Black Widow & Hawkeye # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

Hawkeye killed the Russian Minister and now everyone is after. After getting shot with a poison dart by one of Damon Dran's gunmen, Black Widow uses her symbiote to save his life. Now Hawkeye is stuck hearing voices due to the symbiote exposure all while Damon captures him in hopes to lure Black Widow out. How will this story wrap up?

 

"Broken Arrow Part 4" opens with Hawkeye chained up as he wishes for death. The symbiote wants him to admit his failures. Hawkeye feels bad because he led Natasha to Madripoor, which in turn led Damon to her. Damon steps into the room telling Clint that they've been here before with the fallen hero and the dramatic rescues. Clint adds there's also the super villain that monologues for too long about his motivations. Damon says Clint's attempt to trade his life for Natasha was useless.

As Damon gets closer, Clint says that Natasha has already killed the villain once before. Hawkeye swings his legs towards Damon, which gets his chains loose from the hook that was holding him up. He wraps the chains around Damon's neck until his men come in to fight him off. Damon tells his men that he wants their guns on him at all times. He says that Natasha will come to rescue 'her favorite archer' soon.

We flashback to the Russian Embassy as Damon is smacking Hawkeye around. Hawkeye asks what he did to Natasha, and Damon says he's hardly in a position to be demanding answers. Black Widow steps in and says if Damon won't answer, she will. She shoots the Widow's Line rope from her wrist-mounted gauntlets and it wraps itself around Damon's neck. She yanks him back and kicks him in the face. Hawkeye gets his bow and shoots Damon with an arrow that explodes. 

Natasha narrates that this started the cycle of both of them being willing to die for one another. Natasha says she would die for Clint, and she actually has died for him. She has betrayed her country for him. Natasha tells Clint that Damon will get up soon, and Clint notices a laser sight pointed to her chest. 

 

Just then something blows up the wall as Iron Man is back. He says that Clint and Natasha are both guilty of treason as he aims his hand on them.

In current day, Hawkeye is chained back up and hanging from a hook. He narrates that people often repeat cycles because they're comfortable. Even when the outcome is bad, the predictability makes it feel like they have control of their lives. Hawkeye says he knows Natasha is here, before all the screaming starts. One of her symbiote spiders crawls on the back of the neck of one of the gunmen.

As Natasha starts taking down the guards, Hawkeye narrates that after their years of adventures people can now guess their moves. He says he might gets a new trick arrow or Natasha might get herself a symbiote but they're still beholden to a routine. He feels they've gotten old. Natasha asks him what the hell is wrong with him, as he predicted. He narrates that next Natasha will tell him to use the two brain cells he has left. Natasha tells him to use the two brain cells he has left to not get himself kidnapped. 

Clint tells Natasha this is a trap, which she knows. He apologizes and says he wasn't thinking clearly, which she also knew. She uses her symbiote strength to break the chains. Now free, Clint has something that Natasha needs to see, which he should have shown earlier. He tells her to use the symbiote since it will be faster. Natasha asks if he's sure since she knows he doesn't like the symbiote. Clint says he needs her to know the truth. 

Clint explains that he came to Madripoor to follow Marcus Koller, the head of KVR Tech, one of the world's largest and fastest growing weapons manufacturers. When Koller arrived in Madripoor, a source told Clint that something wasn't right. Koller started taking meetings with and unknown patron and suddenly KVR stock was skyrocketing. Clint knew whatever he was doing was illegal. What Clint didn't expect was to see Koller working with a resurrected Damon Dran. Damon helped Koller sign two multi-billion dollar deals with America and Russia. Their plan was to start a war between Russia and the US, by making it look like America killed their minister. Weapon companies don't make money during times of peace. Clint adds that Damon was contracted to make a large percentage of sales.

Natasha asked Clint if he didn't shoot the minister. Clint says he did shoot him but he didn't kill him. He was already too late. Clint thought they would kill the ambassador out in the open at the day of his speech, but he realized he was poisoned the moment he touched American soil. Natasha realizes that Clint shot the minister to frame himself and prevent a war. Clint says if they came after him, they wouldn't come after each other.

