First-Ever Interview on Occupy Avengers with Writer David F. Walker

>>When a world's costumed champions have their eyes on the bigger picture, the plight of the average citizen can be overlooked. In [November or December], Avengers veteran Hawkeye hopes to change that as he sets out on a cross-country journey to battle the injustices and problems faced by everyday people.

>>While he does that he'll also wrestle with lingering guilt over his role in the death of Bruce Banner in Marvel Comics' "Civil War II." It's a daunting task, but Clint Barton won't have to tackle it alone. He'll be backed up by an entire team of heroes that's also looking to make a difference while coming to terms with personal demons.

>>The adventures of Hawkeye and his hard traveling heroes will be chronicled in "Occupy Avengers" by writer David F. Walker and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta, following Walker's launch of the series with artist Carlos Pacheco.

>>CBR spoke with Walker about the new series.

>>CBR: The title "Occupy Avengers" suggests you'll be dealing with a team of heroes interested in some more down-to-earth problems.

>David Walker: This is a post-"Civil War II" book. Most people at this point know what Clint Barton did in that event, in terms of the fate of Bruce Banner and the Hulk. This book takes place after all of that, and Clint is in this sort of weird existential malaise. Within the hero community, he's seen as someone who's betrayed the cause, and with everyday people, he's like the ultimate hero. He's David who slew Goliath.

>He's not only trying to atone for what he's done and make sense of it, he's also out there trying to make sense of where he fits in. In the process he keeps running into everyday people who have real-life problems -- the sort of problems that the Avengers don't normally get involved with. He begins to form a team that's tackling what we'd call, for lack of a better term, everyday issues.

>I use that term hesitantly because sometimes everyday issues are critical life-and-death issues. You live in Michigan, and I was just reading about the court decision in the Flint water fiasco. That should not be an everyday issue. Those are the sorts of things that Hawkeye -- or Clint Barton, I should say, because he's really more Clint than Hawkeye at this point -- finds himself getting caught up in. He's representing and protecting the underdog. Or, for lack of a better term, that 99 percentile that is sort of synonymous with the Occupy movement; the people who are often trod upon, can't protect themselves, and don't feel like they're being protected because of things like corporate interests or political corruption.

>>Is this series going to be taking some cues and inspiration from the recent "Hawkeye" series, then?

>There are definitely some similarities, but I want to be really careful to not trod upon anything that Matt Fraction did, because that was such an amazing book. One of the things we're doing with "Occupy Avengers" is, rather than having everything centered around Clint's apartment building and his neighbors, he's on the road. He's traveling across America.

>>When you add superheroes, who engage in direct action, to complex social problems that involve listening and evaluating options, sometimes unintended consequences result. Is that something we'll see in "Occupy Avengers?"

>Yeah. We're sort of tackling things in comic book form, meaning we have a limited amount of real estate and a limited amount of panels and pages to tell stories. You can't fix a real-life problem in 20 pages. A lot of it is broad strokes, and a lot of it is sort of wish fulfillment for the readers. Because that's what I think a lot of superhero comic books are all about; trying to find wish fulfillment, trying to find justice or equality when we're not getting it in our everyday lives. That's where the escapism part of it is.

>It's been an interesting challenge as a writer, because I'm looking at some of the issues that this team is going to be wrestling with, and a lot of them are very similar to the issues that we're wrestling with in everyday life, but there are no simple answers.

>It's interesting to me because I remember the shock that I felt during 9-11 when the plane hit the first tower. Then the second plane hit, and I was working at a newspaper at the time, so we were watching it all happen, trying to figure how to report on what seemed like the end of the world. I remember one of my co-workers saying, "I just keep expecting Superman to show up and save the day." This is almost 15 years ago now, and I remember thinking, "That's how much superheroes and the solutions they provide have ingrained themselves in our thought processes." When real-life tragedy strikes, we're actually surprised that Spider-Man and the Avengers don't show up.

>In real life that doesn't happen. So it's been an interesting challenge to write a book where the superheroes can show up and save the day, but trying to keep it more grounded in reality in that they're not always successful.

>There are no super-powered beings on the "Occupy Avengers" team. They are highly skilled and highly dedicated people, but there are no gods, goddesses, mutants, Inhumans or anything like that on the team. So that also plays into theOccupy movement which was about everyday people. It's the 99 percent who aren't rich, who can't buy they're way out of some of the problems that they have. America is often a country that's built upon ingenuity and necessity. Those concepts are often dictated by the poorest and most oppressed people.

