Black Widow & Hawkeye # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

Hawkeye is on the run since everybody thinks he killed the Russian Minister. After going from country to country, Black Widow, now with a symbiote, finally found him to offer some help. Hawkeye reveals that he wasn't framed, he actually did kill the Russian Minister.

"Broken Arrow Part Two" opens with Madripoor a week ago, as Hawkeye is undercover. He tries to invite himself to a card game but is told it's a private game. Clint tells one of the players, Mister Koller, that he's been looking forward to talking to him about his K.R.V tech and weapon supply deals. The others tell Clint it's time for him to leave and prepare to drag him out, but Koller stops them. Koller says that Clint is just young and naive. He figures he's someone that spent his last penny on trying to meet him and pitch some new product idea for him to fund. 

Koller asks Hawkeye's name, and he uses the alias 'Harry Barnes'. Koller suggests they play a round. He says in his business he doesn't supply weapons, he supplies defense. If he can win, he'll give him his pitch on how he plans to change the word of defense forever.

During this, Hawkeye narrates on how archers are usually underestimated and how it's helpful that he knows a few spies. He even was once married to Mockingbird, and he still has some of her tech. 

Hawkeye 'accidentally' spills his drink on Koller, and as he offers to clean him up, he pins a homing device on his clothes. Koller is angry over the mess and tells him men to get Clint out of there, and they drag him out.

We go to Madripoor but in the present as a woman in a food cart calls out that order 89 is ready. As she calls out for another order,, several symbiote spiders latch onto the food and pull it out of her cart. Black Widow and Hawkeye are on the rooftops, as Widow retrieves the food. She says she hopes that order 89 got something good because she's starving.

Black Widow checks out the box and tells Hawkeye the food options. Hawkeye says she needs to leave. Widow says she wants the truth about the Russian diplomat's death and to be assured he doesn't need her help against the many people that want him dead. Hawkeye says he already told her that he killed the diplomat. Widow says she knows he's lying.

The symbiote tries to go after Clint, saying it will get the truth out of him. It senses that Natasha's connection with him had brought her pain. Natasha angrily pulls the symbiote back and says she won't let it touch him, ever. 

Hawkeye asks if that symbiote is inside her. Natasha explains that it's a part of her now. Hawkeye says it sounds like it's jealous of their connection. He says it's not a competition but he's been around longer than the symbiote. Just then Hawkeye is hit by a dart to the neck.

Clint says he was poisoned and falls over. Widow asks the symbiote if it knew that an enemy was nearby and it chose not to warn them. The symbiote says that Hawkeye did tell them to leave. Black Widow changed into her symbiote form and says she's not leaving.

Symbiote Widow leaps out to attack the sniper, noting that they uniform doesn't look American or Russian. As one of the darts hits Natasha, the symbiote can taste the poison and determine its chemical make up. The composition is unique, which means it will kill Clint. Widow takes the man down and knocks the gun from his hands.

Widow returns to Clint, who is suffering badly from the poison. Widow asks the symbiote if it was able to absorb the poison when she got hit, if it could also extract the poison from Clint. The symbiote asks if she wants it to help Clint. Widow says if the symbiote cares about her then it should care about him. The symbiote says there could be consequences if it enters another. Widow says if it does nothing, Clint will die.

The symbiote asks Natasha who Clint Barton is, as it slowly starts to crawl into him. Natasha thinks back to the first time she got close to him. She thinks back to Coney Island, several years ago, when Snapdragon was sent after her. She says at the time she had learned how to use men as a means to an end. She feels that Clint sensed that getting close to her would be difficult and painful, but he did it anyway. Snapdragon knocks Widow out, but before she can leave with her, Hawkeye hits her with an arrow in the back.

Snapdragon is able to avoid several arrows with her staff. As she fights it out with Hawkeye, she manages to smack with her staff and knock him out. She carried Black Widow over her shoulder and prepares to get away in a helicopter. Widow narrates that she thinks that Clint likes being told no and they will fail. His true power is thriving on being underestimated. As Snapdragon leaves, Clint comments that he hit her with an arrow that has a homing beacon. He says he will find Black Widow.

Back to the present, Clint is out cold and Natasha is worried since she can no longer feel his heartbeat. Clint opens his eyes, now shown to be symbiote black, and says her name.

Elsewhere someone is asking the gunman from earlier if Hawkeye is dead. The man says he shot him. The other person asks if he is dead. The man says Hawkeye was poisoned and there is no way he could have survived it. The man is angry that he couldn't confirm it and asked where the body is.

The gunman says he was interrupted by a woman in a black suit. He says he shot her but it had no effect. The man asks if she also had red hair, which the gunman confirms. The man grabs the gunman by the throat and asks if she touched him. He says she did but it didn't hurt. The man says he's glad that didn't hurt, but the following will, as he tosses him off the high-rise.

The man tells his henchmen that the Black Widow knows where they are. He says there's no doubt that she placed a homing device on the guy he just threw out the window. The henchmen says they should move and they can get a plane ready. The man says they can let her come. He says the Black Widow is sure to want a reunion with Damon Dran.

My thoughts- 

So little by little we see get more pieces as to what happened. A few weeks ago, Hawkeye was tailing after this crooked arms dealer named Koller in Madripoor. This might lead us to what happened to the Russian minister as we get into more issues. We now this villain named Damon Dran who most definitely wants Hawkeye dead. Maybe Clint saw something he shouldn't? On top of that, we also have the added mystery that... Hawkeye didn't kill the Russian Minister?? Then why would he say he did?

This is the first time I heard of Damon Dran, and while he has crossed paths with Daredevil and Captain American, it seems Black Widow is his most persistent nemesis. Once known as Indestructible Man, I have no idea why he looks like the Red Skull now. I really hope Widow brings up the comparison whenever she encounters him.

As we've seen with Spider-Man and Venom, the symbiotes can get very territorial, so this one is not happy with Black Widow being close to Hawkeye. Hawkeye has been poisoned by a particularly lethal concoction and the only way to save him is if the symbiote chooses to do so. With Hawkeye having solid black eyes, it seems the symbiote took him over as well. 

Last issue we had a bonus story of when Natasha first met Hawkeye as he was trying to prevent Snapdragon from capturing here. This event returns as a flashback here and a follow up. Last time Snapdragon was after Widow, but Hawkeye shot an explosive arrow, giving the spy time to escape. With this flashback it seems that Snapdragon caught up to her and managed to knock her out. Even though she apparently knocked Hawkeye out and got away with Black Widow... Hawkeye planted a homing device on her.

The overall theme of the issue is that Clint is often overlooked since he is known mostly as being just an archer. Even in the Avengers movies and shows he sort of forgotten by the fans since he doesn't have any super powers. As Natasha points out, that is his true power, and he thrives on being underestimated. He is still a very capable hero as we have seen time and time again. After all, the joke goes that the main reason the Avengers lost in Infinity War... is because Hawkeye wasn't there.