Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This last issue features Hawkeye with Patriot, Speed and Wiccan and cameos from the rest of the Young Avengers.
Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and Patriot (Eli Bradley) are at last on a date, being driven in the evening through Central Park in a horse-drawn carriage. But Kate has realised this is a big mistake and suggests to Eli that maybe they shouldn't date, just remain friends and colleagues. Eli of course has to agree but the situation is now awkward. Kate tries to reassure him that it was OK for him to ask her out and arrange the carriage and of course he's a really nice person. Eli misreads the signal and tries to kiss her. And now it's even more awkward.
Then the driver stops the carriage, removes his coachman's uniform and reveals the costume of Ronin of the now-underground New Avengers. He spares Patriot continued embarrassment by KOing him with a kick and starts to spar with Hawkeye, without drawing his swords. Kate realises she's being tested. Then as Eli starts to come round Ronin hands her a card with an address on and tells to bring her bow there tomorrow - he wants to see how she shoots. She's not to tell anyone. Kate is rightly suspicious but Ronin says if he wanted to kill her he could have done it here. And then he exits sharply.
When Eli revives Kate fobs his questions off by insisting that it was just a strange mugging. He's more concerned about the disaster of the not-date. Warning her not to say anything more about them remaining friends, he staggers off into the night.
Next day Kate enters an Upper West Side brownstone after casing it for hours for suspicious characters. Inside she finds Luke Cage and Spider-Man playing a computer game and a woman reading a book. More astoundingly the man welcoming her to the temporary HQ of the Avengers is Clint Barton, the supposedly-dead original Hawkeye. Clint admits that he was dead (Avengers Disassembled) but got better (c/o House Of M and Scarlet Witch). However he's not Hawkeye now but Ronin. But he wants to see how the new owner of his old name handles his old bow (both of which Jessica Jones gave her in YA#12).
In the next scene the pair are in their current costumes shooting arrows at a target. Kate's using Hawkeye's special bow and Clint has an ordinary weapon. 1 of the arrows is in the bull and Clint says he's going to do the Robin Hood shot (splitting that arrow). Kate says *no-one* can do that. Clint bets her 20 bucks he can. Kate replies that she's rich so he'd have to raise the stakes a *lot*. So he says that if he makes the shot she'll give him his bow back. Kate protests that the bow's hers now because Captain America said she could have it (only I slight misreading of YA#12 because I figure Jessica did it with Cap's approval). Clint points out that was when he was dead. He insists on the stakes but adds that if he fails she can keep his bow and name forever, and the Avengers will never interfere with the YA again.
While he's lining up for the shot he gives Kate some advice - take every opportunity life offers you and give it your best shot. (I guess he's referring to the date with Eli.) Then he splits the arrow and leaves, reminding her to leave the bow.
Then we learn that Wiccan has accompanied her as invisible backup. Billy Kaplan turns visible and asks what she's going to do. Kate figures she'll have to drop the Hawkeye name as well. She wonders if Hawkingbird is still available. (She still also carries Mockingbird-style battlestaves (but has abandoned her sword).)
Back at the YA's base the grapevine swings into action. Billy tells his boyfriend Teddy Altman (Hulkling). Teddy asks Kate's bestie Cassie Lang (Stature) to have a word with Kate, but Cassie consults *her* boyfriend Vision. Eli senses there's something the others aren't telling him and he asks the android Vision what's happening. And Eli can't resist getting revenge for his recent embarrassment by going on about it, until Kate loses her temper and stalks off.
The other YAer Speed catches up with her taking out her anger on a punchbag. Tommy Shepherd is the only 1 who doesn't know what she's done. He says she doesn't have to tell him what it was, and asks her out for a drink at a bar he knows that is very lax about checking id. Seeing Eli and the others enter the gym she pointedly accepts Tommy's request for a date.
In the bar Kate sticks to small talk but then Tommy does ask her what went on. She hesitates but then senses that *he*'s about to try and kiss her. So she takes the conversation outside and tells him the whole story. She's surprised when the bit he picks up on is that she knows where her bow is. And then he suggests they go take her stuff back. Soon he's (literally) swept Kate off her feet and zoomed her to the Avengers' building and into the lift. And on the way up he does kiss her, and Kate responds.
But then they're in the empty apartment. (The Avengers are out Avenging.) Speed speeds around and quickly finds the bow. Meanwhile Kate looks at a picture of 'Cap's kooky quartet'. Then Tommy asks if Kate wants to continue their date. But she just wants to go home with her prize.
However they hear the lift coming up again. Kate tells Tommy to go and he rushes off. She herself hides out on a balcony. Ronin and Luke Cage enter the room and Clint is bending Luke's ear about the Young Avengers. He sees a bright future for them and thinks the Avengers should help them out - give them guidance. Luke agrees that Cap would have wanted that. (Steve Rogers is of course 'dead' after the end of Civil War.) Then Clint notices Kate's perfume in the air, and the picture she moved. He raises his voice to continue his theme, saying that the world definitely needs the YA, and he definitely thinks they can make it. Kate takes the hint before somehow escaping. (Clint probably ushered Luke out of the way so she could just walk out.)
Later Kate is practising with Hawkeye's bow trying unsuccessfully to duplicate the Robin Hood shot. Ronin walks in and advises her next time she tries a heist she shouldn't wear perfume or stop to eavesdrop. He assures her he doesn't want the bow back. Instead he gives her the picture she admired, because the YA remind him of his early days. He advises her to keep taking the shots. Then he leaves as silently as he arrived.
Lastly Kate looks in on Eli who's playing the same computer game that Luke and Spidey were (it involves Hulk and a chainsaw). She follows Clint's advice and kisses Eli. But then says they should give things time. Eli can handle that.