>That's how people become skilled. That's how people invent some of the most important inventions of the last two or three centuries. That's part of what we're playing with as well.

>>This brings us to the revelation of the first member of Hawkeye's team: Red Wolf! How did he end up on your roster?

>Red Wolf is an interesting character to play with. There have been different versions over the years, but this one is fairly new, so it has been interesting getting into what makes him tick. For readers that don't know Red Wolf, he's a Native American, who was transported through time from the 1800s to now. In his own time, he was a badass, fighting for justice; now he's a badass fighting for justice, but completely out of his element.

>I drew a lot of inspiration from Captain America/Steve Rogers. I'm developing Red Wolf as this guy who has his smartphone with him at all times -- he's constantly looking things up, trying to learn about the world he stuck in. As with Clint, there's an aspect of Red Wolf that is lost, and looking to find his way. What is really going to be fun will be when the other team members start to show up.

>>What can you tell us about the lineup of the rest of your team? How diverse is your cast?

>At this point there are no original characters in the lineup. We're playing with some interesting notions in that there's going to be a core team. That team consists of characters who are already established in the current Marvel Universe, and all of them are some of the last people we'd expect to see on a team like this. That's really fun to play with. Then as we're moving forward we're talking about having guest stars show up for a single issue or story.

>So we've got Clint and then we've got characters A, B and C. We'll have the core team in place by, if not issue #3 issue #4. Issue #1 and #2 really establish Clint on a sort of mission and the fist member of this team. Then in issue #3 we bring in the remainder, and by issue #4 the team is in place.

>Then, moving forward, we're looking at the Marvel Universe and all these interesting characters who don't necessarily have super powers, or maybe they have really limited super powers and asking how can we work them into a story? How can we get them into a two issue arc?

>That's the other thing we're really trying to do, and it's proving to be a big challenge. We want it so that no story lasts more than two issues. As a kid growing up I was a big fan of books like "Marvel Two-In-One," "Marvel Spotlight" and "Marvel Premiere." The vast majority of those stories were told in either one or two issues, and I love the concept of a book that readers can jump into and they don't necessarily have to jump in right away.

>We want to make sure that the team is diverse, because it's really easy to go one of two directions -- to have a team of nothing but the fallback white characters, or to just have diversity for the sake of diversity, but the team doesn't make sense. I'm not saying Misty Knight is someone I want to use, because she's not someone I want for the team, but it would be really easy to go, "We need a black woman on the team. Let's get Misty Knight." That's not what I'm trying to do.

>The other thing I'm trying to do is find characters that, again, are like Hawkeye in that they don't have super powers, but also have pretty significant demons that they're wrestling with or pretty significant personal problems that they need to overcome. This is a book about a team of people that are either looking for a way to redeem themselves or trying to find their place in the world.

>I'm trying to tap into is this universal feeling of feeling like you're alone, but you're not. That's part of what this team is about. It's like, "I'm going to help you get through this." It might sound corny or cliched, but this is going to be as much of a team as it is a really odd community of people who have decided to use their skills to make the world a better place.

>street level Hawkeye

>>I imagine another large part of the appeal of "Occupy Avengers" is the fact that the team is traveling the country, since it allows you a lot of freedom to develop other parts of the U.S. and villains that can be found there.

>Yes, that gives us the opportunity to have both established villains in some capacity and the sort of Boss Hogs of the the world, [Laughs] to refer back to the "Dukes of Hazzard." When you watched TV shows like "The Fugitive," "Have Gun -- Will Travel" or "The A-Team," it was like there was always this little town somewhere in Iowa or something and the evil boss who runs the factory. I always go back to the character of Curley in "Of Mice and Men." He was the son of the guy who owned the farm that George and Lenny show up at, and he's sort of the bully. So there's going to be a lot of "Of Mice and Men" moments. [Laughs] Clint Barton and his ragtag team will show up and protect the rights of the workers or the local population from whatever scourge that is threatening them.

>I also like the idea of in the Marvel Universe you have characters like the Kingpin, the Hood or several other New York crime lords, but who is the kingpin of Des Moines, Iowa? And what is he or she doing there that will lead the Occupy Avengers to try and clean up that town? It's pretty fun to think about that sort of stuff.

>>What can you tell us about the Occupy Avengers' connection to the rest of the Marvel Universe? Will the other Avengers teams be aware of and approve of their activities?

