Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)'s sister Susan lured her to Resort Chapiteau to retrieve a key to a safe containing a fragment of a Cosmic Cube. Turns out the place is being run by Pascale Tiboldt, niece of the Ringmaster, who's taken over her uncle's Circus Of Crime since the 2 Hawkeyes broke it up (in their (2012) #2 which I synopsised on this site 6 weeks ago). Kate's been captured, Susan Bishop is now under the sway of a mind-control bracelet, and who knows where Lucky the dog is!
Pascale does the gloaty villain thing and then gives Susan a cigarette lighter and sends her on her way. CCTV screens follow her progress to where more 'zombies' have accumulated jerrycans of petrol. The villainess takes time out from her masterplan to try to persuade Hawkeye to join her. Kate's answer is to headbutt her nose. So Tiboldt says she'll make sure the world knows it was the Bishop family that will give her a Cosmic Cube fragment, with which she will be able to control even more people.
She turns to her assistant (the 1 with arrows in her purple wig) to ask about the current status of the plan, and ignores Fifi's warnings that the system isn't guaranteed to work yet. She just tells her to make sure no-one leaves the doomed building, including Hawkeye.
Fifi (if that actually *is* her name) follows her boss out. Kate manages to dislodge 1 of her earrings and uses it to cut her ropes. She texts America Chavez and Cassie Lang to head for Bishop Mansion (where Pascale Tiboldt is going to retrieve the bit of Cube). She finds loads of hypnotised staff and guests torching the place. 2 of the guests attack her. Kate breaks their wristbands but it doesn't stop them so she has to fight them as 'gently' as possible But then she sees her sister and desperately bangs their heads together which has the desired effect and they recover their senses.
Kate pins Susan's dress to a wall with a couple of arrows but she can't break *her* wristband. But then a man attacks Kate and knocks her down the stairs. *This* snaps Susan out of her trance and she rushes to help her sister. The attacker too is 'waking up' and the 2 Bishops join forces.
They raise a fire alarm and notify the fire brigade. Then they find Lucky and start evacuating the guests. But the trio somehow find themselves trapped by fire on a balcony. Kate gets the other 2 to join her in leaping off it into the pool. When they surface Kate reluctantly plans to follow the Circus to her old Mansion home.