This is "Just Like the Time Before," a feature where I examine instances from comic book history where comic book creators did early versions of later, notable comic book characters and plot ideas. Essentially, the "test runs" for later, more famous characters and stories.

This is a bit of an odd one in that it was a big enough deal that it is actively included in collection of Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye run. However, I was just thinking that A. it was cool how it fit so perfectly into this column and B. whenever I ever find myself saying "Oh, that's too well known," I realize that I am rarely speaking for much more than myself, ya know?

In any event, 2012's Hawkeye series by Matt Fraction, David Aja and Matt Hollingsworth was amazing and one of the coolest things about it is that it firmly established the partnership between Clint Barton, Hawkeye, and Kate Bishop, Hawkeye.

Kate joins the cast of the book in the second issue...

She really gets a chance to shine in the issue...

She remained a constant presence in the series. In fact, when she and Clint stop working together, rather than lose her as a character, Fraction just split the book and had Annie Wu draw the adventures of Kate Bishop in Los Angeles while Clint's story continued in Brooklyn.

By the end of the series, the book was clearly a Clint/Kate series...

That continued into the follow-up series, All-New Hawkeye...

And then into Kate getting her OWN Hawkeye series by Kelly Thompson, Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire back in 2016...

That series ended with Kate and Clint together...

And it continues to this very day in West Coast Avengers, with Kate and Clint both on the new team...

While you obviously could argue that it is just a normal thing to team-up the two characters who both have the superhero name "Hawkeye," the fact of the matter is that what makes it work is not that their names are the same, but because Fraction created a compelling chemistry between the two of them that makes them really shine together whenever they work together. And the cool thing is that this connection via Fraction's writing was present almost FOUR YEARS before Hawkeye #1 came out!

There was a story in 2008 that screamed out that these two characters work great together and it only took until 2012 for that promise to actually be capitalized on.

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For a while there, Marvel wasn't sure what to do with Young Avengers. It wanted to wait for Allan Heinberg to pick the story up, but at the same time, they also didn't want the characters to just fall into disuse, so they had a bunch of stopgap options, including the 2008 miniseries Young Avengers Presents, where some of Marvel's best writers and artists would do spotlight issues on different members of the Young Avengers, all underneath covers by Jimmy Chueng, the original artist on Young Avengers.

What was particularly brilliant about the covers is that Cheung painstakingly recreated classic drawings of the older versions of each hero for the background of the covers.

Where you might THINK that you're seeing Mark Bagley, John Byrne, John Buscema or Jack Kirby drawings in the background, those are actually all Jimmy Cheung mimicking their style (and presumably some actual panels). Pretty amazing, right?

Anyhow, this was the final issue and the story (by Matt Fraction, Alan Davis and Mark Farmer) came out back when Clint Barton was a member of New Avengers under the then-abandoned superhero name of Ronin. Clint had died in Avengers Disassembled and been brought back to life in House of M and he was still uneasy about it all. So he took on the name Ronin and just used his other fighting skills that he had developed over years of working with Captain America.

The issue opens with Kate on a date/not a date where she is accosted by Ronin of the New Avengers. He is clearly testing her abilities and then tells her to show up at a certain location and bring her bow (which is the bow that the original Hawkeye, Clint Barton, used before he "died" - it was given to Kate by Captain America). She shows up and is in for quite a surprise...Ronin is Clint Barton and he is alive!

They shoot arrows together and they make a bet...

She is stewing about her loss when she ultimately decides to sneak back into the New Avengers headquarters and steal the bow back. She gets it, but before she can make a complete getaway, Ronin and Luke Cage show up. Clint clearly knows she is there, but he speaks nominally to Luke and it is adorable...

Then the next day...

Now, does it help to do character bits when you have Alan freakin' Davis, one of the most expressive artists in the entire industry working with you? Of course, but it still showed that Fraction had a great handle on Kate Bishop and most importantly, he had a great handle on the relationship between Clint and Kate and that relationship has been a centerpiece of the two characters ever since.

Okay, folks, you MUST have some suggestions for other characters and/or plots that fit into this theme! So drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com for future installments!