájaro Burlón y Ojo de Halcón. Además, en el pasado, Ojo de Halcón y la Viuda tuvieron una relación amorosa, así que bueno, está servida la historia.
En España, el tomo "Hacedor de Viudas" llegó los cuatro números de la colección Viuda Negra que siguieron a El Nombre de la Rosa, con una historia bastante interesante en la que al parecer alguien ha contratado a una asesina para hacerse pasar por la Viuda Negra y asesinar a diferentes cargos políticos, lo que obliga a Natacha a huir, luchar y tener que defender la vida del hijo de una de sus víctimas, decidido a descubrir la verdad sobre la muerte de su padre. La historia está muy bien contada, y si bien el dibujo flojea un poco, la verdad es que es el mejor contenido del tomo.
Y después llegó como tal Hacedor de Viudas, una trama que unía las dos colecciones, Viuda Negra por un lado y Ojo de Halcón/Pájaro Burlón por otro. Alguien está matando espías, tanto de SHIELD como de la KGB y otras agencias, y tanto Bobbi como Natacha se encuentran en la lista de los asesinos, una organización secreta japonesa llamada Océano Oscuro, cuyo líder lleva el uniforme de Ronin, que Ojo de Halcón acababa de dejar atrás. Los tres protagonistas y Dominic Fortune tienen que llevar a cabo su investigación a contrarreloj para evitar un conflicto diplomático sin precedentes entre Rusia y Japón. Y aquí por ejemplo el dibujo sale reforzado con David López y unas portadas fantásticas de Jae Lee (que para mí es una debilidad), pero la historia en sí... en fin, no está mal, pero tampoco es exáctamente deslumbrante, aunque tiene un giro curioso en la identidad del nuevo Ronin, pero la verdad es que la historia me parece un poco precipitada en general.
En España, el tomo "Hacedor de Viudas" llegó los cuatro números de la colección Viuda Negra que siguieron a El Nombre de la Rosa, con una historia bastante interesante en la que al parecer alguien ha contratado a una asesina para hacerse pasar por la Viuda Negra y asesinar a diferentes cargos políticos, lo que obliga a Natacha a huir, luchar y tener que defender la vida del hijo de una de sus víctimas, decidido a descubrir la verdad sobre la muerte de su padre. La historia está muy bien contada, y si bien el dibujo flojea un poco, la verdad es que es el mejor contenido del tomo.
Y después llegó como tal Hacedor de Viudas, una trama que unía las dos colecciones, Viuda Negra por un lado y Ojo de Halcón/Pájaro Burlón por otro. Alguien está matando espías, tanto de SHIELD como de la KGB y otras agencias, y tanto Bobbi como Natacha se encuentran en la lista de los asesinos, una organización secreta japonesa llamada Océano Oscuro, cuyo líder lleva el uniforme de Ronin, que Ojo de Halcón acababa de dejar atrás. Los tres protagonistas y Dominic Fortune tienen que llevar a cabo su investigación a contrarreloj para evitar un conflicto diplomático sin precedentes entre Rusia y Japón. Y aquí por ejemplo el dibujo sale reforzado con David López y unas portadas fantásticas de Jae Lee (que para mí es una debilidad), pero la historia en sí... en fin, no está mal, pero tampoco es exáctamente deslumbrante, aunque tiene un giro curioso en la identidad del nuevo Ronin, pero la verdad es que la historia me parece un poco precipitada en general.
September 4, 2025
Puntaje: 3 Estrellas.
Cuando comencé a leer cómics de Marvel, hubo uno que recuerdo que había llamado mi atención en su momento, pero que no leí: Widowmaker, un cómic protagonizado por Hawkeye, Black Widow y Mockingbird, tres personajes que representan la rama del espionaje en Marvel. De seguro sería una historia llena de acción, así que esta historia quedó en mi radar para una posible lectura futura.
En Widowmaker, hay un asesino que está atacando a espías en todo el mundo, y nuestros protagonistas deben descubrir de quién se trata y cual es su objetivo. Además, el asesino lleva el traje de Ronin (identidad que Hawkeye ocupó por un momento), por lo que hay sospechas de que Clint tenga algo que ver con esto.
No extenderé mucho esta reseña porque esta es una historia corta. En pocas palabras: Este es un cómic de espías con mucha acción que explorará la rivalidad fronteriza entre Rusia y Japón. Dado esto, nos adentraremos en las fuerzas de acción de estos países como el equipo de superhumanos de Rusia y la orden de ninjas asesinos de Japón.
Si bien la acción es entretenida, Widowmaker no nos ofrece una historia que cautiva o sorprende al lector. Lastimosamente, se trata de un cómic que no cumplió con mis expectativas. Lo recomiendo solo si están buscando un cómic de acción y que esté protagonizado por estos personajes, pero por lo demás, no tiene mucho más que ofrecer.