>We're still figuring that out, but these are not the most sanctioned of Avengers. [Laughs] When the "Avengers Assemble!" call goes out they're tuned into a different channel. Part of what Clint is trying to get away from is that seemingly constant sort of battle within the superhero community. That's similar to something I've been addressing in "Power Man & Iron Fist." It's this idea of, "We're here to do good. We're not here to fight with each other."

>theOccupy movement which was about everyday people

Not Soros funded dailyKOS astroturf

fuck marvel fuck this writer fuck the entire print industry at this point

>At some point, the Occupy team will cross paths with other Avengers and there will be a sort of, "Hey, what are you guys doing?" It's going to take a little while though for what Clint and his team are doing to really show up on their radar. They're not dealing with Thanos, Ultron or a Skrull invasion. It's more like, someone dumped toxic waste into the water supply.

>>So, Clint and his team are more likely to come across heroes who focus on helping everyday people instead of saving the world.

>Yeah, and that's the direction we're heading in "Power Man & Iron Fist," too. I think we're heading into an era where we want superheroes who inspire us on levels that are a little bit closer to home. Don't get me wrong -- I love reading great stories like "Planet Hulk" where he's off fighting as a gladiator on an alien world. There's also a lot to be said, though, about how our superheroes should be inspiring us in ways that are a little bit closer to home, and make us go, "I could do that." Not necessarily become proficient with a bow and arrow and go out and fight crime. [Laughs] More, "How do I make my community better?"

>>>Note: This interview was edited for length.

>Just straight up making Hawkeye green arrow

>the adventures of Hawkeye and his hard traveling heroes
>Hard traveling heroes

>hard traveling heroes
They're not even hiding it

Bobby and clint hooking again when ??

Nova and clint comic ?? When

>Hawkeye calls Nova a Nazi in the first issue

>Purple Arrow

MCU killed that ship forever

Didn't they just have a flirty issue in her book?

>Bobby and clint hooking again when ??

>Marvel writing a not race mixed hetro couple

not happening

They don't give us the mixed race couples people like, just the shit ones no one asked for

To be fair, it's the interviewer who said it, not Walker.

I'm excited for Red Wolf, though.

He obviously meant Clint and Bobby Drake.

PURPLE
U
R
P
L
E

ARROW
R
R
O
W

American Eagle would be perfect for a series like this.

Who cares about Red wolf.

Hell yeah

My immediate though


I thought Secret Wars 1802 was really cool. So I read the first few issues of Red Wolf and it was boring as fuck

>I thought Secret Wars 1802 was really cool.
Because of Red Wolf or Avengers dressed as cowboys?

I-I do. But I feel like that's cause I'm the only person that likes Edmonson's books

I really like the idea but not the title.

>Hey guys, Rebirth is killing us, so let's make Hawkeye into Green Arrow!
Rebirth is killing you because it's good, Marvel. People are sick of having world ending events every fucking season.

>Red Wolf
Huh, and here I thought they'd just abandon him after how poorly his ongoing did.

But Civil War topped the charts for them. All they learned was events sell. So you're gonna get Siege 2: Electric Boogaloo and you're gonna enjoy it

>Siege 2
Fear Itself 2 is more likely.

FEAR ITSELF 2: Fear Harder

Until Bendis is fired, I will never enjoy it

You're not alone.
Half the complainings are related to the title, actually. The other half are trolls who bait either with SJW stuff or PURPLE ARROW stuff.

I think the book could work for the people who liked Hawkeye other solos, actually. It's not really that different. We already had him in a trip over the country (or even outside it), and we already had him dealing with normal people problems at least twice.

>>We want to make sure that the team is diverse, because it's really easy to go one of two directions -- to have a team of nothing but the fallback white characters, or to just have diversity for the sake of diversity, but the team doesn't make sense. I'm not saying Misty Knight is someone I want to use, because she's not someone I want for the team, but it would be really easy to go, "We need a black woman on the team. Let's get Misty Knight." That's not what I'm trying to do.
Nice. I hope it's really well done and not just wishful speech that ends in the last iteration of meaningless baseless pandering diversity.

>>The other thing I'm trying to do is find characters that, again, are like Hawkeye in that they don't have super powers, but also have pretty significant demons that they're wrestling with or pretty significant personal problems that they need to overcome. This is a book about a team of people that are either looking for a way to redeem themselves or trying to find their place in the world.
This book is not for teens. They'll get bored.

>>We're still figuring that out, but these are not the most sanctioned of Avengers. [Laughs] When the "Avengers Assemble!" call goes out they're tuned into a different channel. Part of what Clint is trying to get away from is that seemingly constant sort of battle within the superhero community. That's similar to something I've been addressing in "Power Man & Iron Fist." It's this idea of, "We're here to do good. We're not here to fight with each other."
And this is what I was expecting to happen.

