All-New Hawkeye #2

By Jeff Lemire, Ramon Perez and Ian Herring

Hawkeye was a surprise of a book a couple of years ago when the first volume was released. The book had a few delays here and there, but it was very much a cult favorite comic. We’re now entering into All-New Hawkeye, which has a different creative team, but hopefully the same quality of art and storytelling.

Jeff Lemire has come on pretty strong lately with work on some very good books. His attempt at doing Hawkeye is pretty successful. Once again we get a split issue between flashbacks and current time. Lemire gives Clint a little more depth with these scenes that allow us to see how he grew up. We get glimpses of why he is the way he is. Lemire also shows us Clint getting his ass kicked by a regular grunt, which is cool because many times our heroes just breeze past low level baddies, but seeing Hawkeye get beat up by a commoner is nice. There is also a parallel between the two timelines as we see children being abused in both. Lemire does well with this issue and we can hope that he keeps delving into Clint’s past.

The art is handled by Ramon Perez with a little help on coloring from Ian Herring. The weak part of this issue comes from the art department. For a serious book like All-New Hawkeye, the art is too cartoony. Perez’ art on the current time panels seems like something you may find in a Sunday morning paper. This can be a little off putting since this is a book that tackles some heavy issues like child abuse, it just seems odd that they would go with a lighter style. While the flashback sequences are drawn very nicely, they suffer from some odd coloring at times that almost make it hard to see the pencils. Ultimately fans will either love the art style or hate it. There doesn’t seem like there will be any in between.

All-New Hawkeye delivers a good second issue story wise, but the art may turn people off. Jeff Lemire is a man who knows how to appeal to fans and get them excited for a book. The art is hit or miss and it could turn some people off, but the story should be good enough to keep fans of the character around.