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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

With the return of Hawkeye in Marvel's recent drain-your-wallet hype machine, The House of M, I figured we could jump into some old school fun stuff featuring Marvel's resident archer. This title comes from a time when there was no need for a big story arc every summer to shake things up in the funnybooks, because there was solid writing year-round. Instead of wasting your time with my cynicism toward comic books these days (wow, I sound old), I'll just throw you right into what we're going to be covering this week! Solo Avengers - Starring Hawkeye (and The Falcon) #6 Original Release Date: May 1988 Writer: Tom DeFalco Penciler: Mark Bright Inker: Joe Rubinstein Letterer: Jack Morelli Colorist: Janet Jackson (no, not that one!) Editor: Mark Gruenwald "Algeria is for Archers" With a dramatic entrance, Hawkeye (Clint Barton) dispatches three would-be attackers on the streets of Algeria with arrows filled with sleeping gas. Up above him on the roof of a building, two others take aim with guns, threatening to mow down the purple-garbed Avenger. Suddenly another figure enters the scene, taking down the snipers! This extra hero is Le Peregrine, the Champion of France! Le Peregrine (French for Falcon) tells Hawkeye, who had been gloating after taking down the three original attackers, that he is too noisy. Since the two have made their presence known, Le Peregrine decides to throw all stealth tactics away in favor of a more direct approach. Using his ability to fly, he swoops down and picks up Hawkeye and takes him into the air. The two crash through a window of a building and as soon as they land Hawkeye asks the French hero why he picked this particular room to settle in. Le Peregrine tells the Avenger that the missing agent told them of a hidden doorway that would lead them to where they needed to be. Before the two heroes can do anything, a door burst open revealing multiple gunmen. Hawkeye takes 'em down (non-lethally) with multiple arrows while Le Peregrine searches for the hidden passageway. Just as Hawkeye finishes tying up the villains, the Frenchman announces that he has found the passageway! The two enter the hidden door and make their way down a dark passage while alluding to the villain they are on this mission to find. Hawkeye mentions how it's a miracle the two of them had made it this far and that he still can not believe that Silver Sable, the female leader of the mercenary group Silver Sable International conned him into going on this crazy mission. This is where we flash back to a scene in which Hawkeye is speaking to Silver Sable in Paris. He's talking about a previous case (has no bearing here, so I won't go into it) in which SS tells him that the government intends to do an official inquiry into. The Avenger asks if there is anything Sable can do to help him cut through the red tape and get out of Paris and back home. Sable tells him to check out a file on the Red Skull, but Hawkeye objects, telling her that the Red Skull is dead according to his homie (okay, he doesn't say "homie") Captain America. Sable explains that this is not the original Red Skull, but an imposter who has been operating out of Algeria. Apparently this guy has got his hands on a timing device that is used to detonate nuclear warheads. The manufacturer of the device has hired Silver Sable International to go into Algeria and recover it. Sable sent in an agent already, but this person failed to check in, so they're missing in action. But SS is going to send another person in to do the job and asks Hawkeye if he'd like to go along. If he does go, she'll get him through that red tape and straight home. Naturally, he accepts, otherwise this story wouldn't make sense now would it? Back on the staircase in that hidden passage, Hawkeye is mulling over the deal, admitting to himself that he's a little in awe of France's most famous crime fighter. He wonders if that missing agent is of high caliber as well. The two come upon a massive laboratory where this new Red Skull is yakking at a tank of goo, "...a fool to think you could stop me!" The crazy Nazi goof does the typical villain exposition about how this device he holds will grant him power over the world and all fast food outlets (okay, I added that last part myself). One of the Skull's minions spots the two heroes and before the bad guys can react, Hawkeye and Le Peregrine descend upon them. Hawkeye, in typical Hawkeye fashion, is confident and yaks to the baddies on his way down, while Le Peregrine once again reprimands the Avenger for talking a bit too much. Hawkeye explains that witty banter is required for American super heroes. The two easily take down the Red Skull's goons, but lose sight of the Skull himself. While rounding up the last baddie, Hawkeye spots the impostor Skull and tosses the helpless goon toward the main villain. Instead of the flying foe actually hitting the Red Skull, he crashes into that strange tank of stuff, busting it wide open. The Skull freaks out at this and Hawkeye and Le Peregrine are surprised to see that the gooey contents of the tank are actually the Sandman (former Spider-Man villain and full-time member of Silver Sable International!) Sandy looks to bash the Skull apart, but before he can the crazy mother pulls back his robe and reveals a laser, which is promptly unleashed in the direction of the reformed bad guy. Hawkeye takes the laser out by shooting an arrow into it, while Sandman and Le Peregrine fight a few of the recovered goons. The Red Skull disappears in the chaos as more bad guys get a second win and attack our heroes. Grabbing the timing device the good guys were here to recover, the Skull places it on a warhead, arming it and then jumps into an escape pod. Before the villain can escape, Hawkeye shoots a few explosive arrows at the escape ship, disabling it, while Le Peregrine grabs the Skull from its cockpit. The Red Skull then gloats because he knows the warhead is about to explode. Sandman, proving himself useful, gums up the works of the warhead by blasting it with sand. His actions prove useful as the timing device sputters and dies. Sandman then rips the Red Skull's mask off, revealing the villain's true self! It's Strom Thurmond! Okay, not really, but it's an old guy, so that's close, right? The man threatens the group, but Sandman asks the octogenarian if he plans to buy another bomb with his Medicare payments! After the authorities arrive, the three heroes engage in a short conversation about the mission. The timing device they were sent to retrieve was destroyed, courtesy of The Sandman, and the two Silver Sable International operatives wonder