Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In the previous mini-series the Hawkeye duo (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) rescued some super-powered children from Hydra but had to give them up to SHIELD. Kate wasn't happy about that last bit. The last issue of that series included a scene 30 years in the future where the pair are long-separated but older Kate contacts even-older Clint to say they've got to do something about it. The early issues of this mini-series will be split between the present and that future.
Now in the present team Hawkeye study a global(!) situation board to choose a new mission, but Kate-eye can't summon up much enthusiasm (not even as much as Lucky the dog). Clint-eye picks gangster Hammerhead who's mob is muscling in on local businesses, and Kate seems to agree to meet there at 10 tonight. Clint thought she'd be happier. It's been months since the world almost ended (and we don't really know what the inhabitants of the recreated multiverse think actually happened at the end of the Time Runs Out saga). It's been even longer since Project Communion (the subject of the previous mini-series).
He shouldn't have mentioned that last bit because that's what's bugging her. Those 3 kids trusted them after they rescued them from Hydra. SHIELD boss Maria Hill gave the duo a chance to keep the kids safe and under control but they failed and let SHIELD have them. Clint reminds her that the failure involved the kids killing people (admittedly Hydra agents who were attacking them all). Kate gives up on the argument they've had many times already, and starts to leave. Lucky thinks he's going to get a walk. Clint asks if she's angry because he's back on the Avengers and they didn't ask her. It seems that's also a sore point, but then she's gone.
In the future Kate brings Clint to a building she owns, with it's own doorman. It seems she 'inherited' everything of her dad's after he went to prison, and she's used the money to set up a support group (who call themselves the Hawkeyes) for her global crime-fighting. It also seems that Clint has spent the last 15 years moping in the apartment in the brownstone building *he* owns.
Inside she shows him film of an incident in China that killed 30,000 people. Clint saw on the news that they want to execute Mandarin for it. But Kate knows that he wasn't responsible. The film she has shows the 3 grown-up kids from Project Communion at the heart of the blast.
Kate is distracted by replying Yes to a message from Noh-Varr asking if it's still on for tonight. Apparently they are in a relationship. Clint's hearing aid acts up and Kate reminds him he could get the problem completely cured with Pym-plants. But he claims those things will turn people into Ultrons. Kate accuses him of paranoia. She gives him a briefcase which contains a copy of his original Hawkeye costume (which he hasn't used for a long time in the present). She says she's had the waist let out.
In the present Clint-eye arrives at Hammerhead's base at 10 to find the police already there mopping up after Kate-eye arrived earlier and handled it all by herself. She tells him that their partnership isn't working anymore. She's evolving but he isn't.
In the future they've landed in a snowy part of China where they expect to find Mandarin. Kate still fits into (a version of) her current costume. Clint's wearing his old duds but with the cowl pushed back off his head. Kate says SHIELD has a stealth umbrella so they won't have been detected. It involves a satellite blocking radar, heat detection, etc, and a Storm Cloud (named after Invisible Woman) providing invisibility.
They haven't spoken much on the way. Clint asks if she's still mad at him. Kate says it's just been a long time since they were together (and she's still annoyed when he calls her Katie). Clint says she never contacted *him*, and he didn't contact her because he thought that's what she wanted. Kate tells him to shut up ...
... and duck to avoid a blast from a Mandarin bot which she blows up with a splodey-arrow (as Clint used to also annoy her by calling it). And then she takes out some more as Clint scrabbles to retrieve his hearing aid. When he puts it back in he hears Kate saying that something's wrong with SHIELD's protection. He shoots at another bot and misses, so *she* blows that 1 up too. But then another blast hits her in the back.
In the present Kate leads Clint away from the cops so they can talk privately. She tells him she can't do this anymore. Clint admits that he's screwed up every relationship he's been in, but their partnership works. Kate replies that it doesn't now. She doesn't know if it's what happened with the Project Communion kids or it's his Avengers work, but it's not enough for her anymore. So she's quitting. She lets him down easy by saying it may only be for a while, but she won't say how long. She spends so much time worrying about *him* that she wants to see what it's like to only have herself to worry about.
And in the future Clint's worried about Kate lying still in the snow. And then he has something else to worry about as a hovering Mandarin (in a white suit) tells them they shouldn't have come here.