Comic Book Reading Club #4 - Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life As A Weapon - ***SPOILERS***

Fysh

"Clint Barton, a.k.a. 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."

I would post a preview on Marvel's own site, but since that preview was authorised by the kind of complete muppet who thinks that the cover, the credits page and 2 pages of comics consists of a useful preview, I'll link to this CBR preview instead.

Options for buying this are varied, and include the following websites as well as your friendly local comic shop:
Amazon (£9.09)
BookDepository (£8.41)
Comixology ($10.99)
Waterstones (£10.09)

Previous threads:
#1: Superman: Red Son
#2: Spider-Man: Blue
#3: Love & Rockets: Heartbreak Soup

Fysh

I won't have a chance to join in the discussion for another week or so, but in the meantime I offer you the following GIF goodness:

Fysh

While I think of it, Darko's comment in the What Are You Reading? thread about this got me thinking - it'd be good to try and pull together some suggestions for further reading in these threads.

Personally the most immediately obvious suggestion based on what I've read so far here is either Sleeper or Criminal - personally, I think the latter is the stronger series, but they're both very good.

I was thinking that something like Chew or Bedlam would be interesting to discuss. I'd lean more towards Chew given that volume 7 has just been published and as such there's a lot there to be discussed.

I'd be up for discussing Criminal as thus far no one I know has bothered to pick it up and I'm sick of telling people how good it is. Sleeper is one that I keep meaning to start, have the tpb here but simply not had the time to really give it a chance. Speaking of Criminal, Scalped is another series that has really impressed me, even if one of the biggest twists was ruined on me.

Nervous Wreck

I've been reading this series and I gotta say, it's fantastic. Shows the human side to the superhero world, it's drawn wonderfully, and the straightforward stories are a welcome change to the often cluttered marvel universe. Barton's a good hero and a great character and the very, very slow-burning arc in the background is quite satisfying. First series in a long time that's made me wanna read along issue to issue.

Just going to copy this from the what are you reading thread as I think that it may generate a little debate.

Reading volume 1 of Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life As A Weapon and much as I'm enjoying it I really can't understand how it's been so critically acclaimed. Don't get me wrong it's a very well written book and I'm enjoying it immensely but the whole thing strikes me as being an independent comic for people who refuse to read anything but the most generic of DC and Marvel's output. Perhaps it's because I find most superhero stuff to be tiresome and generic and outside of Batman there are few of the major heroes whom I'd read regularly but there is nothing in My Life As A Weapon that hasn't been done in a number of other less mainstream titles. Hopefully those who read the book and found it so groundbreaking will be encouraged to take a trip outside their comfort zone and try something a little different. After all there's such a wealth of great comic books out side of Spiderman, The Avengers, etc that it would be a shame not to embrace it and try something new.

mayordenis

See Darko I think you're wrong. I don't think those (including myself) who love it claim that it's groundbreaking. Like any amount of media what we love doesn't have to be something entirely new just something that we really like.
I think most people who love this book do so because the humour is something that hits home with them, that the characters are just believable in their actions, also because Aja's art is just the tits. It's also just extremely stylish.
To be honest very little of my reading is DC or Marvel, this book is just good and I feel you've prejudged it.

mayordenis

mayordenis wrote: »

See Darko I think you're wrong. I don't think those (including myself) who love it claim that it's groundbreaking. Like any amount of media what we love doesn't have to be something entirely new just something that we really like.
I think most people who love this book do so because the humour is something that hits home with them, that the characters are just believable in their actions, also because Aja's art is just the tits. It's also just extremely stylish.
To be honest very little of my reading is DC or Marvel, this book is just good and I feel you've prejudged it.

I too have quite enjoyed the book, it's a refreshingly fun take on the genre and has quite a bit of humour and moments that help it stand out. I have no problem with people loving the book and I think that it's one of the best mainstream titles in a long time but from reading some of the reviews and feedback I expected quite a bit more.

I went in to the book hoping for something a little more than generic Marvel and after reading Age of Ultron you could have handed me a Spiderman comic coated in dog shit and I'd properly have been more impressed by it than I was by AoU. What I got was one of the finest outings for a mainstream character in years. It's bright, breezy and just the right kind of tongue in cheek but let's be honest, it's nowhere near the quality of what Image is churning out on a monthly basis and, much as I enjoyed My Life as a Weapon it feels like an attempt by the creators to ape the feel of less mainstream fodder.

blatantrereg

Deleted User wrote: »

Just going to copy this from the what are you reading thread as I think that it may generate a little debate.

