Did somebody say “pisspoor unnecessary prequel”? No? Well, Marvel’s gonna give you one anyway - here’s Old Man Hawkeye!
Set five years before Old Man Logan, Hawkeye’s out for revenge hunting down baddies for his fallen buds. Also Bullseye’s hunting Hawkeye because he broke the law (even though he seems to have no regard for it himself) and so’s Venom. Get ready for six issues of mindless idiocy!
Ethan Sacks (who?) has written a story that’s feeble on all fronts. Hawkeye’s revenge plot is meandering and unclear. I mean, wasn’t it Logan who killed all the heroes?? And he’s targeting complete nobodies - Atlas anyone? Mach-X? - who have obscure connections to Hawkeye but as for why they should die… eh?
The Bullseye subplot is pointless and goes nowhere, while the Venom subplot is somewhat understandable but still crap. I guess it’s cool that the Symbiote bonding with Madrox equals a Borg-like Venom. The ending is very weak too - you’ll have to pick up the second half to get the resolution but after this rubbish first book I’ll be leaving it here.
Part of what I liked about Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s original Old Man Logan book was the feeling that it was the end of Marvel. Practically all the Marvel characters had been wiped out and only a handful remained. So Old Man Hawkeye sucks especially hard as Sacks crams in a ton of Marvel characters into this world! The first issue alone features Madrox, Logan, Ultron, Venom and Bullseye and there’s even more that follow. It just ruins the world Millar/McNiven created - Marvel just can’t leave a good thing alone, they’ve gotta fuck it up somehow.
Unfortunately it’s the same old story: the writing is shite, the art is fantastic. And it genuinely is - Marco Checchetto always produces impressive artwork. Nearly every full page of Hawkeye shooting off arrows is a worthy pinup in itself. Every time the Madrox Venom appeared was awesome, the designs for the older characters like Bullseye were cool and Red Skull’s never looked better. The action scenes are spectacular and Kate Bishop makes one helluva GILF!
Prequels are always useless but some prove their worth by being entertaining - with its dumb, generic action story, Old Man Hawkeye, Volume 1: An Eye for an Eye definitely didn’t do that!
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