Cuando comencé a leer cómics de Marvel, hubo uno que recuerdo que había llamado mi atención en su momento, pero que no leí: Widowmaker, un cómic protagonizado por Hawkeye, Black Widow y Mockingbird, tres personajes que representan la rama del espionaje en Marvel. De seguro sería una historia llena de acción, así que esta historia quedó en mi radar para una posible lectura futura.
En Widowmaker, hay un asesino que está atacando a espías en todo el mundo, y nuestros protagonistas deben descubrir de quién se trata y cual es su objetivo. Además, el asesino lleva el traje de Ronin (identidad que Hawkeye ocupó por un momento), por lo que hay sospechas de que Clint tenga algo que ver con esto.
No extenderé mucho esta reseña porque esta es una historia corta. En pocas palabras: Este es un cómic de espías con mucha acción que explorará la rivalidad fronteriza entre Rusia y Japón. Dado esto, nos adentraremos en las fuerzas de acción de estos países como el equipo de superhumanos de Rusia y la orden de ninjas asesinos de Japón.
Si bien la acción es entretenida, Widowmaker no nos ofrece una historia que cautiva o sorprende al lector. Lastimosamente, se trata de un cómic que no cumplió con mis expectativas. Lo recomiendo solo si están buscando un cómic de acción y que esté protagonizado por estos personajes, pero por lo demás, no tiene mucho más que ofrecer.
August 18, 2017
Terrible. Or, if you're inured to the crap Marvel churns out, then maybe just "Meh."
The plot is (no need to avoid spoilers, as it makes no difference to the plot or characters) this: A super secret World War 2-era Japanese intelligence organization is mysteriously resurrected. Why, so the heroes can fight ninjas.
Their goals? Give the heroes a reason to fight and pose a lot--while doing a lot of posing themselves. Their stated goals is to distract the world by conducting assassinations against the diplomats negotiating a peace treaty between Japan and Russia over the Kuril Islands, while secretly killing all the world's spies, blinding the world's powers in preparation for their evil plan to take over the world. But they telegraph their plans to the heroes at every opportunity.
Also, when the heroes are facing off against a team of four or so super-ninjas, they must pull off some crazy stunt to escape. But at the end, when they're facing off against a literal army and air force of super-ninjas, despite not having prepared or discovered some super-secret super-ninja weakness, they suddenly manage to defeat them all with little effort.
This book comes with a bonus retro-comic at the end. At first I thought it was satirizing '70s-era comics, but no, it turns out comics back then really were that bad.
The plot is (no need to avoid spoilers, as it makes no difference to the plot or characters) this: A super secret World War 2-era Japanese intelligence organization is mysteriously resurrected. Why, so the heroes can fight ninjas.
Their goals? Give the heroes a reason to fight and pose a lot--while doing a lot of posing themselves. Their stated goals is to distract the world by conducting assassinations against the diplomats negotiating a peace treaty between Japan and Russia over the Kuril Islands, while secretly killing all the world's spies, blinding the world's powers in preparation for their evil plan to take over the world. But they telegraph their plans to the heroes at every opportunity.
Also, when the heroes are facing off against a team of four or so super-ninjas, they must pull off some crazy stunt to escape. But at the end, when they're facing off against a literal army and air force of super-ninjas, despite not having prepared or discovered some super-secret super-ninja weakness, they suddenly manage to defeat them all with little effort.
This book comes with a bonus retro-comic at the end. At first I thought it was satirizing '70s-era comics, but no, it turns out comics back then really were that bad.
September 6, 2017
I liked the graphics, there was constant action and I love the characters that were included in this novel. I think that Mockingbird is one of my favorite characters, she has no super powers, just the ability to kick everyones butts. This had an interesting story to it as well. Then at the very end there was an old school short story with these characters. Normally I do not like this because it seems like cheating to take up space in a comic book but this one was fun to see how cheesy and silly they used to be and sometimes still are. Good job!!!
May 2, 2019
This was a self-contained story revolving around Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird (obvi).
Hawkeye and Mockingbird are said to be romantically linked, but currently having a spat. It might be that "work" is getting in their way.
I disliked some of the art, but I believe there were different artists working on it. At times BW's face and eye shapes were kind of. . . I don't know what I want to use to describe it. They were off and looked inhuman.
Why it helped with Endgame: Touched on Ronin; Black Widow; Hawkeye.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird are said to be romantically linked, but currently having a spat. It might be that "work" is getting in their way.
I disliked some of the art, but I believe there were different artists working on it. At times BW's face and eye shapes were kind of. . . I don't know what I want to use to describe it. They were off and looked inhuman.
