I’ll be the first to confess that until I picked up Avengers: Solo, I had never read anything by Jen Van Meter. The only reason number one went into our pull list was because my partner EvilBob had met Jen at GeekGirlCon, and she was so nice that we decided that we’d give this title a shot.
I’m not an Avengers fan. The closest I ever got was the Ultimates line, but Ultimates vol. 3 kind of ruined it for me. I like some of the Avengers individually, but when they team up, I’m put off.
Fortunately, Solo focuses on (surprise) a single Avenger. I always remember Hawkeye from the Great Lakes Avengers days. It seemed that he played one of two roles, played for laffs or far too serious. I try to ignore it most of the time, because I have a soft spot for the regular guy on the team of world shakers.
Van Meter surprised me with her take on Hawkeye. He’s played as both funny and serious, whatever the situation calls for. I laughed out loud at some of his lines, and I took seriously most of his serious moments. Here we see Hawkeye as what he really is: a more-or-less regular guy surrounded by Gods and monsters, icons and billionaires and all the bad guys out there. Somehow, he still maintains his humanity, without going completely bat-shit crazy.
Roger Robinson does a great job on the art, keeping us focused on what we should be focused on. I’m afraid to say that I really wasn’t paying all that much attention to the art though, because after issue 1, the story hooked me.
Look, I want you to read the story, so I’m going to skip the part where I tell you most of the gritty, spoilerific details. Trust me, this is the best Avengers story I’ve read in a long time. It beats out everything, including the original Ultimates. Basically, Hawkeye gets to play detective, and the people he’s helping don’t want the Avengers involved.
That’s an important thing. Hawkeye isn’t saving people, he’s helping them. He’s not treated like an Avenger. He doesn’t call all the shots. Instead, he collaborates with people, and treats them with respect.
On to the one spoiler I’m giving. If you don’t want spoilers, stop reading here and just buy the comic!
One of the characters in the comic is transgendered. When we get the reveal, Hawkeye treats him like a real person.
No shock, no “what the !@#*?”, none of the usual bullshit we get when a trans character comes out in comics. It’s the most touching, poignant moment I’ve read in a long time…in any format. Better yet, there was a twitter conversation involved:
“…behave the way I think a hero ought…”
That bit made Jen Van Meter my new hero. Without my even realizing it until I was writing this today.
I work in a restaurant in Missoula, MT. I work with people who routinely, without, I think, realizing it, make a lot of racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic comments and jokes. I need this job. Before getting it, I was unemployed for over a year. So, I didn’t rock the boat much. After reading the reveal in issue #4, something changed.
I wasn’t behaving the way a hero ought. I was being part of the problem. I was using the fact that I’m a cisgendered white guy who is presumed to be straight to avoid having to deal with bullshit. I was hiding.
After reading #4 and having this brief twitter conversation, I stopped that. I’ve called people out on their malarkey. I’ve stopped ignoring comments meant to make people who scare someone feel small. I don’t put up with hate for hate’s sake anymore. I haven’t gotten into trouble at work yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time.
You know what? I don’t care any more. The world needs more heroes, especially in a time where the men running for President of the United States seem to want to roll us back to 1950. When a state wants to require a woman to have an unnecessary medical procedure that violates her person in order to have an abortion.
Fuck.
That.
Noise.
That right there is the greatest achievement I’ve seen in comics. I read a lot of them, but very, very few have inspired me to change behaviors. Avengers: Solo reminds us that heroes are out there, and that there is more to being a hero than being one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
If you can find them, buy the loose issues from your local comic shop. If you want the trade, Amazon.com has it here.
The Good: Um, everything? Hands down one of the best hero stories out there right now.
The Bad: It seems really unlikely that we’ll ever see J again, and that is a crying shame.
Megs is part of the team behind 
Isa is the genius behind the art of Namesake (and some of the story), so everything I said above applies here. But there is more!
I am a sucker for crime stories. No one writes crime like Ed Brubaker. I recently had the opportunity to read his Criminal series, and it knocked my socks off. Okay, not literally, but it was close. If I hadn’t been wearing shoes at the time, my socks would have come right off.
I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Jen until my partner met her at 
I fell in love with Greg Rucka reading Gotham Central (also Ed Brubaker, it must be admitted. Seriously, whoever thought to put them together is a genius.) Then I read Stumptown. Now I’m hooked. Want more? Greg is writing the Punisher.