Reading volume 1 of Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life As A Weapon and much as I'm enjoying it I really can't understand how it's been so critically acclaimed. Don't get me wrong it's a very well written book and I'm enjoying it immensely but the whole thing strikes me as being an independent comic for people who refuse to read anything but the most generic of DC and Marvel's output. Perhaps it's because I find most superhero stuff to be tiresome and generic and outside of Batman there are few of the major heroes whom I'd read regularly but there is nothing in My Life As A Weapon that hasn't been done in a number of other less mainstream titles. Hopefully those who read the book and found it so groundbreaking will be encouraged to take a trip outside their comfort zone and try something a little different. After all there's such a wealth of great comic books out side of Spiderman, The Avengers, etc that it would be a shame not to embrace it and try something new.

These are my thoughts on it too. You've expressed them better than I was able to however. I tried to last night and when I got as far as "...The thing about Marvel and DC is..." and then got stuck until the conversation went off on different tangent.

Fysh

*blink*

Yeesh, it's been months since this thread started.

Time for the next book to discuss, methinks. We've got some suggestions already:

• Chew
• Criminal
• Sleeper
• Scalped
• Bedlam

Any others? Also, I like the idea of keeping this going but we might want a better way of organising what books are discussed - ideally one that lets us know what the next two titles to be discussed will be (given the way that delayed availability of Heartbreak Soup made that thread a non-starter).

I think Chew should be next, followed by Scalped though something like Northlanders may be better given that each trade is one story rather than just one ongoing tale.

Fysh

Deleted User wrote: »

I think Chew should be next, followed by Scalped though something like Northlanders may be better given that each trade is one story rather than just one ongoing tale.

I'd like to see what people think about including complete series because that would open up not just Scalped but also things like Sandman, Transmet, Preacher and so on. It might be better to keep such re-read discussions separate to the main reading club, though...

Fysh

Fysh wrote: »

I'd like to see what people think about including complete series because that would open up not just Scalped but also things like Sandman, Transmet, Preacher and so on. It might be better to keep such re-read discussions separate to the main reading club, though...

The problem with complete series, is that if someone has to buy 10 TPB in order to engage in the discussion then they properly won't bother. I think Preacher would lead to a lot of discussion but I'd have to go out and re-buy it as mine disappeared awhile back.

CastorTroy

And although I've only read 2 volumes of Chew so far, they seem to be mostly standalone arcs that don't really need much background to understand.

So it's been months since this thread was last looked upon with anticipation as to what trade would next be discussed, so lets get a little bit of discussion going and select the fifth book to discuss.

If we do give this another go I think it would be best to decide on the next 3-6 books so as to ensure that everyone has time to get the trades and read them.

Thwip!

Suggestions for the next six

Sex Criminals
Black Beetle
Rasl
Seconds
Deadpool: Dead Presidents
Orc Stain

I was thinking that we should try and concentrate on trades with self contained stories. While it would be great to do one of something like Scalped, it's hard for many to justify spending over 150 euro on a series.

If I was to suggest some trades I'd go with:
Chew
Northlanders
Three
Mara
Sex
Locke & Key
We3
Pax Romana
The Losers
Fatale
East of West

Fysh

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I was thinking that we should try and concentrate on trades with self contained stories. While it would be great to do one of something like Scalped, it's hard for many to justify spending over 150 euro on a series.

If I was to suggest some trades I'd go with:
Chew
Northlanders
Three
Mara
Sex
Locke & Key
We3
Pax Romana
The Losers
Fatale
East of West

I broadly agree, although I think that we could include longform series whose first trade is reasonably self-contained. It's probably a good idea to restart the reading club anyway, I think there's interest - just need to make sure that we keep up the pace as far as new selections go.

CastorTroy

Locke & Key is one that you really should read anyway. Apart from the standalone sidestories which were released separately, I didn't think one issue felt like filler.

But I would add Transmetropolitan to the list. It's entertaining though mightn't contain much to discuss.