Comic Review: Hawkeye: Freefall #6

Hawkeye: Freefall #6

Marvel Comics

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg

Artist: Otto Schmidt

The finale of Hawkeye: Freefall! Treated as more of the end of an arc rather than a final conclusion, there is still a sense of ultimatum and enough satisfaction to make this a good ending to a wonderful Hawkeye run. There’s a lot of blood, a lot of sadness, and Hawkeye wearing more bandages than ever.

Continuing with the dark tone that the last issue ended on, things get much more serious for Clint. With nothing more to lose, Clint puts everything he has into stopping Bullseye and The Hood, leading him down a dark path that he may not return from. The showdowns with Bullseye and The Hood are satisfying, and they both carry a weight with them rather than just being exciting action. You can really tell how much these events matter to Clint and how he’s done messing around. It’s such an extreme shift from the funny, goofy Hawkeye that this series starts with. By the end, he resembles something closer to Zdarsky’s Daredevil.

Clint’s inner turmoil as his world becomes darker is visualized by his colors becoming bleaker. The bright, popping colors are drained from the pages as Clint sulks. One page cross-cuts between Clint and The Hood at separate locations, and the differences in their art help to show how low Clint is and how powerful The Hood is becoming. The regular, bright colors return to the pages once Clint gains the determination to take on his enemies head-on, and it is really effective in creating tension and anticipation.

The ending of the series is an unexpected one. It’s ambiguous and rather depressing. It certainly wasn’t the kind of ending anyone would have expected from the beginning. It doesn’t come back from this dark place and return to the lighthearted tone that the series started in. Instead, it’s implied that Hawkeye is stuck in this place forever. Part of me admires the bold choices made. Rosenberg easily could have gone the “fun” route and have everything be okay. Instead, there are real consequences by the end. From a story standpoint, this ending is more complex and intriguing, though part of me was still hoping for a happy ending.

Overall, Hawkeye: Freefall was an incredibly enjoyable ride that feels like a spiritual successor to the iconic Fraction/Aja Hawkeye run. This series has gone through some hurdles from the business side of things. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak this year, Marvel originally wasn’t going to print the last two issues of this series. Instead, they were only going to be available digitally. The support by the fans, however, convinced Marvel to print it anyway, and now I can complete my collection. I would have loved to see more of this series, and I hope it’s not too long until we see Hawkeye front-and-center again.

Click For More Comic Book Reviews

Read Hawkeye Freefall #6 on Comixology