Writer: Kelly Thompson / Artist: Leonardo Romero / Marvel Comics
It’s only issue two and I’m letting you know that if Kate Bishop gets another series with a different creative team down the line then they are going to be hard pressed to top Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero’s work with this character. Kate Bishop is flourishing in this series uniquely which is very important. We’re getting the same essence of Kate from the Hawkeye series (that the team keeps throwing little nods too “this looks bad”) while growing on her own terms of development and supporting cast.
We join Kate in bringing in the stalker that was bothering her client to the police precinct. Kate has been trying to reach her client to no avail and is also seeing that things work differently in LA for superheroes but is the same old bullshit when it comes to trying to take actions against those that are the cause of harassment.
Yes sir, our PI. is perturbed about the bullshit. Kate runs back into her intern? …Yeah let’s call ’em her intern. He gets her hip to this T.B.C. group meeting. The stalker mentioned going to see them but they actually made things worse. Before getting on the trail for her missing client and investigating the cult, Kate then comes across some frat boys that were around this group as well harassing a woman. Something is really going on around LA ’cause men are out here losing their minds with the misogyny and shit, but Bishop is not the one to play with. That becomes evident real soon for these goons and Kate busts out the original choppa on they ass.
Now can we just take the time to appreciate the beauty of Romero’s artwork right here? We see Kate’s 19/19 foresight (for lack of a better term, the fandom will come up with something better that I’ll kick myself for not thinking of) where she takes in her surroundings and then uses them to her advantage. There was a TV show called Action Man (Alex Man) where the hero would do something similar using mathematical probabilities and I thought it was the dopest shit in the world. Romero just brought remixed that shit with Kate bishop and with bows and freaking arrows.
That is my shit right there — look how everything highlighted gets used clearly. I love artwork that shows you the process then pulls it off without flaw. This isn’t something easy to do and for Romero to be able to have Kate navigate so graciously around her surroundings really makes her stand out on her own as a street level hero. This is top-notch art we’re getting her as well as good looks on the people and women of color we’ve been seeing popping up as well. We met a new character named John that saw Kate take these fools out so you know he’s going to be around again.
This issue felt really long which I loved. I don’t know how Thompson tricked my mind into thinking I was reading an entire graphic novel but I loved it. That’s A1 writing, making 32 pages feel like 64 and keeping the reader engaged as fuck. Thompson and Romero are out here making the fandom recognize game right now. They got your girl Kate Bishop on some real shit out in LA, and you should be getting familiar.
Reading Hawkeye? You can find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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