Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Hawkeye (Clint Barton) rescued Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) from Eden Vale who offered to bring her mother from the time before she died if Bishop will help her kill Barton who she blames for her young daughter's death during the Secret Empire event. But the rescue involved swapping Kate out for Madame Masque in her clone of Kate's body. However the 2 villainesses just teamed up intending to kill *both* Hawkeyes.
This is another of the issues that starts in the middle. The 2 Hawkeyes are in a Dryve cab in the costumes of Masque's minions. Kate says her Vespa needs repair (and I don't know what happened to the Firebird she supposedly had in #12).
Now we go back an hour to Eden Vale's warehouse base where the Hawkeyes are watching from hiding as Vale and Masque buddy up. Clint-eye thinks they should leave to regroup but Kate-eye argues that would allow the villains to regroup too so she proposes they take them now 2-on-2. But the odds have changed while they were arguing because a load of Masque's minions are now here. But they figure the minions are chumps and they'll have the element of surprise. So they leap in firing arrows, kicking and punching. Kate complains that MM never employs female minions but Clint points 1 out (in a previous panel).
In #13 Eden pointed out she'd needed some of Kate's blood to be able to teleport her through time or space. Kate now spots her with a case full of blood samples labelled with villain's names. The duo prepare to attack her but have to dive for cover instead when Masque opens fire with a gun. Kate spots that the girl-minion is down (along with lots of others) and gets an idea. Vale uses her power to teleport in 4 villains - Boomerang, Crossfire, Lady Bullseye and Swordsman. Kate decides to implement her idea as a plan. It starts with them firing multiple flash and exploding arrows. This apparently allows them 3 minutes to change uniforms with the girl and a male minion and escape. Before they started Kate ordered a Dryve car which turns up on time. When they set off Kate explains the 2nd part of her plan.
Meanwhile back in the warehouse the supervillains have all recovered from the flash-bangs but all the minions are still unconscious, including 2 of them dressed in the Hawkeye uniforms. Eden sends the 4 villains she brought through space and time to go find the real Hawkeyes. Crossfire objects to taking orders. Swordsman warns him to watch his tongue. And he's zapped by a fist of lighting and disappears (probably just sent back where he came from). The others agree to kill Bishop but Vale wants to kill Barton herself. She also wants no civilians hurt which Boomerang has difficulty promising.
The minion-garbed Hawkeyes have turned up at Madame Masque's mansion which is staffed by more minions, some of them sporting injuries from Kate and Clint's individual previous visits. They take them all down except a guy with a crutch and a neck-brace. Their only injury is Clint's hearing aid (manufactured by Tony Stark). They promise not to hurt the guy but then Clint takes his crutch away so he can't raise an alarm. But 1 minion does report to a superior female that the Hawkeyes are getting away. She tells him to let them go as she watches them get back into the Dryve car.
This brings us to the opening scene where they're being driven through Los Angeles. Clint tells Kate that Madame Masque (in her Kate-clone body) kissed him (last issue) and it was awful. Kate complains that she keeps doing that! (Well actually she kissed Johnny Watts in #10 before Kate herself did in #11.) But then she's conflicted about the 'awful' because it was *her* lips - not that she wants much older Clint to kiss *her*. However she reluctantly concedes that there wasn't any way he could have told her what happened without it being awkward.
But she adds can they stop discussing it in front of her dad, who we now see is bound and gagged in the back seat between them. Kate last saw him (#11) in that state as a prisoner of his erstwhile partner-in-crime Masque, and he's why they went to the mansion now. He's still handcuffed because he's a bad guy and he's still gagged because his clone body has a power of persuasion. But he'll help them because deep down he doesn't want Kate dead, and because she'll shoot him full of arrows if he doesn't. The driver delivers them to Hawkeye Investigations and then rushes off, leaving Kate with an atrocious Dryve rating.
Kate's associates Johnny and Ramone Watts, Quinn and Lucky the dog are still inside where we left them last issue, and now the gang's completed by Mikka Nguyen. Johnny welcomes Kate back enthusiastically which is when his sister Ramone realises there's something between them. Kate deflects another awkward moment by introducing them to her father Derek Bishop who was almost responsible for their deaths (indirectly in #4). But then she sends her friends home for their own safety. The duo leave Lucky to guard Derek while they go change into their spare Hawkeye duds (including Clint donning an old matching-purple hearing aid). They then rush out with dad to carry out Kate's plan. But Masque and Vale are waiting outside with the gang of minions and the 3 remaining time-grabbed villains.