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Marvel
Writer: David F. Walker
Penciler: Carlos Pacheco
Inker: Rafael Fonteriz
Colorist: Sonia Oback
Letterer: Travis Lanham
It is by happenstance that I had the opportunity to check in on both of the Master Archers of the Big Two this week. And I realize that I have had for a while a deep desire for both DC and Marvel to fix the problem with their bow-casters. The similarity between the two characters in recent years is uncanny. Uncanny in that, we have always gotten that one of the two is a riff off the other. But in recent history, the two characters have both suffered from the lack of any singular defining quality. They have been an ambiguous puddle of, no offense, non-descript average white-guy super-hero. It’s sort of the exact kind of thing that causes me to support the recent campaigns for diversity in comics. Because when you troll the same one-dimensional character template over and over, that schmutz gets old.
The recent DC Rebirth has made an effort to clean up the Oliver Queen house. And Occupy Avengers might be the best hope for a Hawkeye renaissance that has appeared in a while. To be fair, Clint has had some brief flashbangs of excitement since the character’s appearance on the big screen. He was the Dude-bro for a brief period. And grounding him in an apartment in New York and making him part of a neighborhood and a community gave his ephemeral character a bit more stick. Adding a second Hawkeye? Meh. But at least it’s a thing I remember. His part as a Secret Avenger and espousing Nick Spencer’s signature humor was also a brief, enjoyable blip. But my main issue is that I feel like comics-Marvel has never capitalized on any of these launch points to turn those interesting morsels into an extensible and successful Barton escapade. The character has simply not been evolved into a featured, enjoyable part of the Marvel tapestry. There has been no defining success along the lines of Gerry Duggan’s Deadpool or Soule’s Daredevil or the recent renditions of Venom. But David F. Walker and his creative team might just have a hook here in Occupy. In fact, I am pretty sure of it.
If anyone knows me, even if only through my coverage of the comics industry, they’ll know that I love me a good buddy cop movie, show, or comic. It is one of the principal reasons I’ve been a fan
I really like what I see here in Occupy Avengers #2. It is the best Hawkeye story I have read in a long time. As the issue wraps up, Hawkeye invites Wolf to accompany him on his redemption road-trip. I have serious hopes that the Fireheart brothers also join up. Occupy Avengers might be THE off-beat winter storyline that provides the most interesting hook in the Marvel Universe as we turn the corner into spring. If my snowy days have to be filled with tons of inside time, I hope this title maintains this creative quality. Nothing wrong with one more solid comic to while the winter days away.