PIck A Target And Let Fly Barton

I've been trying to trace my dissatisfaction with Hawkeye recently. I know it's the writing, rather than the art (though I would certainly like it if Aja could draw all the issues, simply for consistency's sake).

I know some of it stems from a sense that Clint is the least competent character in his own book. Kate, Boobi, and Barney all had more success fighting the Bros than Clint has, as he largely ends up beaten into unconsciousness each time he mixes it up with them. I've tried reminding myself that he's usually fighting a lot more of them than any of the others had to deal with, which is helping a little bit. I still can't shake the feeling someone trained to fight by Captain America ought to do better against a bunch of third-rate thugs, but I guess we can argue unfavorable circumstances, especially for that time he fought with no clothes.

The larger issue is I'm frustrated with his moping around. This depressed air he has, where he can't decide what to do, so he sits around drinking coffee and sleeping in. I'm as disgusted with it as Kate, though I still wouldn't have stolen his dog over it. It's been going since at least #9, and probably the latter half of #8, after he got released from jail. Sure, some of it is residual irritation with his cheating on Jessica Drew, but I could accept Clint making bad decisions if he'd get off his butt and try something else. It's one of his defining characteristics, that he will screw up big, but get back up and try again. His ego or confidence might falter, but it never deflates entirely.

But he does need time, and he hasn't had it. Sure, it's August for us, and Clint was arrested back in February, but consider the timeline. He's arrested helping Cherry rob the nightclub in #8. In issue 9, we see his various lady friends got involved almost as soon as he left Avengers mansion with Cherry. So I figure Bobbi, Kate, and Jessica showed up on his doorstep the next day. At the end of the issue, Kate mentioned she had a party to attend that night, which is probably where #10 takes place. Grills gets shot at the end of #10, and that overlaps slightly with #11, which includes the funeral, and then Kate's departure for L.A. #11 also has Lucky mistake Barney for Clint the day after the murder. I think. The art suggests it was the following morning, but there's no guarantee Lucky's story is moving on a strict day-to-day basis. Then again. He saw Barney before the cops had even arrived, so my guess is yeah, Barney showed up the day after Grills died. Which means he and Clint got together some time before Kate left, which had to be at least a couple of days after the funeral.

While it's been about 7 months for us since Clint was arrested, it probably hasn't been more than 2 weeks for him, though I'm unclear on how long the police would hold a body in a murder case. I guess as long as Grills wasn't cremated he could be buried, and they could dig him up later if need be (pending court orders and such). From that perspective, I find it more understandable. I feel like he ought to be doing something - firing arrows compulsively, like he did when things fell apart for him in the Gruenwald-written Hawkeye mini-series - but I can see why he's still stuck in neutral.

In that mini-series, he was doing his job well, he thought everything was going along fine, and it turned out nothing around him was what it seemed. In this case, he screwed up, repeatedly, and he knows it. He rushed in, did things that put other people in danger without thinking about it, and now he has to live with the consequences. He has to act, but he isn't sure how to proceed without making things worse. Because he justifiably doesn't trust his judgement at the moment.

I'm still more than ready to the end of these Bros as a threat, but I've at least managed to talk myself into why it hasn't happened yet. Seriously though, Clint, any time now would be great.