L.A. Woman was another stellar volume in Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run. In this installment, we follow Kate Bishop as she heads out west to find her footing outside of the whirlwind of her mentor Clint Barton. Minutes after entering L.A. County Kate is swept up into the vengeance plot of Madam Masque a supervillain she previously bested. With no money or connections, Kate takes a crack at becoming a P.I.

L.A. Woman was a fantastic interlude from Clint's New York adventures. Kate successfully carries the volume herself and the noir mystery plot was gripping. The volume has some particularly great standalone issues with compelling side characters that added colour to the series overall. I especially loved seeing the mysteries of William Byers and Harrison H. Harrison unfold. Kate was a charming, if naive, protagonist and seeing her scrape by in LA after numerous setbacks was a fun time.

Annie Wu's art was also stellar. I haven't always been fond of the non-David Aja art styles utilized throughout this run but Wu's illustrations were interesting without being an imitation of Aja's style and worked perfectly with Matt Hollingsworth's flat colouring style.

The choice to collect Kate's arc into a standalone volume rather than tell the story by publication order was an inspired one that added clarity to a narrative that even I can admit gets confusing at times. L.A. Woman was another top-form story from Matt Fraction and a great read.