By d. emerson eddy — Matthew Rosenberg has been doing some great work, contributing to some wonderful tales of Marvel's street-level heroes for a while now. His work on The Punisher with Guiu Vilanova, Stefano Landini, and Szymon Kudranski has reintegrated Frank Castle into the framework of a shared universe with superheroes and shown a flair for humor and understanding of those aforementioned street-level heroes. Likewise, Rosenberg's Tales of Suspense mini-series with Travel Foreman essentially turned Hawkeye and Winter Soldier into a buddy comedy duo. It was wonderful. So, it's quite nice to see him continue that here in Hawkeye: Freefall #1 as he adds Falcon to the mix as we take a somewhat jaded, cynical view of Hawkeye's capabilities.

Hawkeye often gets a bad rap. Both in real life and in fiction. He's laughed at as the seemingly useless Avenger going up against scary monsters and super creeps with nothing but a bow and arrow. That underestimation, treating him like a joke, has been worked in to his story since at least the Matt Fraction and David Aja Hawkeye series, and it continues here. Sometimes it can be a little wearing to bring down your protagonist through derision, but Rosenberg gives Clint a nice balance between friends and enemies picking on him and an effective bit of derring-do. Setting up a potential new nemesis in the returning Hood and tossing in a mystery surrounding another of Clint's previous identities adds some nice flavor.

Otto Schmidt is practically the perfect person to bring this to life. Not just because he's now taking a run at Marvel's archer after a stellar run with the distinguished competition's emerald archer, but because his frenetic, fluid style beautifully depicts the mixture of comedy and action. Particularly when we get a fight sequence at the end of the issue that is just filled with comedic timing as the errors mount  as Hawkeye and friends get their butts handed to them. Schmidt colors his own work here with an interesting mix of warm purples and greens. It does play off the traditional colors of Hawkeye's costume, but the purple also gives this book a bit of a noir feel.

Similar to the purple color schemes for the artwork, the narration boxes from Joe Sabino take a white on purple background appearance. It's an easy way to ensure that readers know that the narration is from Clint and adds a visual difference to the page. 

Overall, this is a great beginning to this new mini from Rosenberg, Schmidt, and Sabino. If you're a fan of the earlier Hawkeye series, you should get a kick out of this. And if you've been following Rosenberg's take on Marvel's street-level heroes, you're definitely going to want to pick this one up. Even if you're neither of those things, this is still the start to a fun new action mystery, with some gorgeous art and funny moments.

Hawkeye: Freefall #1
Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

Check out more of d. emerson eddy’s Comic of the Week feature on our Lists Page.

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.