Review: HAWKEYE #6

HAWKEYE #6
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by David Aja
Release Date: December 19, 2012

7390824-hawkeye-6Ho Ho Ho. Clint Barton gets to play Santa and enjoy a little holiday cheer (and frustration) in the latest installment from writer Matt Fraction and illustrator David Aja. Entitled “Six Nights in the Life of…” Hawkeye #6 zeroes in on precisely what makes Clint fit to stand among giants in the Avengers. He’s down to earth and full of equal parts bravado and self-doubt, but above all else, wears his big heart on his sleeve.

Fraction is becoming quite the enigma wrapped in a riddle for me. Combined with his (dare I say it?) fantastic start on Marvel NOW’s FF relaunch, Hawkeye is proving that the writer is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to producing comics just slightly askew of the mainstream expectation. His premise, to feature not one but two Hawkeyes — in the form of veteran Avenger Barton and young ingénue Kate Bishop — in a regular “day in the life” format, is honestly one of the freshest takes I’ve seen on super-heroes in forever. This issue in particular plays with time in such a way that demands the reader go back and piece it together once or twice after first read, but not in the sense that creates annoyance. We’ve seen writers play with this format over long arcs, jumping forward and back in time, to little success to be honest. But here, Fraction uses his single issue format to his advantage, keeping each vignette relatively short and wrapping it all up by the end of twenty pages.

Aja returns to great effect, having taken a two issue break, bringing back not only his sharp, clean look so appropriate for what Fraction is trying to accomplish with dialogue-driven pacing — but also his mastery of panel layout. With each page broken down into its own unique grid pattern, this issue is a particular study in how to impart the tone of a scene without feeling constricted to the usual “box + word balloon + talking head” format. I love the air he gives each page, when needed (we artists do like our white space), and the repeat motif of the clock icon really reinforces the sense that time is passing moment by moment, not leaping around haphazardly, despite the disordered presentation of dates. And the small amusements Aja infuses into the issue — the page where the Avengers appear like they’re characters in a video game, as well as the initial two page introduction of Stark’s trepidation over cutting the right wire — continue to make this issue and series a far superior product to so much on the stands today.

An absolutely unique take on the always mandatory “Christmas Lesson,” Hawkeye #6 continues to breathe fresh life into the character and would get my highest recommendation at this, or any other, time of year. You’d have to be a Scrooge not to like this book.

Verdict: 10.0/10

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