Occupy Avengers Vol. 2: In Plain Sight

Occupy Avengers #5-9

by David F. Walker, Gabriel Hernández Walta (Illustrator)

Collects Occupy Avengers #5-9.

Welcome to Dungston, Iowa, the manure capital of the state...and home of a deadly secret! When the team's van breaks down in town, Hawkeye and friends find themselves in the last place on Earth anyone would want to be, up against an enemy that no one could see coming. An unlikely menace has come to destroy Small Town, USA, and that means Clint Barton and his team are caught in the middle of a deadly showdown of intergalactic proportions. And that's just the beginning of their problems...

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Adventure

103 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2017

About the author

David F. Walker is a writer, filmmaker, and award-winning journalist. He teaches Writing For Comics at Portland State University.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was... terrible. Carlos Pacheco has been replaced with Marvel interns. The art is absolutely awful. It's a jarring difference after seeing Pacheco's art in volume 1. And the stories are not good.

The team has a vehicle breakdown in Iowa where they fall into a war between two alien factions. Then Secret Empire comes along and these stories don't even make sense. Secret Empire has got to be one of the worst edited crossovers in Marvel's history. None of these crossovers fit in with the main story at all. There's these huge jumps between issues where things happen in other books that aren't referenced. Like in this one, Nighthawk is now dead and Deadly Nightshade has taken over the suit. Oh, and I guess this is the end of the series. Marvel might as well have printed FU inside the cover and then just a bunch of blank pages.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first of the two stories collected in this volume (Skrulls! Transformers! The smell of cow shit!) but then the Secret Empire crossover came along and pooped all over the end of the book from a great height. Shame...

[Oneirosophos · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, everything was a setup for a new but cool team, that stops existing due to the new major Marvel crossover.

I'm now officially sick of this crossoverity shit.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed by the first volume, but I heard the series got canceled so I picked up this volume due to my obsessive completism. Marvel's attempt at the A-Team was set up to fail. It's advertised as social justice warriors looking out for the little guy, but then the heroes just end up in a big fight with aliens for three issues. The final two issues collected get a little closer to the mission statement, but they are also crossover issues that come with a jarring change in art and some big story changes that happen off-panel in other comic books. This is just a mess to be quickly forgotten.

[Alex Sarll]

Three issues which revisit the old fundamentalist-versus-law-abiding-Skrull plot, set in Dungston, the manure capital of Iowa; two issues of Secret Empire tie-in in which we learn that a significant supporting character died offscreen, and which are hampered by the fact we know the localised resistance here contributes nothing meaningful to the Cosmic Cube-related gubbins that actually resolves the main plot. It's hard not to be left with the feeling that this was a book which too easily lost sight of its original remit - stories of small-scale, ground-level fightback against everyday injustice - even before the cyborg van turned up. And yet there remains a certain inspiring, insurrectionary note to it which means I can't altogether write it off.

[Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

2nd collection fatigue on display here, the Skrull story at the beginning is a good one, if a little slow & sad, though. The back of this one is all Secret Empire and doesn't really ever come together.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Swallowed up by a major event. Poor little title, never stood a chance.

[maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

You were good, amazing even, until you had Tilda, who has verbally sexually harassed Red Wolf all series, kiss him and have them together. To give Red Wolf a "reason to live." It's bullshit and it's not okay

[Charline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first storyline and then... i wish Marvel would stop doing that crossover thing =( we don't get an ending and it sucks.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Review for both volumes]

Occupy Avengers is basically a Hawkeye solo book with a couple of friends along for the ride. With Clint trying to work on himself after killing Bruce Banner during Civil War II (he got better, it's fine), he decides to fight for the little guy, bringing him into conflict with water thieves, LMDS, Skrulls, and HYDRA's Secret Empire across these nine issues.

The opening arcs are two issue stories, the first bringing Red Wolf into the fold, and the second grabbing Nighthawk and Nightshade. They establish the point of the series and the way things are going to play out going forward, and are strong enough to keep things moving. The second volume falls apart a little, though it's not really the book's fault. The first three issues are a Skrull plot, which isn't quite what we've seen before, while the final two issues tie-in to Secret Empire and don't really do much of anything, which is a shame. The series ends on a bit of a bum note, with Hawkeye not even in the picture any longer.

The artwork's a bit of a mixed bag too - Carlos Pacheco draws the first four issues, and they're...fine, but they feel unremarkable compared to Pacheco's earlier work. The second five issues are mostly Gabriel Hernandez Walta, who makes the book feel a lot grittier than before, while Martin Morazzo (the Ice Cream Man guy!) and Jorge Coelho pencil a fill-in.

Not a bad book, but stymied by a poor ending as another sweeping Marvel event screws up its main character.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good comic stooged by one of the worst titles ever.

I like the characterizations here, especially Tilda and Red Wolf. I really hope that we haven't seen the last of these two. Wheels didn't really have a chance to grow on me. Unfortunately the curse of 'the event' derailed the story in general and Hawkeye in particular as he was taken out of the story. Having said that there was a really good scene with him and the Champions near the end. There is also a few cameos from neglected D-list heroes which are always welcome by me.

I think I am a sucker for underdog stories and this is definitely one. I also like stories that show why we should keep fighting.