Liking the idea so far.

Nah, if anything we are getting Secret Invasion 2.0: Hail Hydra edition.

Annihilation 2 seems more likely based on what's happening in Bendis' GotG.

So this is where Night Thrasher is showing up next, right?

So hype for this

Yeah, it's how the FF will come back too

JUST

>Hawkeye executes an innocent man
>David and Goliath

>and with everyday people, he's like the ultimate hero. He's David who slew Goliath.

Okay, when was the last time the Hulk seriously fucked up the shit of normies more than literally ANY other super hero does?

Hawkeye shot a defenseless unarmed man who was literally doing nothing until the authorities barged down his door. He's the very injustice this writer claims to want to be fighting.

>Murders an unarmed man
>becomes a folk hero
CAN'T FLIM-FLAM THE ZIMMITY-ZAM

Exactly
Except Banner was not stomping anyone's head in like a pumpkin when he was shot

It's weird. They insist he did it and people thinks he's a hero because of it, but he actually did it because Banner asked for. We know he's not really comfortable with his actions, even it they seem the rational ones in universe. So I expect the writer to work with that moral conflict and his remorse in the run, making a point about he not being a hero because he killed Banner, but because he really wants to improve people's life in the right way.

Literally the only thing I know about this writer is he wrote the Power-Man and Iron Fist comic.

Is he any good?

I don't know. I read PM & IF and I like it so far.

Seems polemic in other stuff, purposely triggering right wing people.

So what B/C lister female with no powers will Clint fuck?

>When a world's costumed champions have their eyes on the bigger picture, the plight of the average citizen can be overlooked
Here's what I don't like about books that try and push this message that superheroes don't care about what happens to average people. It all started with the "what about the black skins" speech way back in the 70s.
Superheroes do help the average citizen. If you stop Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, aliens, the Mole Man, Dormammu etc from taking over the world, you're helping the average citizen. If you prevent monsters and super-villains from destroying cities you're helping people.
Everything superheroes do helps the average joe, without heroes, these citizens would either be dead or enslaved.

Nowadays heroes just punch each other in Marvel.

>Avengers veteran Hawkeye hopes to change that as he sets out on a cross-country journey to battle the injustices and problems faced by everyday people.

IT'S SUPERMAN GROUNDED ALL OVER AGAIN

Maybe some idiot mother will keep Hawkeye away from her kid cause "You are an arrow"

>[November or December]
Good to know that they still have their shit together and non-delayed.

>It's a "in-depth story about the faggoty ungrateful civillians in the marvel universe" episode

Why is everyone in the background a muslim?

Annihilation 2 isn't going to be a line-wide event though. It'll just be cosmic focused.

>Why is everyone in the background a muslim?

Liberals love affair with a misogynistic, homophobic, theocratic, bigoted,intolerant death cult

Please, 90% of stories these days are still hero vs villain. It's just that hero vs hero stories tend to be events, which people pay more attention to.

Fuck Hawkeye might've well as killed his fanhood instead of Bruce
I hate street level Hawkeye shit

And maybe Hawkeye will burn some drug dealers stashes, not call the cops, then tell a little kid to deliver a message to the drug dealers to stop dealing drugs there. It's fine if they deal drugs somewhere else though, because reasons.

this would be interesting if walker didn't suck more ass than an inmate whose roommate keeps getting sent jello from home

>Sure, you saved the world a bunch of times, but why haven't you done anything about our racist sheriff?

So we're having Marvel doing what Green Arrow and Green Lantern did in the 70s and acting progressive about it?

Or they gonna act aware that this down to earth idea has been done plenty of times and won't make a big deal about it.

Ok, you're right.

But you it's the hero vs hero what has most impact in the end. Shield is evil and with inner struggles, Shield is against Roberto's new avengers / AIM people too, X-Men and Inhumans are fighting each other, the avengers teams are dissembling because they got bitchy or because some of their members are Wrong. And I'm not reading the T-Bolts, but I guess they're dealing with similar problems too. Meanwhile, the villains are... there, doing stuff in solos.

It may be an issue only in team books, but it has an impact in all the solos, from my understanding. I don't read everything in Marvel, so I may be biased by the stuff I read.

You know what? Nevermind. It probably doesn't have an impact in the solos, either.

Thankfully.

