Hello and welcome to another exciting week in Ye Olde School Café! This time around, we’ll be focusing in on the penultimate issue of the Hawkeye limited series from 1983! This series showcases the first meeting, and subsequent budding relationship between Clint (Hawkeye) and Bobbi (Mockingbird). Mark Gruenwald really set a good foundation for these two characters and their relationship, and it paid dividends for many years afterward. Let us peek back in time for a moment, and let him tell the story….
As Mockingbird and Hawkeye return to her apartment, two shadows appear from a nearby rooftop. They talk, and reveal that they’ve set a trap for the two heroes, and once they enter the apartment, a bomb will blow them to bits. The bomb explodes, but within minutes Hawkeye and Mockingbird are seen outside the building. The two villains finally appear, and their names are Bombshell (a beautiful blonde woman) and Oddball (a kooky guy in a suit covered in billiard balls). Down below, Mockingbird tells Hawkeye that she knew someone had been in the apartment because there were tracks on the dirty floor. The two then decide to get some dinner.
After their meal, they return to the scene of the bombing, and investigate. Hawkeye finds an eight-ball, and Mockingbird remarks that she doesn’t own one. Hawkeye then deduces that his former employer, Crosstech, must have figured out that he and Mockingbird stole some incriminating evidence (shipping papers), and sent some hit-men to take them out. They take the subway to the shipping papers’ address, but before they get there they run into Steve Rogers on the commute! They talk for a minute, but then Steve exits the subway, and they continue on for a while.
As they then attempt to leave the subway, an eight-ball rolls toward Hawkeye’s feet. Oddball sticks his head out from around the corner, and baits Hawkeye into chasing him. As both he and Mockingbird turn the corner, they’re hit with a barrage of pool billiards! Hawkeye has a hard time with them, but Mockingbird pulls out her Bo staff and smacks them all right back at her assailant. She then chases after him, but when she turns a corner, she’s attacked by a nun! The nun turns out to be Bombshell in disguise, and then the two do battle.
Meanwhile, Hawkeye isn’t having an easy time with Oddball. This villain seems to have an arsenal of billiard balls that have different properties, kind of like Hawkeye’s arrows. Both men are evenly matched athletically, and have great skills using their weapons. They fight on and off on the subway, but eventually Hawkeye gets the drop on him. Just as he’s about to subdue him, he’s hit from behind by Bombshell. She’s already taken down Mockingbird, and came to help Oddball. The two villains carry their prey off, and remark how their boss wants them alive now instead of dead, to use in some “experiment.”
That’s it for the third issue of this mini-series, but be back next week for the exciting conclusion! We’ll see the two heroes, as they must not only escape death, but defeat the villains, and discover the secret behind the plans of Crosstech! See you next time!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net