COGREVIEW — Hawkeye #19

 

Spoilers ahead! You've been warned.

Multimedia products, such as movies, books, comics, are desperate for public’s attention and with each year acquire new features. 3D-movies and animated comics are results of technological progress, but, at the same time, serve as representations of authors’ inability to deliver information within traditional formats. And these products require to put into use new senses to perceive the material.

Hawkeye #19 steps into another direction and invests into the idea of comics visual comprehension only. Sadly, there are people, which are stripped off the opportunity to sense audio-content, therefore, books and comics become the most convenient format for their data collection.

For those, who are unfamiliar with the single’s feature, Hawkeye #19 by Matt Fraction, David Aja and Matt Hollingsworth use sign language instead of characters' speech. In this plotline, Clint Barton loses his hearing again. Clint is one of few superheroes that were dealing with deafness, therefore, his is the most suitable character to give an insight on this problem in the mainstream comics.

Matt Fraction leaves Clint deaf on purpose and revisits character’s childhood to provide a bigger appeal to the tragedy of this event. In these time periods Barton is equally broken and worried and in both cases it’s up to his elder brother Barney to put him back on track. Fraction and Aja had chosen an uncommon method of communication with the reader - they have replaced some of the panels with schematic images of gestures that Clint and Barney use to communicate. 

       

"Dad's tall. I can't stop him." 

"Barney?"

This issue is not pictured with sign language entirely. Letterer Chris Eliopoulos have designed the lip reading and rambling speech of Clint, when he is trying to pull words out of his mouth. But let’s be back to gestures.

The comic book includes two types of gesture schemes: schemes with body motion for words and schemes with hands motion for letters. Due to obvious reasons, single appeared to be hard to read, and the majority of readers did not understand the meaning of signs at the first read.

We should also note the size of these panels. Schemes with body motion occupy approximately 1/18 of page space. So, to put 7 of those panels on the list would mean to fill up more than 1/3 of the page with monotonous schemes. Moreover, 7 panels is a limit for this comic book, which means that you cannot express more than 7 words per page.

The second type of schemes, which illustrates the hand motions, occupies 1/6 of “body” schemes, which looks like not too much. However, you need to realize that one panel corresponds with one letter. It is hard to build phrases with those. Aja uses these panels, when characters pronounce each other’s names or small words, like “OK” or “WTF”. It is a smart move, because using “body” schemes would take more space on the paper.

Thus, it looks like Hawkeye #19 provides readers with minimum information in unknown language. The problem, probably, lies within format, and not the method. 20 standardized pages does not provide enough space for panels, expressing one word or letter. For example, if we take the page with the biggest number of schemes (seven), we will see how Aja is struggling to put everything together. This method would fit better into web-comics format with possibility of endless scrolling.

However, problems listed above are not a big obstacle for reading. As it was previously mentioned, speech, represented in sign language, contain the least informative data of the issue. They are hard to comprehend, but events of the issue are easy to follow by orienting on character emotions, as in case of speechless comics. Moreover, dialogues in a traditional format are presented too, which means that reader hardly will lose the joy of reading.

The plot of the issue pivots on the relationship of two Barton brothers. So far, Barney Barton existed only as cliché slowwitted big brother, with a hatred towards younger one. In this volume, Barney was mostly seen at the background without showing his temper. And so, 19^th issue sheds some light on the relations of Clint and Barney - warm brotherly bond, not without mentoring from older brother. Previous authors depicted this relationship otherwise, but let’s be honest: nobody gives a damn. As older brother myself, I am pleased with this version of brotherly care.

Clint Barton is broken and withdrawn into himself. The topic of the issue is Clint dealing with obstacles, which are mainly consist of his inner complexes. Dealing with deafness is not the main case here. Clint is stubborn and opinionated, which means that he does not ask for help, even if situation looks bad. He put a big effort to ask for help of Kate Bishop, and even this alliance did not last. In the 17^th issue with art by Chris Eliopoulos, Hawkeye finally starts to realize (subconsciously), that one's as good as none. Barney upbraids Clint with his stubbornness, because he knows, it is dragging him down.

In the end, Barton takes a grip on himself and his pride, and calls for his neighbours’ and friends’ aid. This is his main victory.

Clint’s mental conflict and his solution sums up with one issue, and this makes 19^th issue a culmination for the series. My attention was also attracted to the usage of so-called “contrapositions” as a driving force for both plot and art. We have conflict and its resolution, past and present, two opposing brothers and even the scene at the hospital alludes to the first issue with a contrasting tone.

But is more fascinating to follow after contrapositions in the art of David Aja. In my opinion, Aja is one of the cleverest storytellers in comics, and his technique of panel building and storyboarding are main reasons behind Hawkeye’s success with both readers and critics. In this issue peculiar dualism plays a certain role and can be met on different pages.

Obvious example: the opening scene.

Clint and Barney visit otolaryngologist twice - in their childhood and present time - and these two moments are happening on the different sides of the mirror. The most massive panels occupy equivalent space, and the same applies to panels with Clint’s eyes. Both pages feature saddened Clint, but his location on the first one is set off against his location on the second. And look into order of the panels with Clint. This effect becomes stronger with a gorgeous colour palette, which was picked by Matt Hollingsworth - warm colours against cold ones.

The scene with past memories is divided into two groups of two pages, which have similar features. Let’s look into first pair:

At first, you may think that only connection these pages have is plot, but there is more. First row of first page and last row of second page are equal. The order is inverted on purpose, so the whole scene would look like an inlay. Moreover, in both rows panels allude to each other. Central panel on the first page is equal in size to the first panel from second page. Both pages have the same amount of “scheme”-panels, brown panels of past and blue panels of present. Even peach-coloured panels occupy nearly the same space in both cases. So you can actually trace the similarities.

More vivid contrapositions could be seen on the next two pages. They are mirroring each other in everything - number of panels, colours, panel arrangement and even word balloons position.

Dualism in the context of one page is also presented. For example, taxi scene has a vivid midpoint, that divides Clint and Barney. 

The issue in general has a consistent structure - the pages of Hawkeye #19 are divided into three equal rows. Look:

The exceptions are two opening pages (but, as we discussed before, they are connected to each other) and the last one, which consists of one image only. It was important to calculate the panels’ proportions for this issue, because “gesture”-schemes needed to be placed conveniently. If you will look into other issues, you might observe, how good David Aja is with comics space. The majority of pages of famous 11^th issue are divided into 4 equal rows. The most consistent issue is #13, where all the pages are divided into nine panels, which is kind of popular type of layout.

Hawkeye raised the bar for superhero comics. It earns a lot of admiration, and has a lot of spiritual followers. And it is not surprising - the ongoing series is not stopping to deliver sophisticated plotline, sharp storyboard, and well-thought colour palette, as well as comedy, drama and action. #19 talks little, but tells a lot, which makes it one of the best issues in the series.

Hawkeye #19 can be purchased here.