Avengers: Solo #3: I've been waiting for this series to grow on me, but, unfortunately, it hasn't really. At the end of the day, it just doesn't seem like a Hawkeye adventure. The reason the last few Hawkeye mini-series ("Hawkeye and Mockingbird," "Widowmaker," etc.) worked so well is that they've been focused on his partnering with Mockingbird in espionage-like activities. These stories played to both their strengths: Mockingbird planned for all the eventualities, and Hawkeye ad-libbed when the one eventuality Mockingbird didn't anticipate was the one that actually happened. The problem with Hawkeye working as a detective by himself is that he's not a planner. Detective work takes requires a certain level of focused patience, something Hawkeye doesn't have at all. Moreover, it raises the question of why he's doing what he's doing. X-Factor is pretty honest about the fact that they're in the detective game to help people, but they have to charge them to keep on helping people. Hawkeye just seems to be helping these women to help them. I mean, yes, he's a super-hero, but he's not Cap. I could see Cap helping these women, but Van Meter feels like she's stretching to make it work for Hawekeye. ("They're doing something evil...") I'm not saying the story isn't well-crafted. Van Meter has done a great job of slowly revealing the plot and making sure each new development adds a more nuanced (and not just more complicated) layer to the plot. Plus, she does generally have a good sense of Hawkeye; I particularly liked him playing cards with Chance for more information, something Cap wouldn't do. But, I'm still left feeling like we could've gotten a better Hawkeye story than the one we got here. (Also, I still am not sold on the Avengers Academy story. I mean, who's "solo" exactly? We've got three team members working on the mission. The title of this series isn't "Avengers: Fewer than Usual.")
New Avengers #20: OK, I didn't hate this issue! I mean, don't get me wrong, I still don't get what Bendis is doing with the H.A.M.M.E.R. war. But, I still enjoyed the fight in this issue. (I LOVED the "New Avengers v. Dark Avengers" "Street Figher" splash pages!) Bendis really sells how expertly Osborn set up the team, knowing that Luke Cage would flip when he saw Osborn, goading him into attacking the Dark Avengers right when the Dark Avengers were looking like heroes. Bendis gives us a really dynamic battle, where both sides are really fighting to a stalemate. Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Spider-Man hold their own, while Dr. Strange, Luke Cage, and Wolverine get spanked. (I don't remember how Daredevil got there, though. He wasn't on the ship with him when they arrived last issue, was he? I thought the whole point of his sub-plot last issue was that he was missing the fight. Also, where was Ms. Marvel? We only really see her briefly engage Dark Spider-Man. Usually, she's a little more central to the fight.) I thought Bendis did a good job of showing both sides really struggling with the battle and building a great sense of drama as it progressed.
So, I consider this issue a win, because I at least enjoyed it. But, I still have three overarching issues (and one minor one) with this series and arc. First, we have the "Why are we doing the Dark Avengers bit again?" problem, which I believe I've previously documented sufficiently well to get me a pass on having to do it again. Second, I still don't buy that people are confused whether or not Osborn is a bad guy. The events of "Siege" were nationally televised. Everyone knows he's a nutjob. I just don't see how people have any doubts about that. He even showed his green face! Third, Bendis continues to write the New Avengers as a bunch of people who don't know how to fight together. After, what, almost 100 issues, you'd think they could eventually NOT get their asses handed to them. Finally, the minor issue: everyone acts surprised when Osborn stops Cage's punch. Spidey says that he knows him some Osborns and Osborns don't do that. But, um, they do. I mean, I'm not sure how long Osborn could hold off Cage, but he does have the Goblin Serum in him. I'm pretty sure it's the Serum, and not his costume, that gives him his super-strength.
Again, it was a short-term win, but the long-term battle is still looking grim. We'll see how the Thor clone goes.
Secret Avengers #20: The fact that a villain screams "My time gun will send your heart to be eaten by dinosaurs!" is about all you need to know about this issue. As a mission against the Shadow Council fails, War Machine hands Natasha a time-travel device and she finds herself sent five years in the past. (We know how much I enjoy these sorts of stories). Looking for a way to prevent the deaths of Captain America, Sharon Carter, and War Machine in said failed mission, she's warned by the device not to disrupt the timeflow. (I don't understand how Natasha survives the Council's onslaught but Rhodey -- in his armor -- doesn't, but I've learned to go with it.) She travels a month in the past to get some advice from Henry McCoy and then seeks out two people in the past to give them assignments: an Austrian scientist specializing in time travel to develop the aforementioned time-travel device and a weapons expert to analyze the guns the Shadow Council used to kill the Secret Avengers (she had traveled in the past to swipe one). Once the device is built, she travels into the more recent past to blackmail a military official to embed it in the War Machine armor. Separately, the weapons expert shows her how to convert the Council's guns to stun mode. In the end, the events occur more or less as they did in the beginning of the issue, but everyone is stunned instead of killed. It's actually not a terrible story (and made more sense when I re-read it to write this recap). But, I'm still not really sure about Ellis' assertion that Natasha didn't disrupt the timeflow. I mean, yes, the events happen more or less the way they happened, with slightly different results. But, the results ARE different. So, isn't that disrupting the timeflow? Rhodey is pretty clear that he's dying in the first scenario, but he's not dead in the second one, so hasn't Natasha's actions clearly changed that? God, I hate time-travel stories.
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