Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The 1st page of this issue is again a flashforward, but only to the end of the 2nd page. Clint Barton is tied to a chair lying on a hotel bed when he's attacked by 5 sword-wielding (Hand?) ninjas. He contrives to get 1 of them to cut the tape binding his ankles and makes a run for the window. He somersaults to exit chair 1st, and that's where we saw him smashing out many stories high.
But we cut to another hotel room where Kate Bishop is watching a video of Clint (Hawkeye) assassinating terrorist Du Ke Feng, which officially had been done by Navy Seals. She had 'won' the tape last issue at an underworld auction posing as Madame Masque with an AmEx Black credit card that SHIELD had given Clint. (The scene we see from the tape is the 1 that was the opening page of last issue.) Then security guards demand entrance to the hotel suite and discover the real Masque tied up in the bedroom. As they menace Kate we see Clint and chair hurtling past her window ...
... closely followed by the ninjas. Then Maria Hill of SHIELD swoops down on a hoverflier and scoops him up. The collision breaks him free of the chair (and somehow breaks all his bonds too). But the ninjas land on the flier with him. Hill gives a warning shout for Barton to hold on and then tips the craft over so 4 of the ninjas fall off. The last ninja grabs on to Barton's leg. Clint reaches down and offers to help him up but it would be against the ninja code to surrender so #5 lets go and falls to his death taking Clint's shoe with him.
Back with Kate, Madame Masque has taken her costume back, and the security guards obviously graciously allowed Kate to put her own clothes back on before frogmarching her along with them. MM now has the tape and is threatening dire punishment for Kate as they enter the auction room. Kingpin and Madame Hydra greet Masque and express their condolences for what she's been through. But then Kate's hopes rise ...
... as she sees Clint and Maria on the hoverflier outside. Hill has obviously retrieved Clint's bow and arrows (or thoughtfully brought spares with her) because he shatters the big plate glass window with an explosive arrow. Then Barton athletically leaps into the room ... and starts hopping around as 1 shoeless foot contacts the floor full of glass shards. Kate helps him to get clear of the debris and then they face a small horde of more ninjas plus AIM, Hydra and Maggia goons and the lone Agence Byzantine agent. Discretion being the better part of valour they kick the auction room doors open and run away.
But then Kate remembers the tape is still in Masque's suite and they have to turn round and start punching and kicking their way through the mob. Which they do and reach the suite and the tape. And Clint realises it was *Kate* as Masque who retrieved the AmEx card from his butt last issue, which they won't mention ever again. As she helps him limp away in victory Madame Masque catches up with them and tries to shoot Kate, but Clint takes it on the chest. Kate drags him into an open elevator and they get away. And she discovers that he had a kevlar vest on.
Later she, Maria Hill and Nick Fury Jr visit Clint in a hospital bed. And Kate is told that it was all part of an elaborate SHIELD scheme. The Du Ke Feng assassination really was done by Navy Seals, but a mole was trying to discover their identities. SHIELD had 3 suspects so they created 3 fake tapes with Captain America, Hawkeye or Wolverine doing the deed and fed them to the 3 suspects, with the heroes' consent. Hawkeye's tape went to the real mole, but then they had to get it back.