Kate Bishop– the younger of two heroes code-named Hawkeye– emerged when the older one, Clint Barton, had temporarily retired. A hero by choice, she took up his color scheme (purple on purple on purple), his bow-and-arrow theme, and his acrobatics-and-bruises fighting style, first with his resistance, then with his blessing, and then at his side. She then took her talents and their floppy-eared dog Lucky to Los Angeles, where she set up shop as a private detective, though she’s currently back in New York. Wherever she’s found, she comes with trick arrows, wisecracks, interior monologues, insecurities, and ten tons of gold-plated family baggage: she also comes with problematic ex-boyfriends, multiple best friends, and fans who can’t get enough.
Introduced as one among a pack of teen would-be heroes in Young Avengers 1 (2005) by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, Kate’s early adventures rarely gave her lead roles. (For a while she had no clear hero name either: Hawkingbird, Taskmistress, Ladyhawk…) She provided a hideout and money, flirted with Eli Bradley (Patriot), then dated the hapless and naive– but powerful– Kree warrior Noh-Varr, accompanying her teammates on the interdimensional. very queer-friendly journeys of Gillen and McKelvie’s fan-beloved Young Avengers vol. 2 (2013-14).
As Clint Barton took up more space in 2010s comics, Kate appeared more often at his side, as his voice of reason, his conscience, or his de facto babysitter. That’s how Kate operates in Matt Fraction’s celebrated, artistically challenging Hawkeye series (2012-13), confusingly released at times that overlapped the Gillen/ McKelvie Young Avengers. The two volumes of All-New Hawkeye (2015-16), by Lemire and Perez, established clear, heartstring-yanking childhood trauma for Clint and then for Kate, throwing past and potential future Hawkeyes into the best focus yet on their mutually needy, splodie-arrow-filled relationship.
After small roles in big crossover events and a fun (no, really) mini-series with Deadpool, she became the star of the show in two lighthearted, L.A.-based comics written by Kelly Thompson, Hawkeye (2017-18) and West Coast Avengers (2018-19), where she kept facing off with Madam Masque and other adult villains linked to her parents’ misdeeds. In these Kate-first comics, props and mannerisms that remained hints or one-offs in Fraction had room to breathe and grow.
Kate Bishop was never supposed to be a marquee name or a fan favorite– until she was. She doesn’t even have her own codename. Nor does she have extraordinary, supernatural, or startlingly powers: instead, like her bruised and battered older namesake, this younger, more privileged, and equally purple Hawkeye brings to the superhero game pluck, persistence, a nose for clues, a way with fletchings and bowstrings (including the cello), and a gumshoe’s ability to read the room.
Like Barton, she’s usually the least powerful in any group of superheroes: like him, she can take a beating, and often does. Unlike him, she knows how to lead a team– but like him, she often needs saving. By him, and very much vice versa. When Clint and Kate interact they’re a good example–and the world needs more of these– of how an older dude can mentor a younger woman without making it a sex thing (see also: Logan and Kate Pryde, Logan and Jubilee, Logan and Armor, etc). Sometimes it’s banter: sometimes it’s hearts laid bare, and often it’s her telling him to stop running away. The TV-show versions– which may be what brought you here– took much of the humor out of their interactions, but it kept their earnestness, her dedication to superhero business, and their shared reliance on Band-aids.
When Kate interacts with other heroes her age, she can crack them up or show their soft sides. As for hero fights, she’s out of her depth and she knows it. She can go back to her old life as a Manhattan rich girl at almost any time, unless her evil dad cancels her credit cards. Instead, every day is a choice to stay on the case, and a way to show her loyalty to her ever-growing chosen family. If you’re reading about a flustered heroine who’s taken on way too much responsibility (and likes it that way), who walks into rooms and sees dozens of potential targets (shown by arrows and bullseyes), who seems to keep dating or almost-dating the queerest teen heroes Marvel can provide, and who keeps running out of frozen vegetables to put on her banged-up limbs, you are probably reading a Kate Bishop comic. Just don’t call her Lady Hawkeye.
Gold
Hawkeye
June 2008
- Young Avengers Presents #6
- Matt Fraction
- Alan Davis
- Mark Farmer
- Paul Mounts
- Cory Petit
The Plot
Kate took the Hawkeye moniker (along with the color scheme and the archery shtick) when everyone thought Clint was dead. He’s not, so he challenges her to an archery contest: winner gets to keep the name. Meanwhile Young Avengers Eli Bradley (the goody-goody) and Tommy Shepherd (the speedy bad-boy) fight over Kate’s hand.
Why We Love It
One of the first tales to focus on Kate highlights her standout qualities: determination, pluck, bravado, vulnerability, and the drive to be Not Just a Sidekick (and Never the Girlfriend). There’s a heist comedy element to this almost Seussian compact story too: Kate has Clint’s bow. Clint gets Clint’s bow. How will Kate get Clint’s bow? Is it Kate’s bow?
