Hawkeye #21 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Man, I used to love this series so much.  It was about the stuff that Hawkeye did when he wasn't an Avenger, and it was amazing.  Now?  Now, I don't know what it is.

At this point -- after a dozen or so non-sequitur issues with gaps of months between issues -- I'm not really sure what story Fraction is telling.  Sana has the sort of disclaimer that she has to include in the letters page, about the best things taking time, but it's weak at best.  It's hard to care about this issue because it just feels like Fraction and Aja didn't care about it.  Did they just get sucked into one or two "Law & Order:  SVU" marathons too many?  I'm guessing that we'll never get an answer to that question.

Unfortunately, we don't get answers to many questions in this issue.  We never got an answer to how Clint and Barney survived the last time that they were seemingly killed, so it's hard to know if we're supposed to believe that Barney is dead (again) at the end of the issue.  I had to re-read my blog posts to remember that the track-suit mafia wants the building to build a real-estate development, and I found myself wondering why Clint just doesn't use his money to buy a new building for everyone, since it would endanger their lives a lot less.  We never learned how Barney came to be in a loving relationship with Clint's neighbor, so we don't understand why Clint is inspired to try to make it work with Jessica again.  (We also don't learn why Jessica would be willing to try again.  I would've just taken her commenting how he's good in bed and she misses that.)  I still really don't know who the Clown is and I don't understand why his mother has been living in the building unnoticed by anyone.  In other words, I don't understand a lot, and I don't understand this issue.

The worst part is that I know that everyone is going to love this issue.  After I post this review, I'm going to go to Comic Book Round-Up and see that everyone else has given it ten stars, calling it "amazing" and "brilliant."  I will again wonder, as I have the last few issues, if I'm missing something.  I'll wonder why everyone else seems to have no problem either understanding the plot or not caring that they don't understand it.  I'll wonder if I should just read all 21 issues again, in order, to see if it finally makes sense.  But, then I wonder if my time just isn't better served watching a "Law & Order:  SVU" marathon, and I move onto the next comic.

** (two of five stars)