Synopsis / Summary / Plot
At the end of last issue Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) was about to call Clint Barton (Hawkeye) when her doorbell rang and it was him outside. They both said "I need your help".
This issue begins with both archers falling towards the ground outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with its pavement full of signatures.
Then we go back 3 hours to Kate's Hawkeye Investigations office (and her apartment) where Kate has shown him where she's got to in her investigation into her mother's death or life - the word "Mom" pinned on her corkboard. Clint guesses that there's still a lot of work to do there, so they'd better deal with his urgent problem 1st. He appeals to their dog Lucky (currently living with Kate) to decide but his "Woof" is ambiguous.
So they decide to go for a pizza instead (Lucky the Pizza Dog's favourite meal). 20 minutes later they're working their way through the stuff outside the Pizzeria and still arguing about it when Clint realises they're being targeted and pushes Kate of the way as 2 arrows just miss them. They hide behind upturned tables as more arrows arrive, now definitely aimed at Barton.
Kate now agrees that *his* problem *is* more urgent. He doesn't know who's after him but he'd hoped that as a PI she could find out. They haven't brought their bows and arrows but Clint pulls out a mini-crossbow. They've spotted which rooftop the shooter's on and Clint shoots while Kate whips out 3 throwing knives. The shooter dodges but not before Kate glimpses some long blue hair. Duo and dog nip down an alley.
We next see them crashing into Ramone's Surf Shop where her friend Ramone Watts is with her brother Johnny Watts. Clint breaks 2 surfboards and Ramone's not happy with apologetic Kate. Johnny calms her down and Kate introduces Clint to them. Ramone accepts *his* apology. Clint asks how come she's started using knives and she explains how she pocketed them after Madame Masque (in a clone of Kate's body) threw them at her (see #11). He complains it's not very Hawkeye-y but she points out that he himself is a "do whatever it takes" guy. And she reminds him to stop calling her "Katie".
Clint then tells them what he knows about his attacker, and 2 minutes later Kate summarises:- arrows, expert tracker, blue lightning, and maybe he saw Swordsman who's long-dead. She adds blue hair and remembers the woman in the recent (to her) events of the Generations: Hawkeyes 1-shot where she went back in time and teamed up with the younger Hawkeye in his early Avenger days. She reminds him of Swordsman and his protege Eden Vale and the 'Contest Of Marksmen' on an island. Clint is shocked to realise that was Kate he met that day, and she explains it was time-travel. And now she figures that's who's after him. The Watts siblings are more confused than usual.
Kate does some detecting and finds an apartment rented in Eden's name. Our 2 heroes head there past Grauman's where various people are hanging out in Marvel costumes. 2 passersby think our pair are more fakes but good ones and want a photo. But they are interrupted by another arrow from the roof of the Theatre. Kate fires 2 arrows but Vale has gone. Clint fires a new grappling arrow with a retracting line which lifts them both up to the roof. They see Eden and each fire an arrow. But Vale disappears in a flash of blue lighting and reappears on another part of the roof - it's her form of teleportation. They move in to tackle her directly but she seems more adept at close fighting than she does at firing arrows. Soon Clint is hanging from the edge of the roof and as Kate leaps to save him Eden slashes her arm with a knife. Kate reaches down to pull Clint up but her blood-slick hand slips and they both fall into the opening page ...
... but on the way down Kate is saved when Vale uses her blue lightning to teleport her to herself. And then she knocks the heroine out.
Kate wakes chained to the floor in a deserted building. Eden explains that she has been able to pull Bishop through spacetime because she now has a sample of her blood (on her knife). She also explains that she really wanted Barton instead, but she now wants Bishop to help her kill him. During Secret Empire he based an underground movement in Nevada at the Mount which was then destroyed by a nuclear explosion which we learn caused the death of Vale's little daughter Lucy. Kate tries to tell Eden that Clint deeply regrets what happened, and that revenge won't make her feel any better.
But Vale isn't swayed and offers Bishop a reason to help her. She has the triangular pendant that belonged to Kate's mother, and it has her blood on it as we learned in #9. So now Eden uses her blue lightning power to bring Eleanor Bishop alive from the past.