Avengers Spotlight #30
Bang.
Clint Barton and his wife Bobbi — aka Hawkeye and Mockingbird — are coming out of a screen of "Lethal Bat 2”, a movie that Clint didn’t particularly like because the heroes were inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. As Bobbi tries to get her husband to lighten up, they narrowly avoid getting hit in a drive by shooting. Horrified and disgusted by the number of people who got hit, Clint wants to catch the crooks right away and uses his remote to summon his sky-cycle. He and Bobbi then chase the shooters on the freeway. Spotting the two Avengers following them, one of the gang member manages to wing Bobbi’s shoulder. Furious, Clint uses an incendiary arrow to light the convertible on fire, forcing the crooks to abandon the vehicle before it explodes. Despite this, the blast knocks them all over, allowing Hawkeye and Mockingbird to capture them all save one who managed to get away.
Several hours later, Clint and Bobbi have returned to Avengers Compound. There, Clint stews over the brazen attack and loss of life. Bobbi tries to get him to stop thinking of the loss of life. However, this is only the latest in a long string of escalating gang violence between the Stone Perfs and their rivals.
The following day, Hawkeye gets permission from the local police to question one of the Stone Perfs, a man named Fernando Torres, aka Prince Charming. Torres refuses to talk, something that the LAPD’s Captain Zamora warned Clint about before he went in. Zamora warns Hawkeye that going after the gangs will only serve to put a target on his back and recommends he let the police handle things. However, Clint refuses to allow the streets to be terrorized any further, even if that means that he has to constantly be looking over his shoulder.
Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills, at the office of Lotus Realtors, owner Lotus Newmark meets with the member of the Stone Perfts who got away. She has been bankrolling the gang and she is not happy to learn that their latest drive-by was interrupted by Hawkeye. After clawing her minion’s face for this failure, she demands that the Perfs rectify this by killing Hawkeye.
That evening, the gang dumps the bullet riddled body of a rival gang member out front of Avengers Compound. When Hawkeye, Mockingbird, US Agent, and the Vision go outside to investigate they find a note from the Stone Perfs warning Hawkeye that he’ll be next. Not taking this threat standing down and wanting to end the bloodshed, Clint goes out to patrol the city alone. He catches one of the gang members downtown and chases him into an alley. There he is surrounded by members of the Stone Perfs who have been waiting on the rooftops in ambush. Before Clint can act, the gangbangers open fire and riddle him with bullets. As they flee the scene, a young man named Luis Guiterrez sees what happened and calls for an ambulance.
When they hear the news, the Avengers West Coast all rush to the hospital and wait as Clint undergoes surgery. A few hours later, the surgeon comes out and tells them that Hawkeye is going to pull through, crediting Guiterrez’s call for help for saving his life. When Mockingbird is allowed to see her husband, Clint admits that he was stupid to go rushing into a situation half-cocked and although he refuses to end his crusade, promises he’ll be smarter about it in the future. Three weeks later, Clint has Tony Stark come in and help him design a costume that offers better protection against ballistics as well as upgrading his bow.
Three weeks after this, Hawkeye is released from the hospital and continues his one man crusade against gang violence. Nabbing a Stone Perf off the streets, he ties the thug to his sky-cycle and threatens to crash it if he doesn’t reveal the location of the gang’s hideout. The crook eventually spills their location before being handed over to Captain Zamona. A short time later, Hawkeye crashes the Stone Perfs as they are partying and forces them outside with explosive and tear gas arrows. As everyone races outside to get clear of the gas, Hawkeye rounds them all up with a net arrow. With the majority of the gang capture, Hawkeye reintroduces himself to them in his new outfit, and vows he is going to cripple the gang once and for all.
Recurring Characters
Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Lotus Newmark, Avengers West Coast (Wasp, Hank Pym, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Tigra, Human Torch, US Agent) Luis Gutierrez
Topical References
Clint and Bobbi go to see a movie titled “Lethal Bat 2” and opinie on the film. This is obviously a commentary on the 1989 films Batman and Lethal Weapon 2 that had come out the year before this comic was published. It’s your typical Steve Gerber commentary on how the entertainment industry glorifies violence without depicting the consequences. This coming from a guy who wrote episodes of G.I. Joe, but whatever Gerb, you do you.
Luis uses a pay phone to call for help in this story. While pay phones are still a thing, they are less ubiquitous as they were when this story was published, thanks to the proliferation of mobile phones. As such, its use here will eventually become topical. According to a 2007 report, LA had gotten rid of 70% of their payphones, I imagine it is much less now.
