My parents, who live in Northeast Jersey, lost power for ten days after Superstorm Sandy. The 80-some foot pine tree that stood in their front yard fell, taking out the power lines (and my mom's car) with it. After a few days, when the temperature in the house dipped below 50 degrees, my sister and I finally convinced them to spend at least the nights at her house. Their days were spent sitting on lawn chairs in the front yard waiting for government employees and insurance adjustors, and chatting with the various neighbors taking a stroll through the neighborhood because they, too, didn't have electricity and just needed something to do.
So, this issue.
I love that Matt Fraction realized that Clint Barton and Kate Bishop would be exactly the type of characters that would lend themselves to this sort of story. In the world of the Avengers and the X-Men, you'd have to ask yourself why Thor or Storm didn't stop Superstorm Sandy. Couldn't Tony Stark have found a way to shore up the levies? Couldn't Iceman just have frozen the tide? But, you don't wonder those questions reading "Hawkeye," because Clint and Kate aren't those guys. They've just got some bows and arrows. As Clint said, they're not going to do much against a storm.
So, instead, Fraction shows Clint helping Grills try to get his father to leave his house in Far Rockaway and Kate trying to get medicine for a friend's mom. It's heroic in the everyday way that Fraction frequently emphasizes in this title. Clint never touches a bow in this issue and Kate doesn't even manage to shoot hers. In fact, Kate has to be saved by some locals. (Jersey!) But, they're there, because, as Wacker says in the letters page, "we're all in this together, 'waist deep in a big muddy.'" It's the unofficial motto of this series and the fact that Fraction recognizes that this situation lent itself to calling an audible shows how well he really gets Clint and Kate.
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