For the month of February, Dibbs is showcasing comic books you should collect. We’ll be featuring iconic titles each day worthy of a spot on your mantle! Comic book collecting can be an expensive hobby, but luckily Dibbs has got you covered!
A Trick Shot
Marvel's "The Avengers", released in 2012, sparked a renewed interest in the classic comic book characters to the mainstream. As a response to it's success, each character from the movie received their own new comic series. Marvel had recently rebooted their entire comic universe with "Marvel NOW!", and it was Hawkeye's turn to get a new story. But Hawkeye is just a man with a bow and arrow. He's not a superhero and has no super powers. How do you make fans care about a character like him? Matt Fraction and David Aja found a way to not only deliver one of the best titles featured in Marvel NOW, but also created the best Hawkeye series of all time.
Their focus? Embrace the normalcy of Clint Barton, and highlight "Hawkguy". Instead of showing Hawkeye tracking down The Hand or some underground ring of power grabbing zealots, their story focuses on what happens with the hero has downtime. The series would go on to introduce fan favorites, Kate Bishop and Pizza Dog, who's interactions with Clint really take the series to another level.
The Story
Clint's story does not start off with glamor. We meet him as he freefalls from a New York building onto the roof of a parked car. Equipped with a bow and NOT a healing factor, our hero is seen in the hospital with a broken.... well almost everything. After Clint recovers he makes his way back to his apartment.
Throughout this issue, Clint is in a back and forth with a doctor at an animal hospital trying to save a dog. Not HIS dog, he reminds the doctor. Readers aren't given much, but Clint is riddled with guilt and clearly claims responsibility for the dog's condition.
Clint arrives back home, only to find large Russian man in a tracksuit terrorizing his apartment's tenants. Unfortunately for them, the landlord Ivan has raised their rent 3 times the price it used to be. Clint spends the rest of the issue fighting his tracksuit fashioned landlord, their thugs, and trying to save his neighbors from being evicted.
A lot of actions takes place in this one, and it's well worth reading more to find out!
Legacy
Fraction and Aja's series went on to win a Harvey and an Eisner award for issue #11, "Pizza is My Business". The comic series also directly inspired the recent Hawkeye television series on Disney+. The TV series even borrowed imagery from the comics covers on several different promotions.
Read More Matt Fraction
Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
The Defenders by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson
Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca
