Hawkeye

i think we maybe all had an idea that that was coming, but still . . sad day.

I disagree. Each of the Kate issues has been a straightforward done-in-one with three pretty distinct acts. All along the Clint issues have been a continuing story from the beginning about him trying to get the Tracksuit Mafia out of his neighborhood, and the ongoing fallout from that conflict. There were some diversions from that (the Madripoor/snuff tape story, the romance issue, the Winter Friends issue, and maybe maybe maybe the Pizza Dog issue) but it's been one narrative thread throughout. Yeah, there have been lots of memorable jokes, and I hated the Winter Friends, but I don't think it's fair to say that there's no narrative meat in Hawkeye.

I agree with the meta aspect of the book being perhaps overdone but would also like to ass that personally I am not a fan of the recent 'deconstructed' super hero movement that comics are going through.

I have no desire to see 'super heroes' as normal people, that's not why I read 'super hero' comics. The other aspects I want from comic books I get from non 'super hero' books.

I'm glad that inventive comics like this exist within the superhero "space." I think it's fine that it's not for every superhero fan, even within Marvel's main line. There are lots of straightforward superhero stories going on; even through all the reinvention and innovation. (I definitely don't see it as deconstruction, though.)

I've never known ASL in any comprehensive way; when I was a wee lad someone came into our grade-school class and taught the ASL alphabet to us once or twice, focusing on making sure we knew how to sign our names, but it wasn't all that long before that knowledge -unused- flittered away into the aether, never likely to be called-on or missed. Yesterday, on my bike ride, as I was thinking about this issue as I listened to the new episode of TC, that long-forgotten tiny little gob of my brain that used to know the ASL alphabet, 25+ years unusued, lit-up again out of nowhere, epiphanous, and in my minds-eye, clear as a Tatooine summer day, I saw Barney's hand making a T-O-N-Y, and -looking down- I noticed I was mimicking that progression with my right hand.  It felt like slipping on an ancient, dusty pair of slippers that manage to still fit despite decades of disuse; fuzzy and oddly comforting.  I don't know what practical value that may or may not have from this point forward, but i'll eagerly say this: That's pretty fucking cool; a bit of magic sprung from the mundane; Fraction's inspirado reaching right through the page and grabbing me square in the cortex. I may well have gone the rest of my life without remembering that early ASL lesson if I hadn't read this issue, and I feel like I owe the creators of this book a solid for their bringing it back to me.

Good glob, that's frustrating.  I don't even . . has there ever really been a halfway decent explanation for the constant delays on this book in the last year?  I'd love to know what's really going on.

Also, a question for those of you who are subscribed to the Deconnick & Fraction newsletter as I am: The last one they sent out was August 27th, right?  That's the last one I have.  They'd been pretty much weekly and regular for at least a good 10 or 11 weeks, but now it's been nearly a month.  Is that correct?  I ask because i'm wondering if Yahoo mail sent one or two to spam on accident or something, and I love reading those and am upset with the idea that maybe I missed a few because of a mail snafu.  Have there been any this month?