New Avengers (Vol. 1) #26

Background

During Avengers Disassembled the Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch lost control of her powers and the Avenger Hawkeye was killed. During the time known as House of M, Hawkeye was resurrected only to be killed again by Wanda. When the world was returned back to normal Hawkeye was resurrected again but has not been since.

Story Details

Several months ago Hawkeye wakes up in New Yorks Central park. He heads to the Avengers mansion, and finds it in ruins. He notices a newspaper which headlines "Avenger Hawkeye is dead". He throws the paper away and removes his costume and pins it on a wall with his trademark arrows. Later Clint arrives at Dr. Stranges' house. The Doctor checks him and tells him he is very much alive. Clint asks Dr. Strange where Wanda is. He does not know he cannot find her as she is not using her chaos magic. Strange asks if he can contact the Avengers, Clint says no, he is not ready yet he needs to speak to Wanda to ask why. Strange asks where will he look? Clint tells him Genosha and if she is not there then he will try Wundagore Mountain.

Later on Wundagore Mountain, Clint helps a woman after she has her purse stolen by throwing an apple at the culprit, knocking the boy down. Clint is shocked to find the woman is Wanda, she calls him a true hero. Clint looks shocked Wanda asks if he is all right but he collapses. Later again, Clint wakes up at Wanda's' house. Wanda asks if he is an American, and what is he doing in Wundagore? Clint tells her he was looking for a friend. Wanda asks him what his friends name is, Clint asks her what her name is. She replies Wanda Maximoff. She also tells him she has lived in Wundagore all her life. He asks her if she knows what happened to the mutants and the Avengers. She tells him it's hard for her to keep up as there are so may superheroes. Clint gets upset after Wanda says she didn't know that one of the Avengers attacked the others. He tells her he's looking for closure and the person who he's after isn't there. Wanda tells him to let it go, and his trip wasn't a total lose as he got to be her hero. She kisses him. Later still Clint and Wanda are in bed, Clint gets up and heads towards the door. He remembers what Strange said about making things worse if he finds Wanda. Clint looks back at Wanda then leaves.

General Comments

Ok ill start at the beginning, I'm glad to see Hawkeye. Of all the characters Bendis has written Hawkeye really has been put through the most, (well maybe Daredevil has had it just as bad but at least he hasn't been killed off - TWICE!). A lot of plots have been tied up in this issue, the resurrection of Hawkeye and the status of Wanda. The writing for the most part is great - I'm not sure if Dr. Strange would actually say "wow". The art by Maleev is amazing, I heard that his art style has changed and I love it. I've been a huge fan of this team since they first took over Daredevil. I can't wait for their Spider-Woman book to come out

Overall Rating

Overall I'd give this a solid 3.5 webs. This is due to the strong writing and excellent art. Although the first time I read this I didn't understand what was happening but after re-reading it again it fell into place.