By the end of this first extended interaction between the Hawkeyes, Kate has become the best kind of Mary Sue, inviting you, too, to accept Clint’s advice: “Go out. Fight hard. Screw up… Just keep taking the shots.” Maybe best of all, Alan Davis, Mark Farmer and Paul Mounts give us a beautiful, dynamic, larger-than-life New York, and heroes who belong there: everyone from Kate to Luke Cage has a bit of an eye candy element.
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Silver
All-New Hawkeye
March 2015 – April 2016
- All-New Hawkeye Vol 1 #1-6
- All-New Hawkeye Vol 2 #1-6
- Jeff Lemire
- Ramón Pérez
- Ramón Pérez
- Ramón Pérez & Ian Herring
- Joe Sabino
The Plot
Kate and Clint rescued three wrinkly, green, very super-powered kids from a Hydra facility, only to see them held captive– and used as living weapons– by SHIELD. Now our lilac bowslingers have to rescue them…. again. And if they don’t do it now, they’re gonna have to do it twenty years in the future, in a B-plot starring grown-up Kate along with Old Man Barton.
Why We Love It
If you want the best and most coherent backstory for both Marvel’s aubergine archers, you can read all eleven parts of this exemplary comic by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez, starting with All-New Hawkeye vol. 5 (2015) no. 1.
If you’re just here for Kate, you can start with these six issues, in which past, present, and potential future Hawkeyes follow parallel stories about rescuing kids from their messed-up would-be caretakers, and about kids who learn to rescue themselves. Watercolors and torn-paper captions from clearly-told flashbacks show how a young Kate realized that she wanted to be like Clint, and not like her shady dad (it’s a major source for the TV show too).
Dramatic action scenes set in the future, in heavy snow, in China, show Old Man Barton and all-grown-up Bishop taking on a hoary supervillain to fix twenty-year-old mistakes. And in the present-tense story that guides the reader onward, Kate and Clint and Clint’s brother Barney and Kate’s best friend America Chavez take on SHIELD, and Hydra, and their own history, before deciding to go their own way.
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Anchor Points
December 2016 – March 2017
- Hawkeye #1-4
- Kelly Thompson
- Leonardo Romero
- Leonardo Romero
- Jordie Bellaire
- Joe Sabino
The Plot
Kate puts together her un-powered (or are they?) best friends squad as she tries to establish herself as the top un-licensed P.I. in Venice Beach. She thinks she’s saved a college student from a garden-variety stalker creep… but the creep leads Kate into a mind-control cult. And a mystery mansion. And off a pier. And why is everyone wearing masks?
Why We Love It
Kelly Thompson’s pitch-perfect, L. A.-based Kate solo series rewards an all-the-way, soup-to-nuts read-through, from this first arc to the final issues (where Clint pops back up in her life). She’s finally out of the shadows of the Avengers and the Young Avengers and the friends whose powers could leave her in the dust, and she’s free to make her own life along the lines of TV’s Veronica Mars.
This self-contained storyline introduces her gang– hopeful techie Quinn, badass Ramone, future boyfriend Johnny– and shows her in action: Romero’s half-page of Kate mid-leap, two arrows nocked at once, in hot pursuit (it’s on page 6 in issue 1) is the best single-image introduction our violent violet has ever had.
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West Coast Avengers
February – April 2019
- West Coast Avengers #8-10
- Kelly Thompson
- Gang Hyuk Lim
- Gang Hyuk Lim
- Gang Hyuk Lim
- Joe Caramagna
The Plot
Kate’s West Coast posse has finally come together– including Jeff the friendly land shark and Kate’s pompous-but-powerful ex Noh-Varr. They infiltrate a cult that views America Chavez as their Chosen One– and will stop at nothing to drink her blood. Oh, and Kate’s long-thought-dead mom is involved. Of course.
Why We Love It
This goofy, witty, absurd team book ended too soon: it’s a team Kate assembled, and her feelings about, or for, them provide the book’s glue. The in-universe premise of Thompson’s West Coast Avengers is that Kate can only fund her super-team by permitting reality-TV teams to record their debriefings, a deal arranged by Quentin Quire, the most obnoxious of psionic mutants. Quentin’s dating Gwenpool, who hooked up with him because she’ll do anything that gets attention (so editors don’t kill her off): she’s having more fun taking care of Jeff, her new pet land shark (who now has his very own Marvel Infinity Comic). America’s scared for her new girlfriend Ramone, whose Wakandan powers start to emerge. Kate’s not sure how close she feels to her new boyfriend Johnny, who has Wakandan powers of his own: Noh-Varr wants Kate back, or wants to kiss Johnny. Or both? Plus, vampire cults!
