Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue continues straight from the end of last issue with the future Hawkeyes (still Clint Barton & Kate Bishop) captured by Mandarin. They were sent by SHIELD to investigate a disaster in China that has been blamed on the villain but which they believe was caused by the superchars who were the 3 Project Communion kids they rescued from Hydra 30 years ago in the previous series.
The Hawkeye duo are waiting to see what Mandarin will do with them. Kate assures Clint that she was only stunned not hurt last issue. Clint complains about the costume Kate had made him wear, and who will feed his dog Lucky 2 after Mandy executes them. Kate points out that the super-security measures SHIELD supposedly used to stop the villain detecting them obviously didn't work, and she suspects SHIELD sold them out. This despite, as Clint reminds her, her being their top asset (while he himself has dropped out of the super-game).
2 Mandarin-bots come to take them to their leader. Clint proposes to sweet-talk their way out of this, but Kate insists he let *her* do the talking. Mandy greets Hawkeye and Clint responds, but the villain says he meant the *real* Hawkeye. Mandarin gives her 1 minute to persuade him why he shouldn't publicly hang them. Kate-eye butters him up a bit and then says that they've all been set up by SHIELD. They framed him for the massacre and now they want rid of the duo because they're the only ones who know it was really 3 superhumans working for SHIELD. Then Mandarin tells he knows all that because he captured 1 of the 3. And we see 1 of the grown-up kids in a uniform with the number 2.
Back in the present Clint and the dog Lucky (#1) are living in bachelor squalor after Kate quit the working partnership, partly because Clint persuaded her last series to surrender the 3 kids to SHIELD. In between beers and microwave meals we see him going on missions, and start to grow a beard like he has in the future. Luck 'persuades' him to try calling Kate but she blocks the call.
In the future Kate asks the prisoner what Mandarin has done to him but he doesn't reply. Mandy says he won't respond to torture either, but if the Hawks want to live then they'll tell him how to make 'this thing' obey commands so he can use it for revenge against SHIELD. As an added incentive he starts to throttle Clint. But Kate just clicks her fingers and says "Marvel Boy, now" ...
... and a blast wrecks the place and Noh-Varr appears, not seeming to have aged as much as the others. (This is presumably the 'date' Kate confirmed with him last issue.) A Mandarin-bot rises from the rubble but Clint-eye disables it with 2 arrows, showing he's not *completely* rusty.
In the present Kate meets with her friend America Chavez who hasn't seen her for a while. She apologises for having been busy with Hawkeye stuff, or more particularly Hawkeye duo stuff. America repeats what she's said before, that Kate should ditch her 'mentor' and stand alone - she doesn't need him. But Kate says that Clint needs *her*. America points out that he's a grown man, even if he is self-absorbed and self-destructive - he's not her responsibility. Kate agrees, and when she gets another attempted call from Clint she ignores it and suggests they go dancing.
In the future Mandarin is firing at the Hawkeyes and the 'kid' with all his rings. Noh-Varr says he'll hold him off while they escape. Kate promises to buy him dinner next time he's in New York. On the way out she confirms to Clint that she'd arranged him as backup. She figured she'd need it when she went up against Mandarin with only a bow and arrows and a geriatric ex-sidekick. Clint protests that she was *his* sidekick. As they enter their plane with the 'kid' she says that whatever their relationship had been it was *never* that.
The last page show Kate and America in a club, Clint alone in his apartment, and in the future Kate telling Clint they're going to take down SHIELD.