Panel of the Month

The “Panel of the Month” for September 2012 comes from Hawkeye #2, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by David Aja.

You know it’s bad when the journalists just give up.

Weekly Readings

Welcome to this week’s Weekly Readings.  Here’s what we cover this week:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Color Classics #4, in which the Turtles find something relating to their origin.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro-Series #8, in which we’re told the tale of Fugitoid.
• Detective Comics #0, in which we learn about who was Bruce Wayne’s last teacher.
• Before Watchmen:  Silk Spectre #3, in which Silk Spectre seeks out revenge for a drug trip.
• Action Comics #0, in which a boy steals Superman’s cape.
• DC Universe Presents #12, in which we get a fun Kid Flash story with dinosaurs.
• Hawkeye #2, in which Clint Barton and Kate Bishop team up to stop a group of robbers.
• Green Lantern #0, in which we are introduced to a new Green Lantern named Simon Baz.
• Fairest #7, in which we’re told the tale of Lamia.
• Earth-2 #0, in which we get a tale involving the Trinity.
• Dial H #0, in which we learn about the power of the dial.

Spoilers after the break. 

First Thoughts on Hawkeye #1

I finally got around to reading the first issue of Matt Fraction and David Aja’s new Hawkeye series.  Yes, I’m buying a Marvel book, get over it.  Anyways, I picked it up because I’d heard good things about their run on Iron Fist, and Hawkeye is my favorite non-metallic Marvel character.  Overall, I enjoyed it, even though the book is a bit mis-titled.  It should be titled “Clint Barton” rather than “Hawkeye,” but that’s okay.

The title page of the book says:

Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, became the greatest sharpshooter known to man.  He then joined the Avengers.  This is what he does when he’s not being an avenger.  That’s all you need to know.

That’s a wonderful way to start a book set in a much larger universe.  Especially when you’re launching this new title in the middle of a large event.  Books tying into the larger universe is what always made me cautious about buying Marvel titles.  Like, I was considering getting Bendis and Bagely’s Avengers Assemble until I found out that it would be in-continuity (even just a little bit was more than I wanted to risk).  But this pitch gives me hope as I read the rest of the issue.

The story starts off with Clint Barton getting out of the hospital while sustaining many injuries as Hawkeye.  He returns to home to the rundown apartment complex he’s staying at to find that the landlord has raised the amount of everyone’s rent a ridiculous amount, hoping to be able to evict everyone.  When Clint is unable to pay off the landlords, things turn violent.  And of course, violence solves everything.  Well, violence, ultimatums, and still large amounts of money.

I thought the writing was pretty good.  It made sense, Clint had a defined and distinct voice, and the supporting characters all seemed like separate characters and not the same character with just different appearances.  Your mileage with the art may vary.  Personally, I enjoyed it, but then again, I like this style of art.  I’d compare it with someone like Tim Sale.  So, if you like Sale’s art, then I’d imagine you’d like Aja’s.

Superhero Olympics: Archery

Today’s event is Individual Archery.  Since these are superheroes, we’ll assume that they’re further away than normal, and shooting at a much smaller target.  Otherwise, they’d always shoot 10s and the match would never be over.  Today’s competitors are:

Green Arrow

vs.

Hawkeye

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Search for More Money

It’s been over eleven years since Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes came out so fans rejoiced when Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds was finally released in February of this year. Well, Capcom looks to be making up for lost time with the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 this November. It’s not exactly a sequel, just a jazzed up version of the same game. It’s listed at only $40, which is cheaper than a regular new release but still stings a bit when you remember you paid $60 for a lesser version of the same game less than a year ago. The new features are as follows:

• Twelve new playable characters:

Marvel	Capcom
Doctor Strange	Firebrand
Ghost Rider	Frank West
Hawkeye	Nemesis
Iron Fist	Phoenix Wright
Nova	Strider Hiryu
Rocket Raccoon	Vergil

• Redesigned HUD and menu screens.
• Tweaks in gameplay to make the characters more balanced.
• Improved online functionality including a spectator mode.

Adding twelve new characters still doesn’t match the 56 playable characters in MvC2. And it still doesn’t add missing fan favorites like Cyclops, Mega Man, Psylocke, or Cammy back to the game.I’m hoping one of the tweaks to the gameplay involves an option for the old control scheme. Things the new game does not include, however, are all of the DLC packs that have already been released for the original version. If you want to play as Jill Valentine or Shuma-Gorath or see the new costumes for Captain America or Iron Man you’ll still have to pay extra for that.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 retails for only $40. I suppose if you weren’t one of those schmucks who bought the original when it was first released, like me, this is a great deal. Factor in $60 for the original game, $4.99 to download each new character, and a charge for the new stages & features and you’re looking at a value of well over $120. If you don’t already own the game it’s a savings of $80. If you do, it’s only $20.

Below is a trailer featuring some of the new characters in action. Notice that one of Hawkeye’s hyper combos involves shooting an arrow ridden Ant-Man who turns giant after hitting his target and steps on them. That move is almost worth the extra $40…almost.

First Impressions: Avengers #1

The dark reign of Norman Osborn is over and a new heroic age has begun in the Marvel Universe, so here we have an all new Avengers #1 to kick things off. It’s also being accompanied by the launches of Secret Avengers, Avengers Academy, and the relaunch of New Avengers. For those of you keeping score at home, that makes for four Avengers books a month. I suppose that’s reasonable. Secret and Academy should steer pretty clear of what’s going on in New & adjectiveless, which leaves two books a month for two of the three branches of Marvel’s premier super team. Just so long as they do the sensible thing and schedule the books to come out one each week, I think it’ll work from a creative point of view and my wallet’s point of view.