Hawkeye, Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon

Spent the last few weeks and months hearing about how awesome this new Hawkeye series is. So I was glad to see it at the library recently so I could check it out myself.

I stopped reading Marvel comics decades ago (other than the a brief dabbling with the Ultimates line and the Spider-Man titles), so I was clueless when it comes to continuity. But Hawkeye was one of my favorites back when I did read them, so the thought that his own title was one of the best things around really appealed to me, I could get over the continuity thing.

I'm glad I gave it a shot – I'm not going to say it's the greatest comic I've ever read, but it's fun. There's a lot of storytelling opportunity for Hawkeye when he's not Avenger-ing. I've never read Fraction's stuff before, but I like his dialogue approach and his characterizations – especially with Clint and Kate Bishop. Though like I've said elsewhere, I could live without the in media res openings.

Aja's art isn't the greatest I've ever seen, but there's a simplicity to his layouts, a dynamism to it that makes it work. It also reminded me a bit of David Mazzucchelli's work from Batman: Year One, which is a pretty good association to have in the back of your mind as you're reading.

A good read, with a lot of interesting possibilities, I'm in for more.