While reading the initial issues of Dark Avengers I think there was some guttural reaction to see what we knew as shams donning the costumes and identities of heroes many of us grew up with. I think as the series went on it morphed – to its benefit – into a bit of it’s own book going off to confront Morgana. It became big idea, and again, rightfully so being – the Dark Reign – and I think it was important for that title to move on, and not be so involved, or at least centrally focused and preoccupied on the what it was. They have a purpose and they have to get to it. These Dark Reign character-focus limited series seem to be perfect places to explore the personal perspective and experience.
We start off this issue with the Osborn led Avengers stumbling as a team in putting down a rogue hulk buster. This part of the issue illustrates the team’s shortcomings even as they take down their adversary with reasonable ease. They simply do not operate well as a unit. Two of their heavy hitters weren’t even present (Sentry and Captain Marvel), and while you know and can see that Ares is willing to be a cog in a ‘team’, those around him lack the experience or don’t lack enough in personal vanity. In more ways than the obvious, these are not Avengers. Not even the Great Lakes Avengers.
The issue takes a distinct turn, and breaks free from what felt slightly like a perfunctory beginning. It’s night, and a group of men attack a woman in a parking lot, presumably to rape and kill her. They are stopped by Bullseye in violent and comedic fashion. The irony of course is that the victim was marked for death before she was ever attacked– and by the very person who saved her. Bullseye didn’t save her; he saved his mark. That she was probably going to die anyway didn’t matter. As he told Osborn earlier, he wants his credit. He was there to save her only because he was stalking to kill her himself. The difficulty here is separating a simple murderer from Bullseye. As comic book fans, and as people exposed to media in general, it takes more to and give tension and relevance to a scene than simple violent gratuity. What Diggle and Raney do is instill the feeling that Bullseye is having the greatest time, an optimal night on the town for him. You never get the feeling that Bullseye would rather be anywhere else, or doing anything else. Creativity is relative, but it’s possible that Bullseye caught a trick in a film he just watched and was simply delighted to try it out. There is a joy and nonchalance to the way Bullseye goes about his business that causes other murderers themselves to want to “turn a new leaf”so not to ever become or do what he does so effortlessly. He is the reflection that even a hardened criminal never wants to see staring back at them. This lack of reluctance followed by an effective cliffhanger almost gives the scene an almost child-like, playful aura. He got caught playing.
The first issue isn’t (well, hopefully it wasn’t) about a comparison between Hawkeye and Bullseye. Diggle and Marvel know that there is no such comparison worth speaking of that does credit to either character. The similarities of the two names as it relates to the characters are in this case a convenient facade and pseudo-foil – not much more than a potential pitfall for shoddy commentary – more than initial similarities leading to numerous other parallels. There is, however, one instance of congruency that makes the entire issue for me. Hawkeye, as old heads know, started out as a villain (Tales of Suspense) and was inspired to become a hero by Iron Man. The discussion – that served as a two-way warning – between Osborn and Bullseye reflects not only the psychotic self-awareness of the latter, but also Osborn’s own deficiencies in a similar role one held by Stark/Iron Man. One wonders if at some point if it will be his realization of this grating inability to function in that role, or the denial of it, will bring the eventual end to Dark Reign.
I know what you’re thinking, but I’d be lying if I told you that most of the time I agree with you. These spin-off series are a publisher’s way to maximize the potential of whatever banner floats atop of a regular series, or worse and more overt, a brand new mini or one shot. I don’t at all disagree with that statement, but I also find nothing wrong with the practice because it seems to be an entirely sensible one, and only malicious to the reader if the story does not deliver – not because it simply exists. I find that it is actually within these spin-offs that you will often find opportunities for some pure comic writing, where a creator gets to tell a story with a character that is a character piece. The title says Hawkeye, but this is a Bullseye story. In this issue, we get Bullseye, and the message that heroes are more than uniforms, and that the Avengers are more than just arriving together and having a shared battle cry. In perhaps the moment that will be argued as this issue’s best or most pandering, Ben Urich, who very much has become the representative of the reader or everyman proxy, asks the question:
“Do I know you”
The man looking for a story knows the truth even if he doesn’t recognize it. Bullseye, almost self-admittedly, only has one kind of story, and it’s not one that has room for redemption, nor is this an issue that fails to explore the character. This is it: he’s a killer. Diggle is the only hawkeyed one here.
Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. Where is B.J. Hunnicutt? Some call him the Bodhisattva.