In this last arc the team’s all here, and every interaction zings– the vampire-cult fights are almost an afterthought. Lim and Moy R.’s figure drawing stays just cartoony enough, without skimping on facial expression: each page brings new fun. If you’re old enough to remember when people liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the musical episode, you’ll recognize the vibe. If not, good for you: the relationships here are way healthier, the quips are at least as much fun, and you can read the whole magnificent series-ending trilogy in half an hour. But you’ll have to provide your own tunes.
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Bronze
L.A. Woman
November 2013 – September 2014
- Hawkeye 14, 16, 18, & 20
- Matt Fraction
- Annie Wu
- Annie Wu
- Alan Hollingsworth
- Chris Eliopoulos
The Plot
Kate’s first investigation in Los Angeles lead her to catch an orchid thief, tail a (legal) weed king, redeem an obvious stand-in for the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and uncover a scheme to keep L.A. glitterati young forever, masterminded by Kate’s perennial antagonist Madame Masque. Oh, and her dad’s involved. Of course.
Why We Love It
“Man, being a private eye is easy,” Kate muses, “and it’s super fun too, except for getting shot at that one time.” Not quite street-smart, bicycle-riding, girl-detective Kate is on the case, and it’s good clean fun by the Pacific, except when it’s a Raymond Chandler-esque snafu.
This sequence (collected in trade paperback as L. A. Woman) can get overshadowed by the high formalism, and the high punches-thrown count, of the Clint-centric Fraction run within which it takes place, but it’s a fine Kate story on its own. You might have to read the sequence twice to keep track of all the non-powered supporting characters (and their Life Model Decoys), but it’s worth it, and Wu’s clean lines, expressive faces, and tight-closeup panels might make you want to visit SoCal (and then flee for home).
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Resolution
December 2013 – January 2014
- Young Avengers #14-15
- Kieron Gillen
- Jamie McKelvie, Emma Vieceli, Christian Ward, Annie Wu, Becky Cloonan, Ming Doyle, & Joe Quinones
- Jamie McKelvie, Becky Cloonan, Ming Doyle, & Joe Quinones
- Matthew Wilson, Lee Loughridge, Christian Ward, Jordie Bellaire, & Maris Wicks
- Clayton Cowles
The Plot
The Young Avengers just saved the multiverse from a multidimensional parasite called Mother; they also saved it (sort of) from their frenemy Loki. Now it’s time for a New Year’s Eve party. Who will hook up? Who will break up? Who wants to dance?
Why We Love It
Extraordinarily queer-affirmative for its day and stylishly exciting even now, the Gillen/McKelvie Young Avengers launched a thousand fanfics, and rightly so. But it’s not a great Kate story till these two issues’ coda, where Kate puts on her dancing shoes.
She also breaks up with Noh-Varr, gets her smooch on with Tommy, and reaches new horizons of almost-but-not-quite with bestie America Chavez: “Am I the only person on the team who’s straight?” Kate asks her pals before sunrise. “Princess,” America answers, “I’ve seen the way you look at me. You’re not that straight.” Damn straight. So to speak.
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Best Friend, Won’t You?
Your Heart Is True
July – August 2017
- America #5-6
- Gabby Rivera & Kelly Thompson
- Ramon Villalobos
- Ramon Villalobos & Walden Wong
- Tamra Bonvillain & Brittany Peer
- Travis Lanham
The Plot
America Chavez entices Kate on a road trip into the California desert in search of America’s first crush, the boxing sensation Magdalena Velez. It’s a super-cute three-way reunion… until Magdalena springs a trap set by the supervillain Arcade. Can Kate spring America from Arcade’s boxing ring of doom?
Why We Love It
There’s a big-sky dirt-road vibe to the intro pages and later a fun goofy multi-cornered fight involving the Mindless Ones and a lot of interdimensional-abuela business for America but let’s be honest. We’re here for the ship. Kate is America’s “ride or die,” as they say. As for America, she’s “Part of the rebel-dream-girl-magic-best-friend thing.” Their interactions leap off the page and into our little queer hearts, and whatever kind of love you want to imagine they share, it’s the right one for them, then and now.
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The Best There Is
November 2017
- Hawkeye #12
- Kelly Thompson
- Michael Walsh
- Michael Walsh
- Jordie Bellaire
- Joe Sabino
The Plot
Laura and Gabby Kinney and Jonathan the Actual Wolverine team up with Kate to shut down an evil clone factory.
Why We Love It
The banter. The camaraderie. Three characters who know they’re in a comic book and still want to do their part. Kate’s attempt to take her job– but not herself– seriously runs into Laura’s harder and grimmer experience for this short-term team-up, and they go together like peanut butter and better chocolate than anything Reese’s ever made. As for Gabby, let’s give her the last word; “I like her jokes, Laura. There’s way too many, sure, but some of them are pretty good.”
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