I liked Walta's artwork in the Vision and it is OK here although not quite as dynamic as the story needs.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uh, what happened after the excellent volume one? This was a mess. The Iowa storyline was boring, the art was not great. I did like seeing Clint in charge after Nat went to get him ("Despite my reputation for improvisation in the face of certain doom, I actually know what I'm doing. I can gather information and make plans accordingly--that's what a leader does. Which is why, if I ask you "What do you have to report?"--your answer damn well better be more than "I don't know."")--I love his tire fire of a personal life, but I also love how good he is at what he does. I also am very interested in their maintenance room shenanigans. And seeing the rest of his team go try to bring down how ever many Hydra they could was inspiring. But this was a sad stumble to the end of a great start.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first storyline in this book was pretty good, actually. I like Gabriel Hernandez Walta's art, although his Clint looks a little weird. And I was genuinely surprised by the twist, at least up until a couple pages before it was revealed. The cyborg van was a bit much.... but I did like their having a disabled character. Then the last two issues.... I've heard that Secret Empire is bad, I've never read any of it... but this was awful. Just awful. Nothing made any sense, I genuinely didn't know if we were in an Age of Ultron/Apocalypse style alternate world or not. Characterization went out the window, dialogue became even worse than before. And the ending was not an ending at all. So I may take the first arc here, or I may write this entire title off completely.

[A. Nixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, as expected, but entertaining. There was a bit of a jump between the last issue and the rest but it was explained well, so I could make sense of it. I imagine it ties in with something else going on in the Marvel-universe? Sometimes I wish there was less tie-in. It would certainly feel less underwhelming.

My only point of contention was Tilda's comments to Wolf. Because we never see him reciprocate in any way, it comes off kinda sexual-harrass-y to me, which I did not enjoy.

So, not as great as the Fraction-Hawkeye but an entertaining adventure in underdogs. And I liked in the last issues that they're a team even without Hawkeye there.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title still makes no sense. But I do like the idea of Hawkeye travelling the country and fighting injustice in places other than New York.

First, Hawkeye and his new crew visit ye olde small town with a secret. I think this could have gone deeper into the plight of refugees.

Then, during not-so-Secret Empire, Hawkeye gets pulled back up with the big leagues, while his crew continue to fight on behalf of the little guy throughout the country.

The art was tolerable. The story and characters were entertaining.

[Christopher Kent · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Hawkeye a lot but if the first volume of this run was a disjointed mess this misses the mark even more. The first story, where Clint ends up in a Iowa town that's secretly Skrulls hiding from the Skrull Empire was fine and more of what I wanted to see from "Hawkeye on the road" that this series was sold to be. Then we dive into its crossover with Secret Empire, a horrible book that drags this one right down with it. I can see why it got cancelled.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but what did we do to deserve this book? What did David F. Walker do to get stuck writing it? A cartoonish sex scene between Hawkeye and Black Widow? An unlikely victory for Hydra, one that they simply shouldn't have had the manpower to pull off, is the setting for this story, and it didn't work in the other Marvel comics. It didn't work here either.
It had pretty good artwork, so 2 stars.

[Juan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot imagine this being any better. I read it for the Secret Empire tie-in. I hated the art since it felt like watching a Mike Judd cartoon. The story kind of sucked and barely even registers on the overall impact of Secret Empire.

About the only thing worth writing about is Black Widow and Hawkeye are boning.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that fell off a cliff quickly. The first volume wasn't great but showed promise. Here, Clint puts together a team that no one will remember. Their first team-up is a super cliché. The second and worst was part of Secret Empire. It was abysmal. The art by Walta was also very off-putting. Overall, a disaster.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this one better than the first volume. Red Wolf with his smartphone was hilarious. Even with the intrusion of Secret Empire, this turned out to be a decent read, and I would've been interested in a 3rd volume, had the series not been cancelled.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

I loved the first volume, but this was just a complete mess. The art style changed in the middle of the volume, then went back to normal, which was confusing. The jumping around to different times, people, etc, didn't help matters either. So disappointing.

[Adan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not a good ending to the book. As I said before, I love the characters, but the series just sort of meandered with no real focus. This may not have been Walker’s fault as much as editorial’s, but the book suffered regardless. Also, two secret Skrull societies in as many collections?

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

It didn't seem like there was really a team or a unified focus. Everyone was doing their own thing.

Hawkeye's a real goof and a moron. Red Wolf is too stoic to relate to others. The wheelchair character never really worked. Who else, who else? I don't know.

[Aethena Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked various pieces of this story. The characters, dialogue, setting, social commentary, and individual issues were interesting, but I definitely missed something. Either the series ended too soon, or I needed to read some of the Secret Invasion series to fully understand what was happening.

[Michal Vámoš · Rating 4 out of 5]

Škoda, že to končí tak brzo. Jedna z těch lepších věcí, co poslední dobou vycházela.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

Interesting two tales...one with Clint and crew seeking justice for "refugees" and another with Clint standing against Hydra during Secret Empire.

Clint gets to be a complicated hero.

[Marco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, cliffhanger ending, Clint...?

[Nicole Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story and amazing art.

https://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/202...