Hawkeye is involved in a serious battle against…clowns. He’s at the Los Angeles
Coliseum rehearsing for a charity show that evening. Mockingbird and Wonder Man
are watching the rehearsal and talking over Hawkeye’s origin, though they can’t
understand why his mentor the Swordsman taught him archery. The rehearsal over,
Clint and Bobbi take off on a jet cycle and she asks about the Swordsman but he
makes a dive, driving all thoughts from her head but nausea….
Elsewhere,
a mystery villain is training a team of assassins to kill Hawkeye during that
night’s show….
That
evening, a curved arrow is shot into the clowns’ dressing room and gas is
released, knocking them all out….
Hawkeye
enters the ring and is surprised to find the clowns using real weapons against
him. He improvises some defenses, taking down several of the baddies but one of
them manages to break Hawkeye’s bow….
Meanwhile,
Mockingbird, arriving late and heading for Hawkeye’s dressing room, discovers
the unconscious clowns and the curved arrow—and then she is seized from
behind….
The
remaining clowns start hurling ivory balls at the disarmed archer but it turns
out Hawkeye can hurl arrows just as if he had a bow and he nails the last of
the bad guys to the tentpoles. A disheveled Mockingbird comes out to warn him
(a bit late) and she shows him the curved arrow which he recognizes as coming
from the man who really trained him…
…Trick Shot, who has emerged from the shadows to challenge Hawkeye for the title of
the greatest archer in the world….
“Listen
to the Mockingbird”
Writer:
Tom DeFalco. Pencils: Jim Lee. Inks: Al Williamson. Colors: Ken Feduniewicz.
Letters: Jack Morelli.
Synopsis:
Mockingbird, stuck in traffic and not wanting to be late for Hawkeye’s show at
the Coliseum, begins leaping and running over the immobile cars and jumping to
grab hold of the traffic helicopter (arranged by radio a few minutes earlier) to
take her to the stadium. On the way to Hawkeye’s dressing room she spies the
unconscious clowns and the curved arrow. She is seized from behind by Trick
Shot’s fighters, armed with lacrosse sticks and ivory balls. Using her battle
staves and acrobatic abilities she clobbers the bad guys who retreat and
capture a woman as hostage. They run to their van and take off with the woman.
Mockingbird races across the parking lot and pole vaults onto the getaway van, dodging
the gunfire from inside. She smashes through the windshield, causing the driver
to lose control and ram into several cars in the lot. Mockingbird pulls the
hostage to safety and takes down the rest of the baddies. Trick Shot fires a
flaming arrow at the wrecked cars’ leaking gas tanks. Bobbi flips through the
air and nabs the arrow between her feet as the villain escapes in his limo.
Bobbi enters the stadium where the show is over and shows Clint the arrow. He
recognizes it and its sender. Bobbi makes Clint promise not to go after him
alone….