Why it helped with Endgame: Touched on Ronin; Black Widow; Hawkeye.
June 5, 2025
Read this because I been reading Black Widow stuff lately, buuut it felt like it was only barely keeping my interest honestly. It didn’t feel that character driven I guess, and there was this vague borderline cringe feel there too. Plus the writer had Hawkeye say “only watch the original trilogy” for Star Wars. Automatic demerits for that XD
November 14, 2020
I wasn’t a big fan of some of the art. Black Widow looks so old in some of it and then young in other parts. The storyline also was strange to follow. Granted I don’t know what came before it, but it was just a running start in a series. I also didn’t feel connected to the characters.
February 18, 2018
Two writer collaborating. Two distinct styles. One train crash.
October 17, 2019
Two stories of team-up between Hawkeye, Black Widow an Mockingbird. First one is about a new Ronin killing spies and the other is from the eighties.
June 14, 2022
Well! How did I just realize that I can log my comic book reading on Goodreads?! Here’s to anything that can help me reach my 2022 reading goal!!!
October 15, 2023
2.5 Stars
The storyline was pretty choppy and the ending was really abrupt.
The storyline was pretty choppy and the ending was really abrupt.
August 14, 2022
okay so the story was not so bad, it was intriguing though a bit rushed at the end
i like Clint, Bobbi and Nat together, they're a fun trio
the art style kept switching from issue to issue and once again Natasha has to have her bazoonkas out in almost every goddamn panel cause Super Sexy Russian Spy™ am i right? jesus christ these people...
i like Clint, Bobbi and Nat together, they're a fun trio
the art style kept switching from issue to issue and once again Natasha has to have her bazoonkas out in almost every goddamn panel cause Super Sexy Russian Spy™ am i right? jesus christ these people...
January 31, 2022
Even for a limited series it was a little too rushed at 4 issues. Still had some fun moments and interesting to see Red Guardian again masquerading as Ronin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2013
This is a very, very, very odd book. It's a collection of a four-issue mini-series, with two different writer/artist teams, McCann/Lopez on the odd numbers and Swierczynski/Garcia on the even ones. I thought that the writing styles meshed quite well, but the art was quite different. I liked the Garcia work a lot more. The book also has a really bad cover; Hawkeye looks like an old church lady who's eaten some sour prunes while wearing dark velvet curtains and Widow looks like Raggedy Ann's cat with orange kite tails stapled to her head. A few years ago Marvel started a series featuring Hawkeye and Mockingbird that was acclaimed as one of the best, most promising new series in years. So, naturally, they immediately cancelled it. The current story picks up shortly after the events of that series; Clint and Bobbi have to investigate a string of murders which causes them to head to Russia, where they meet up with Black Widow. Dominic Fortune is along for the ride, too. Confusingly, Widow is varyingly introduced as Natasha Romanov or Natalia Romanova or some combination with variant spellings... they should have picked one and stuck with it. They encounter the Widow's former husband (that sounds confusing), some stuff happens, and they eventually save the day, of course. The two pairs of formerly married couples have some interesting by-play, and Bobbi has the best (and nastiest) line in the book, "Big shocker there." The book is filled out with a storyline from a few issues of Solo Avengers from 1989 that feature Hawkeye and Black Widow (during her short-hair phase) taking on A.I.M. with unknown assists from Mockingbird. It's a fun adventure with each episode headed with "Stan Lee Presents," the way God intended, and exclamation points at the end of every sentence of dialog.
February 22, 2015
Clarifying.
So, I've been getting back into comic reading, slowly, after watching my daughter get into them the last few years, and her asking me all sorts of questions. I always liked Hawkeye and the Black Widow--the spy, criminal underworld genre of comics, even superhero books, has appealed to me more than the cosmic ones or the superheroes battling supervillains. But I hadn't read about either character since the early 1990s, when I gave up comics.
As it happens, this one kind of picks up from pieces of what I remember: Hawkeye is separated from his wife and fellow Avenger Mockingbird. They team with his ex-girlfriend Black Widow to figure out why spies around the world are being taken out. It's an evergreen topic--I remember it in Spiderman v. Wolverine and the Spiderman Hobgoblin series--and it was handled well here. There is nothing remarkable about the story, but it is comforting and easy enough. The art is good and great: good in issues 1 and 3, great in 2 and 4. (There were different pencillers.)
The clarification comes from the additional material added to this TPB: some stories by Tom DeFalco featuring Hawkeye that originally appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I can see why I might have given up the genre: the constant exposition, especially through dialogue, becomes so stupid. I know there were other experiments going on in the genre--notably by Frank Miller and Allan Moore; I love Watchmen still--but this everyday kind of storytelling was too manipulative, too forced, too formulaic. The genre has made great strides in pure storytelling form over the last twenty years, and that is clear here.
