Marvel Comics, a leading name in entertainment, has made popular franchises of its long list of iconic superheroes such as Spiderman, Wolverine and the Avengers. Headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, Marvel had a front row seat to witness the devastation that Superstorm Sandy had left on the city that houses so many of their heroes.
The scope of Super Storm Sandy was enormous. Along the East coast, the areas of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York were ravaged as the storm destroyed homes, lives and caused unparalleled damage throughout communities that still have yet to recover.
“Hawkeye,” a comic about Marvel’s dead-eye archer, Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye, is chipping in to help with the recovery effort by donating all of their proceeds from their special comic issue, “Hawkeye: Providing Relief.”
Matt Fraction, the writer of the comic book, spoke with Ben More of Marvel.com about the story.
“Clint goes to Far Rockaway to help someone in his building get their father to safety; Kate (Hawkeye’s sidekick) has a wedding to attend in Atlantic City that the family of the bride refuses to cancel,” Fraction told him. “All wet hell breaks loose.”
The issue was a hurried change from what the staff had planned originally for “Hawkeye’s” seventh issue, however Fraction felt this story was more important. Fraction and the creative team behind “Hawkeye” have been promoting the 20-page special issue, which is set to be released on January 16th, conducting interviews with MTV Geek and Marvel.com.
“Well, it’s a book about a regular guy doing superhuman things, you know,” Fraction said “And what better way can you describe the heroes of [Super Storm Sandy]? You didn’t need eye-lasers or capes or giant robots to tell a story about this kind of heroism.”
Further on in the interview, Fraction did confirm that all of his royalties would be donated to the Red Cross. Royalties are what a writer is paid after an issue has sold a certain amount. For more popular comics, this can actually constitute a large portion of the writers income, dwarfing their salary by comparison. The “Hawkeye” writer went on to acknowledge to MTV Geek that if the comic is successful enough this may just be the most painful check he’s ever written.
“It’s cool that he’s giving so much to charity,” said junior Jay Prajapati. “You don’t see that a lot today, people giving so much to charity.”
Marvel is no stranger to charity. In 2001 after the devastation caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, many of the writers and artists came together to make, “Heroes, The World’s Greatest Super Hero Creators Honor The World’s Greaest Heroes 9-11-2001.” The comic was created as a benefit for the Twin Tower Fund, which provides financial aid to firefighters, police officers and emergency service personnel involved in the attack. The comic publisher is also one of the partners of “The Hero Initiative,” a non-profit organization that creates a safety net for comic book creators.
“It’ll be good for the book and you’ll be helping out the Red Cross,” Fraction said in the interview. “Or helping me help the Red Cross anyway. And people that hate “Hawkeye,” or the character Hawkeye, or me, or my books, or the Red Cross: buy one. Buy 10. I dare you to make the check I gotta write hurt, haters. C’mon.”
