For
a month Hawkeye has been trying to track down who ordered the mass murder of
the Stone Perfs gang (issue #34). As we open, Hawkeye has caught several
members of the rival Mode Blanks torching the Perfs’ vacant clubhouse. As the
place burns he beats up all the Blanks, while delivering a lecture on the hard
life of a gang members. He bullies the last conscious guy into helping him drag
the unconscious ones to safety….
Lotus Newmark takes her new lackey Prince Charming, the last surviving member of the
Stone Perfs, to her luxurious mansion in the suburbs. In her office, he spots
two severed fingers in a glass case so Lotus tells him her life story….
Her
father ran a sweatshop in Hong Kong, doing business in Los Angeles; then her
mother was struck and killed by a car and Dad began to go downhill, gambling
every night and racking up huge debts to the mob. One night a band of mob big
shots led by Li Fong came to collect; they offered him a choice between having
two of his fingers cut off or his daughter taken by the mob. Cowardly Dad chose
the latter. Lotus was educated, trained in martial arts, and prepared to be a
gangster while also becoming Li Fong’s mistress. When she reached her full
maturity, Li Fong gave Lotus her freedom—and she chose to take revenge against
her father, taking his two fingers and then killing him. And now she’s a big
shot gangster in America….
The
following day, Clint and Bobbi, in their civilian clothes, take the Gutierrez
family out to a café al fresco to celebrate Luis’ birthday. And then the boy
recognizes Prince walking down the street and points him out to Clint as a
Stone Perf. Clint seizes Prince, questioning him about the massacre of the
Perfs. Prince draws a gun and starts shooting and Luis’ sister Anita is killed.
Prince is about to shoot Clint when the police arrive so the baddie hijacks
Clint’s Sky-Cycle and takes off. Prince heads to Lotus’ mansion but she is
angry at his acting like an idiot and probably drawing the Avengers’ attention
to her; she orders him out of her life for good….
U.S.
Agent delivers Clint his bow and arrows and another Sky-Cycle and the hero tracks
down and overtakes Prince. There is a fight on a rooftop with Clint growing
increasingly angry but Prince gets the drop on him, intending to kill him.
Suddenly, the Terminizer guns the baddie down, revealing himself to be a little
boy with a cloth hiding his face. Clint knows it’s Luis but doesn’t want him to
unmask, preferring to keep his illusions….
That
night, Hawkeye tells Mockingbird and U.S. Agent that he saw the Terminizer and
chose to let him get away. Agent knows he must have had a reason and
Mockingbird hopes he will tell her someday but Hawkeye says it won’t be for
another ten years and even then depending on whether the Terminizer is still
alive….