I enjoyed the story enough, and found them comforting enough, that I did get the next TPB in the series, as well as ordering the previous ones in the story arc.
So, I've been getting back into comic reading, slowly, after watching my daughter get into them the last few years, and her asking me all sorts of questions. I always liked Hawkeye and the Black Widow--the spy, criminal underworld genre of comics, even superhero books, has appealed to me more than the cosmic ones or the superheroes battling supervillains. But I hadn't read about either character since the early 1990s, when I gave up comics.
As it happens, this one kind of picks up from pieces of what I remember: Hawkeye is separated from his wife and fellow Avenger Mockingbird. They team with his ex-girlfriend Black Widow to figure out why spies around the world are being taken out. It's an evergreen topic--I remember it in Spiderman v. Wolverine and the Spiderman Hobgoblin series--and it was handled well here. There is nothing remarkable about the story, but it is comforting and easy enough. The art is good and great: good in issues 1 and 3, great in 2 and 4. (There were different pencillers.)
The clarification comes from the additional material added to this TPB: some stories by Tom DeFalco featuring Hawkeye that originally appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I can see why I might have given up the genre: the constant exposition, especially through dialogue, becomes so stupid. I know there were other experiments going on in the genre--notably by Frank Miller and Allan Moore; I love Watchmen still--but this everyday kind of storytelling was too manipulative, too forced, too formulaic. The genre has made great strides in pure storytelling form over the last twenty years, and that is clear here.
I enjoyed the story enough, and found them comforting enough, that I did get the next TPB in the series, as well as ordering the previous ones in the story arc.
December 16, 2015
2.5 stars but not 3 stars because this is s a pretty weird collection, at least in my opinion. It features issues 1-4 of Widowmaker and then adds issues 14-16 of the Solo Avengers which has a vastly different style and a pretty dumb storyline in my opinion.
I liked the first part very much even though the four issues alternated between writers and graphics people and you can tell, especially with the character of Black Widow who does look quite different depending on who draws her. Given that it's supposed to be one story, I find that odd. Nevertheless, the story is decent, as are the graphics.
All issues collected her feature Bobbi Morse as well. I wasn't aware that Hawkeye and Bobbi were an item in the comics, or that Hawkeye and Black Widow were romantically linked once, yes I'm that kind of a Marvel novice. I must say, I prefer the MCU version of Clint's and Natasha's relationship where they are best friends instead of ex-lovers.
Hadn't it been for the Solo Avengers addition, I would have given this a higher ranking. And, I would be happy to not see Black Widow ending up in some Russian storyline. Send her off on a mission somewhere else in the world. But what I did like about this was getting a better glimpse in her past and seeing where she trained and such things. I liked that.
In short, it was all a bit mangled but okay. I'm not ecstatic about this volume though.
I liked the first part very much even though the four issues alternated between writers and graphics people and you can tell, especially with the character of Black Widow who does look quite different depending on who draws her. Given that it's supposed to be one story, I find that odd. Nevertheless, the story is decent, as are the graphics.
All issues collected her feature Bobbi Morse as well. I wasn't aware that Hawkeye and Bobbi were an item in the comics, or that Hawkeye and Black Widow were romantically linked once, yes I'm that kind of a Marvel novice. I must say, I prefer the MCU version of Clint's and Natasha's relationship where they are best friends instead of ex-lovers.
Hadn't it been for the Solo Avengers addition, I would have given this a higher ranking. And, I would be happy to not see Black Widow ending up in some Russian storyline. Send her off on a mission somewhere else in the world. But what I did like about this was getting a better glimpse in her past and seeing where she trained and such things. I liked that.
In short, it was all a bit mangled but okay. I'm not ecstatic about this volume though.
May 22, 2015
End of the Hawkeye and Mockingbird's return arc with a dash of Black Widow.
You kinda need to read some of the prior Black Widow books Black Widow: The Name of the Rose (which is wonderful) ; Black Widow: Deadly Origin (which is less wonderful) and Black Widow: Kiss or Kill (which is also not so much wonderful). I would recommend reading Name of the Rose only.
The Black Widow parts are a lot more interesting. The whole Mockingbird and Black Widow having a target on their back was a bit sloppy but Natasha wonderful expertise in combat and spying made up for it.
You kinda need to read some of the prior Black Widow books Black Widow: The Name of the Rose (which is wonderful) ; Black Widow: Deadly Origin (which is less wonderful) and Black Widow: Kiss or Kill (which is also not so much wonderful). I would recommend reading Name of the Rose only.
The Black Widow parts are a lot more interesting. The whole Mockingbird and Black Widow having a target on their back was a bit sloppy but Natasha wonderful expertise in combat and spying made up for it.
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