I think a book like this could actually work, IF IT WASN'T IN AMERICA.
I don't mean to sound insensitive, but other countries have far worse problems. It would be cool if we got some heroes going around the world, trying to help who they can in situations far more difficult and hard to fix than anything in the US.

over under how many issues until BLM is referenced

That's far too imperialistic and white man's burden for modern Marvel.

Hawkeye is cool because he is the smug shitter with no powers fighting side by side and bantering with literal gods. He loses all the appeal in street level stories.

wow, it's almost like the people in charge of this comic don't actually care about addressing poignant issues and just want sjw brownie points.

This sounds terrible.

if they don't do it in the very first issue I'll livestream myself eating a copy of it

Two issues in, bare minimum.

Okay you got a laugh out of me

Its an american comic with american characters written by Americans published by an american company starring american characters named after an american concept that will be mostly sold and read to Americans.

Its not that shocking it would be set in america

I think you missed the entire point of his post.

No Hawkeye, you’re gonna be like those pieces of shit out there who beg for change. They walk around like a bunch of fuckin’ zombies, they sleep in garbage bins, they eat what I throw away, and dogs piss on ’em. They got a word for ’em, they’re called bums. And without a job, residence, or legal tender, that’s what you’re gonna be – a fuckin’ bum!

Literally Green Arrow with a paint job.

I know you're baiting here, but just to be clear, all his solo stuff that I can remember right know is pretty street level. Even when he's dealing with supervillains and powered stuff.

Yo, so Clint knows the OLD Red Wolf, right? The one actually from 616?

Also, Clint teaming up with any Cowboy era character is always a good time.

>"Have Gun -- Will Travel"

Paladin appearance confirmed for Occupy Avengers?

I liked too but I wish there wasnt time travel.

Clint/Two Gun Kid OTP

Something's actually happening in that awful book? That's an event in of itself.

Kek

This already sounds like it would be pretty bad

Huge hawkeye fan, but what's up with turning him into purple arrow?

If you gonna copy something at least make it interesting.

I mean I'm willing I bet Sup Forums could pitch better Hawkeye book ideas than this

What if they copied the Red Arrow clone idea from DC/Young Justice?

This hawkeye we know isn't the real hawkeye. Katie goes on a mission and finds the real Clint( Cocky, smug, womanizing one with all sorts of arrows ) and the two duke it out

Why stop there? Have him get addicted to heroin too

What if dos a Miniseries like Deadpool kills Deadpool?

Have all the Hawkeyes (Clint Barton) and sure why not Dark Hawkeye from very universe square off against each other.

The winner becomes the new Hawkeye of Earth 616

Basically, sure.
I mean they're running out of ideas that they copy from DC all the time

Unless you can pitch a better idea

UMVC Clint got it in the bag then

Ultimate Clint and 616 clint book

have DC borrow him for a year

To be fair, we still don't know if he's not going to be cocky, and we can presume he's going to get girls right and left.

In my headcanon, he has been a bit depressed since he broke with Bobbi. Characters that are more than one personality trait all the time are nice to read. So him having to deal with what he can guess he's going to deal in this new run is alright, by defect (we'll see how well or badly written it's the thing in the end). It's not the first time he shows insecurities. He had another episode when he was Goliath, iirc (well, I'm not that old, you know). And he has tamed down a lot since the 80s, actually. It's almos the most consistent thing within different writers. Oh, sure, there's Bendis, too, but besides those impulsive killing intent OOC moments, he is tamed in his avengers runs, too.

We just need to make Clint the happy, fun lover, cocky and slightly complaining guy again. Happy Cunny Clint is fun.

And what would they do? Double Hawkeye buddy cop? Good Clint bad Clint

>Goes to DC
>somehow meets GA
>GA still gets cucked

>bendis
>Writing Clint

Oh god make it stop

>Okay, when was the last time the Hulk seriously fucked up the shit of normies more than literally ANY other super hero does?

Seriously. I wish Hulk was truly the monster most people claim he was. Like have him straight up massacre entire towns and cities and kill off a few B/C list heroes.

Fuck the general Marvel populace. Don't they got some mutants they need to lynch?

Well, look at this new run like this: if he's a pariah to the superhero community, Bendis is not going to write him again for a while. Because he only writes superheroic, popular, traditional stuff. Remember: Hawkeye is lame, he doesn't have superpowers. Well, in Bendis opinion, at least.

Clint skills border the supernatural for me. Amazing learning curve, amazing athletics and amazing visual and spatial memory, astonishing accuracy at aim and great reflexes and diligence at work.

That's very amazing for a guy who has been trained by self teaching and by his coworkers and partners.