Hawkeye #13, by Matt Fraction & David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (lettering) - I don't really understand the hexagonal patterns all over the cover. It's a nice honeycomb, patchwork effect, but I'm not clear on the purpose. Does the next cover follow that? I guess if the book is going to alternate issues between Clint and Kate, it could be to represent their being separated.Over the past few issues we've had events from Barney's perspective, Pizza Dog's perspective, Kate's, and now it's Clint's turn. So it retreads the same territory as the previous three issues, just as Clint experienced. Which does help to tie things together. I hadn't realized Barney showed before Kate even left, for example. Still, though, you know how I complained about Clint's moping about, but tried to be reasonable because while it was 6 months for me, it was maybe two weeks for him? Well, this is more moping about, only with drinking and painkiller use mixed in. On the plus side, it looks like it's really only been about 4 days for Clint. Of course, it's been 9 months for me by now. One step forward, two step back.
I'm still not sure why Kate left, though. On the ride to the funeral, she told Clint she was going to be there for him, next thing you know she's jetting for the coast. What, because he fell asleep when she was making her heartfelt speech in the car? Fleeing emotional commitment is a Hawkeye characteristic.
I don't sound terribly pleased with the book, I know, but it's hard for me not to be frustrated. The Punisher could have handled these dopes in five minutes, and Clint's still futzing around feeling bad for himself. At least he has good taste in movies. He fell asleep watching Rio Bravo, which is not exactly a subtle foreshadowing of his and Barney's situation, having to defend a set location against an enemy they may not even recognize, what with it being a largely faceless mass of morons.
Aja did the entire issue in 9-panel grids. I admit, when people talk about how different layouts make them slow down or speed up their reading, I don't get that. I tend to fly over pages at roughly the same speed, adjusting for the amount of dialogue or if the art is unclear. So I can't really say what effect Aja and Fraction were driving at there. It does seem to be effective at forcing me to focus on a specific thing. I've been looking back over it, trying to figure out if there's a pattern or meaning to what's depicted in the first panel, and that bag of blood on page 3 was pretty arresting.
Maybe it's between the last panel on a page, and the first one on the next page? Clint rushes upstaris to get his costume and we see it in the closet. Next page, Clint's wearing, lying flat on his back after a tough battle. The risks you take? Lucky licks Clint's face on one page, the next one they're sitting on the stoop together, waiting for Barney. But then, the last panel of that page was Barney following Clint into the apartment building, and the first panel of the next page is a roll of toilet paper. Family means letting your brother use your bathroom, even if he tried to kill you and your ex-wife, because you took all his money? Or something.
I'm probably overthinking the whole thing, but given the limited plot progression, I have to think about something. Like whether Barney's slumped posture as Clint introduces him to everyone and says he's going to help means he's actually there to kill Clint, or if he's just uncomfortable being the good guy. Or if he just doesn't want to get involved emotionally, either. Maybe that's why they're all archers, they like to keep people at a distance. Works for Ollie Queen too, you know.
No comments:
Post a Comment