Why was the 2012 Hawkeye series canceled by Marvel Comics? I'll tell you why: it sucked.
 |
| Pizza Dog |
Don't get me wrong; when the series first started, Matt Fraction and David Aja did a fantastic job. I even hailed it in a previous review. Sadly, it quickly went to the dogs. (And I don't just mean Pizza Dog.)
Pizza Dog himself was a great addition to the Hawkeye supporting cast. Who wasn't? "Hawkeye" Kate Bishop. I'm pretty sure the reason Marvel gave Hawkeye his own series was due to his popularity in a tiny movie called The Avengers. I don't recall ever seeing Kate Bishop in the movie.
Shown above, the series originally promised us Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) and his life outside of the Avengers. Sadly, the series quickly became about some teenage chick that Fraction apparently has fantasies about who would never ever warrant her own book. Heck, she can't even sustain a team book (Young Avengers). That's how crappy her character is. And do we even need a second Hawkeye? Why not just call her Speedy or something?
Surprisingly, that wasn't the worst thing about the series. Yes, I'm talking about issue #17. The summary for that book is as follows:
Who could forget that time when Clint Barton let his neighbor's kids
watched a holiday cartoon at his place? At long last, this issue is
pretty much the cartoon they all watch.
And they are correct. Not only are we subjected to Kate Bishop instead of Clint Barton, but now we're given a joke for our $2.99. It had to be one of the worst comics I've ever read in 30 years. With issue #18, the story returned to -- you guessed it -- Kate Bishop.
And THAT, my friends, is why this series was canceled. Who wants to continue reading this garbage?
Now Marvel (or is that Marvel NOW!?) is putting out the All-New Hawkeye in 2015, restarting the series with #1. Naturally, that's not uncommon nowadays for Marvel (sigh...), and it's probably meant to coincide with the release of the next Avengers movie.
In the first issue's summary, we're told that we'll be getting "a fresh new look into the life of everyone's favorite Avenger." Then the next sentence starts, "With Kate Bishop, his trusted ward and protégé back at his side..." I guess Marvel hasn't learned their lesson. Have you? I have. I won't be spending $3.99 now for a series that still can't get it right.
I first fell in love with the character of Hawkeye (Marvel's version of DC's Green Arrow) when the limited series of the West Coast Avengers came out in 1984. He was brightly clad, led the new (and, in my opinion, much better) Avengers team, and had an interesting love-hate relationship with Mockingbird (Marvel's version of DC's Black Canary). I followed him through the years until I stopped reading comic books somewhere around 1993. 
Rejoining the world of comics books a year ago, I was excited to find a mini-series titled New Avengers: the Reunion coming out devoted solely to Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Yea! Unfortunately, Hawkeye (Clint Barton) is now called Ronin, whom I last recalled as being a samurai character in the DC Universe created by Frank Miller. It was jarring to say the least, but I'll roll with it, hoping that he'll lose that persona and go back to his original by the end of the series. Still, at least it's the same two characters, and I'm enjoying their reunion, as rocky as it may be.
Now (in Spring 2009) comes a mini-series called Dark Reign: Hawkeye. 
Yea! Come to find out, it's not Clint Barton in the blue and purple costume. It's Bullseye masquerading as Hawkeye in an attempt to discredit the Avengers. For example, Hawkeye (aka Bullseye) saves a woman from getting raped (yea!). When she asks him for an autograph, he stabs her in the eye with the pen (ouch!). The first two issues have been pretty good, but this is not your 1980s Hawkeye series. It's darker. It's grittier. And it's obviously much more violent! Here's hoping Clint Barton makes an appearance in the final issue and wrestles the Hawkeye title from Bullseye.