 

Damon walks into the room saying that it was a noble sacrifice but it only delayed their plans. He predicts that peace won't last between America and Russia as some cycles just can't help themselves. He pushes a button on his cane with activates a loud speak, which affects Hawkeye's  hearing aid as well as Black Widow's symbiote.

We flash back and forward as we see how Hawkeye and Black Widow deal with Iron Man in the past and Damon in the present. In both moments, Natasha asks Hawkeye to trust him. In the past, she grabs one of Hawkeye's arrows. In the present, she asks him to trust the symbiote as the loudspeaker has blasted it off her and it's now crawling towards him.

In the past, Widow stabs herself with Hawkeye's arrow and calls him a traitor. Putting on an act, Widow swears revenge on both Iron Man and Hawkeye and tosses a small explosive to make her escape.

In the present, Widow uses her wrist-mounted gun to take out the loudspeaker. She tells Clint that the symbiote should be able to focus now. Just then she is grabbed from behind by Damon. A symbiote version of Hawkeye tells Natasha to duck. Natasha zaps Damon and she flips out of his gasp. Hawkeye hits him with a symbiote-enhanced arrow.

 

We flashback to the past, as Iron Man tells Hawkeye that he misjudged him and sees that he was playing the Black Widow the whole time. He says he'll have to talk to the Avengers about what happened. He remarks that Natasha might have gotten away but Hawkeye showed what side he was on.

In the present, Natasha says that the symbiote looks good on Hawkeye. Hawkeye comments that the symbiote bow and arrow is really cool but he's not keeping it. He tells Natasha that will be leaving Madripoor and it will be like she was never here, while he turns himself in to the authorities. 

Natasha says it's time to stop with the martyrdom. Hawkeye asks if she would like to try something new. He takes her hand and asks if she would do him the honor of returning to American with him so they can face whatever consequences come their way. Natasha says she has nothing better to do. As they hold hands, the symbiote passes from Clint to Natasha.

 

 

My thoughts- 

Pretty fun story, but as always with these sorts of stories, I wish this was an ongoing instead of a 4-part mini series. Everything came together from the flashback to how it applies in current day. We see how much Hawkeye and Black Widow mean to each other, as well as a previous encounter with Damon which explains why he wants revenge.

One part that confused me about the flashback adventure was when Hawkeye blew Damon up with one of his trick arrows. It was suggested that wouldn't be enough to stop him and he'd be getting up soon... but then he disappeared when Iron Man showed up. I guess he chose to play it safe and lay low.

I did enjoy how the end of the flashback would lead to similar situations in both past and present. It hearkened back when both Black Widow and Hawkeye were criminals of sorts when they were first introduced. Black Widow's bad girl act helped Hawkeye gets into Iron Man's good graces. On that note, it was cool to see how much of an obstacle Iron Man would be to both Hawkeye and Black Widow. It was better to trick him than to try to actually take him down.

I have to say, that was a hell of a master plan between Koller and Damon, and we had the extra detail of Hawkeye telling Natasha that he actually did shoot the Russian Minister. In the last issue Damon even mentioned 'Hawkeye's stunt with the minister' which left me wondering exactly what he meant. I also wondered what that short scene with Koller was all about in issue 2. Glad to see it all come together in this issue.

I am intrigued by Natasha's symbiote. and can't wait to read more of her adventures with her new powers. After this mini-series, she has a Venomous one-shot as well as a three issue Venom War tie in mini series. I got them all, after realizing that Black Widow Venomous # 1 and Venom War Venomous # 1 were two different issues. As for Hawkeye, as we saw in Blood Hunters # 1, he's still on the run from the law, though it's ok because he grew a mustache.

I'll try to not sound like a broken record from the previous issues, but it still bugs me that Black Widow is dead and this is a clone. The only thing I'll say is that while the flashback was cool, it's a bit jarring to think those events happened to the original Natasha, and ties into current events which involve, essentially another Natasha. I'm just gonna have to come to terms with the fact that Marvel is gonna pull a Simpsons Fat Tony situation where we just have to forget she's a clone and just carry on as if she is the original.