nigellicus's profile picture

nigellicus 's review for:

Hawkeye, Vol. 3: L.A. Woman by David Aja, Matt Fraction
5.0

Kate Bishop, the other Hawkeye, gets tired of the emotional brick wall and ongoing meltdown that is Clint Barton, the other other Hawkeye, and heads out to LA to be a superhero PI. Madame Masque is out for revenge, her credit line is cut off, forcing her to resort to cat-sitting, and her fist case is to find some missing orchids. It's Philip Marlowe in purple, a conceit confirmed by her receiving mentoring advice from a tired guy in a raincoat in the cat-food aisle of the local supermarket. There's a lot of sun-soaked dirging and depression and nothing quite working out, in keeping with the general tone, Kate Bishop, millenarian rich-girl with a heart of gold kicks against the constraints and conventions of being a tarnished gumshoe knight of the mean streets, which includes getting beat up a lot and getting framed for murder and having it all taken out of your hands by remote authorities in a most unsatisfactory manner which seems to preclude real justice, and it's adorable.