Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) was called by her sister Susan to the Resort Chapiteau in the Hamptons to retrieve a stolen ring. But a young girl was kidnapped and then found, and her kidnapper seemed to be under mind control. And now the sisters and Kate's dog Lucky are surrounded by mind-controlled guests (although to me they all seem to be staff).
Kate tells Susan Bishop to grab Lucky while she goes into action. A series of acrobatic moves and trick arrows deals with the attackers and a drone camera, and a 'fishing line' arrow reels our 3 safely up to a roof terrace. Then Kate notices an old foe with a bow and purple wig with arrows sticking in it like a pincushion.
But 1st she wants to clear the air with her sister. She breaks the bracelets that Susan made them both wear as camouflage in #1 (though I don't know why she figures they were dangerous). She wants Susan to leave so she doesn't have to worry about her. But older sis refuses to leave Katie in danger (and Kate tries yet again to get her to call her *Kate*). However under pressure she admits that the real reason is that she can't leave without the ring, which is the key to a safe.
Cue various flashbacks involving their father Derek Bishop. He wasn't happy when the board of his company asked Susan to take over running it. He shoots someone to make him tell where a Cosmic Cube fragment is, but we see Susan sneaking off with it and hiding it in the safe. Li'l Katie sees him beating someone up. He's angry at Susan's wedding, and when he learns Kate is a Young Avenger. And then he left their lives.
Susan apologises for leaving young Katie alone with their dad so much, and Kate admits she didn't realise what her sister was dealing with at the time. Susan opines that they each fought back in their own way.
Kate now knows that the stakes are keeping the Cosmic Cube fragment out of the hands of the Circus, and tells Susan that she now recognises the purple-wig woman and some other performers as members of the Circus Of Crime who she's tangled with before. They used to just hypnotise audiences and steal their jewellery and money, but now they seem to have set their sights higher.
And a mystery woman continues to watch them via another drone camera, as Kate reluctantly tells Susan to stay hidden with Lucky while she goes in search of the ring. Which the m-w seems to have in her hand.
Kate contacts Prodigy, an ex-member of the later Young Avengers, and he provides an app which enables her to track something (what? I don't think the Cube is supposed to be here). She also asks Cassie Lang to contact America Chavez for backup, and Cassie says she's coming too. Clint Barton also tries to contact her (the only person she doesn't *mind* calling her Katie).
Then she reaches the central lair with the drone control screens (maybe it the drone signals she was tracking?). But she has to fight the purple-wigged woman who's upped her game since their last encounter. Kate talks a good fight but she's losing when the mystery woman calls a halt. She announces herself as Pascale Tiboldt (probably daughter of Maynard Tiboldt, Ringmaster of the Circus), and she's got a mind-controlled Susan in tow.