about Sable's reaction, while Hawkeye thinks to himself, "Man o' man! I can't wait to ditch these clowns, and head home!" This ends the first story in this two-story book. It's a fun, comedic, and action-filled romp that's well-written by long-time Marvel writer (and editor) Tom DeFalco. You can catch Mr. DeFalco's work all over the Marvel Universe in the 1980s and early 90s and he's still doing work on Spider-Girl, which is one of those quality titles I don't read (or haven't, at least since issue #10), but should. The art by Mark Bright is good stuff. He’s done a ton of stuff for Marvel over the years and he’s deserving of more recognition than he actually gets. Now, Solo Avengers doesn’t feature just one story! No, it has two! Since I’ve never been one to skimp on the articles here at the ol’ Down But Not Out, let’s jump right into the next story: “Scattered Lives” Writer: Dan Mishkin Penciler: Tom Grindberg Inker: Josef Rubinstein Letterer: Jack Morelli Colorist: Steve Buccellato Samuel Wilson, the high-flying Avenger known as The Falcon finds himself completely dumbstruck at the sight of a deep crater where Avengers Mansion once sat. Flying a bit closer he spots a sign that reads “Future Site of Maria Stark Memorial Arboretum” and recognizes his folly: the Avengers have uprooted and moved their mansion, which can only be a good idea since it cuts down the whole super villains attacks in the city. He is a little miffed at the idea that they didn’t let him know about the move, but hey, they’re a busy group. The Falcon makes his way through New York to his hometown district known as Harlem. Once there he spots a group of people protesting and on the very edge of rioting. At the center of this protest assembly stands a man and a Church. The man is holding up a set of papers that proclaim his ownership of the Church behind him. The crowd knows that this man intends to tear this holy site down and build a place “so some yuppies got more places to shop!!” (According to a protester, that is). The enraged protester, that let these harsh words exit his mouth, picks up a brick and prepares to hurl it at the new owner of the Church property. Fortunately, before the brick leaves the man’s hand, The Falcon swoops down and snatches it away. The protestor then turns his fiery words on our hero, but Sam removes his mask and lets it be known that he has no wishes to see this Church destroyed either, but breaking the to show his frustration is not the answer. Sam has a history with this Church; his grandfather helped build it and his father preached in it. The Falcon delivers a rather rousing speech to the inflamed crowd that belays the violence in favor of peaceful action. A rather strange man from the crowd approaches Sam, praising his speech and calling him “rev’end.” Two people behind this weird guy whisper about the fact that he hears voices and is a bit on the paranoid side, but they keep it to themselves. After finishing his praises for The Falcon, he bids him farewell, but not first without telling the Avenger that if he needs him, to talk to Victor Meachum, and to ask for Scatterbrain. The Falcon wonders how this crazy dude is associated with a crime lord like Victor Meachum, while Scatterbrain begins a conversation with the new owner of the Church. This conversation escalates to threats from our nutty guy and a cop grabs him and starts to push him away. Unfortunately for the cop, Scatterbrain is much more than he seems! The cop’s whole personality changes as he begins to try and move the new owner and his entourage away from the Church because the barber shop behind him is actually the secret entrance to the CIA Headquarters (huh? Wha?)! Suddenly, Scatterbrain, using some strange power, turns two protestors into giant monsters. These two creatures attack the new landlord until The Falcon intervenes and takes them down, which reverts them back to their human form. Falcon confronts Scatterbrain, who tells the hero that he’s just doing what the voices inside his mind tell him to do! Then, from behind, flying saucers (formerly cars) begin attacking the crowd! The Falcon leaps into the air and leads the saucers away from the crowd and after a short chase, the saucers revert to their automobile forms and drop to the street below. Turning around and flying back to Scatterbrain, Sam finds more people have been turned into monsters. These ugly creatures attack and hold The Falcon, who then helpless on his own uses his psychic link with his pet falcon, Redwing, to send the bird to savagely attack the schizoid baddie! Redwing succeeds in diverting Scatterbrain’s attention just enough so that the villain’s hold on the monsters disperses, leaving The Falcon free! Quickly, The Falcon punches the kooky bad guy out, realizing that’s the only way to stop his nutty powers. Afterward, the new landlord approaches Sam and thanks our hero for saving his life, but he still plans to move ahead with the destruction of the Church (nice guy). Victor Meachum, the crime lord that employed Scatterbrain, appears and says that he actually still owns the Church and that he would be willing to forget the transaction and deed the property to the congregation. The Falcon refuses to let Victor proceed with those plans; because the guy only wants the Harlem citizens to forget (or never know) that Scatterbrain was working for him and perhaps instead views him as some sort of hero. The Falcon leaves the scene telling Mr. Meachum, “You can steal their money, but I’m not going to let you have their souls!” That wraps up the second tale in our Avengers book here and it’s a nice, somewhat touching story. This is the type of tale that gets lost in today’s comic books, which are so much more about super heroes fighting super villains (which are fun, but less about being heroes visible to their public). Instead of our hero beating the living hell out of Victor Meachum with his fists, he gets at the bad guy through the man’s pride, which is detrimental on an emotional level. That’s the sign of a real hero; one that’s working for and is interested in the good of the people he protects and is out to set an example. Dan Mishkin’s writing is top-notch as is the art by Tom Grindberg. Solo Avengers is an excellent book stuffed full with great stories (Hawkeye generally being the centerpiece of the first story. Sorry, no Hypno Hustler stories here!) and just put together nicely in general. Much like the other books I cover here, it can be found cheap and that’s always nice! So, if you stumble across it in a $1 bin at your comic shop, do yourself a favor and pick up a couple of issues (the earlier the issues in the series, the better). Next week? I have no idea! It’ll be a surprise (for me too!)!