Hawkeye (1983) 2

Hawkeye (1983) 2

Oct 1983

Point Blank!

by Mark Gruenwald, Brett Breeding, Joe Rubinstein, Bob Sharen, Joe Rosen, Dennis O’Neil

Hawkeye practices archery on a makeshift target in an abandoned subway tunnel and thinks about the past 24 hours, until he collapses from exhaustion. A street gang finds him and try to rob him. He fights back, beats them up (despite being outnumbered and very tired), and then takes off on his sky sled. 

Hawkeye returns home only to find his apartment cleaned out. Mockingbird is on the roof of his building. He accepts her offer of assistance and they head back to her place. She tells him a little about her past and then runs out to buy some supplies while he gets some sleep. 

Hawkeye wakes up to find an assassin in the apartment, ready to kill him. Mockingbird returns in time to help him fight off the assassin. Hawkeye and Mockingbird visit with a friend of his from CTE and then break-in to his former ‘offices in search of clues as what Cross Technological Enterprises is planning. 

The assassin who broke into Mockingbird’s apartment spots them and attacks. She deals with CTE’s security guards while Hawkeye fights with the assassin. 

Thoughts

After a bit of a diversion I am finally back to the Hawkeye limited series. I didn't plan it this way but I think that a strong case can be made for reading the last five comics that I have grouped with this limited series in between the first and second issues of the limited series. Hawkeye 1 was breakfast, the five stories that followed were lunch, now I'm ready for dinner.

I have two bones to pick with this installment. Bone number one, Hawkeye’s quiver is empty on page 3 but moments later, on page 4, when he gets into a fight with the gang, his quiver is full of arrows. Bone number two, how did Mockingbird know where Hawkeye lived? She says she staked out his apartment but why would he have told her where he lived? This is less bothersome than the first one but it still makes me scratch my head. 

I love how this story unfolds. It has a very noir feeling to it.