Hawkeye: Freefall #2: You Wouldn’t Believe Me If I Told You

Look, I told you last month about how awesome this book was. Did you believe me? I don’t actually know, because this is pretty much a one-way conversation most of the time. But, hopefully you picked up Hawkeye: Freefall #1 and like it as much as I did. I can only be sure of one thing, though, and that’s that you’re going to like this issue even more. I know, right?

Author Matthew Rosenberg writes another incredible issue, and this one is more fun than the last. I swear, I can’t remember when I’ve read a comic that has had such an amazing tone as this one. In today’s comics landscape where “superhero” is pretty much a four-letter word, this book celebrates it. If you miss good guys fighting bad guys, you can relax, this is where you’ll find it. Rosenberg continues to bridge the “gaps” between Hawkeye’s last series and this one through some dialogue and it’s just really nice to see this attention to detail. A lot of time when new creative teams take over a character, you don’t get that much detail about how the character made a total 180 degree turn from a month earlier, but this issue Rosenberg solves up a couple of explanations about how Clint got from Point A to Point Now. A really great story that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.

Artist Otto Schmidt is back at it and somehow he seems better than he was the last issue. Is this possible? Well, for one thing, this issue is a LOT different from the last and this one features a lot of really cool guest-stars in the way that’s 100% different than the last issue did. Just as awesome, but very different. Schmidt’s storytelling is a throwback style that uses today’s popular art style. He’s not a throwback artist like Tom Scioli, but he lays out pages in a more traditional style, but the art itself is absolutely modern and those two elements mix together amazingly.

Also, this issue has one of my favorite endings. You’ll never see it coming.