Another review talked about Hawkeye in a vacuum, as if it's a problem that he can only fire off all his arrows when allies thwart. And that's a surprising take to me.

See, even if Hawkeye is literally your only ally, he's still mostly a strictly better Tac Team. (Not quite because he can only target minions. But minions are the main thing you want to use Tac Team for through the game anyway.) He's Tac Team that can also thwart 3 as he goes. Or has the option of only thwarting 2, hitting for 4, and blocking an attack from the villain in a pinch. And more importantly, he's Tac Team in an aspect that doesn't have a lot of good options for minion killings.

While Tac Team isn't that good of a card, the biggest reason it's been abandoned is that there are just so many better options in Aggression. But Justice is an aspect that isn't usually the best at taking out minions.

But finally, this Hawkeye's real power is that he triggers off of any allies thwarting and doesn't have a limit per phase. If you already have other allies in play before you drop Hawkeye, you can deal 6 damage on the same turn you play him. Or you can play him and some other allies... and then just do nothing with them. Just save them for the moment a minion drops, and instantly kill it.

And you do only need one other ally out to make this work.

Most of the time, this is going to be "deal 4 damage and thwart 1 this turn, deal 4 damage and thwart 1 another turn, block one attack."

And that's pretty incredible value.

I wouldn't run this solo if there weren't a lot of other allies to take advantage of it in the deck. But I don't think it's fair to call that "niche" either if the so-called niche he's good in is literally any multiplayer deck or a solo deck with a lot of allies. There are few cards anymore that are such staples that they fit into literally every deck, especially with so few ally slots. And this is no exception. But there are a lot of Justice decks that do want him because there are a lot of decks that run lots of allies.

Where I found him most useful for me though was a Hulkling Avengers-tribal deck built around getting free readies with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Because then, if there are no minions out, you can just use him to ready your character without feeling like you're going to waste his arrows.

Sadly, this Thor is atrocious. The simplest case is attacking twice for 6 damage or attacking once for 3 damage and blocking, neither of which is even close to being worth it for 5 ER. The thwart response is at least interesting, but engaging a random minion will almost always set you back farther than what you gain from removing three threat somewhere. Assuming a 5-hp minion is spawned (at least this is a "put" and not a "reveal"), at least one extra resource of value from cards like Man on the Wall, Hall of Heroes, or Winter Soldier is required to break even, but I'd honestly want about 3 bonus resources to come out positive and justify playing this expensive ally. Multi-aspect shenanigans aside, you'll never get this in Leadership, so maybe you add him to help out the Aggression player at your table, but even then the bar for allies is so high that I'm sure there's a better option. Ironically, the Thor hero would be the best place for him, but the Unique rule prevents that. I'm surprised they didn't make Thor's ATK have only one consequential damage, since that would raise his floor a lot when the ability is too risky or you're not set up to take advantage of it yet.

While this card is best when unleashed, it still has some merit restrained. The X-Jet, Team-Building Exercise, in addition to her own power counters, can help with cost, and because it's not classified as an "Attack", it can still damage the villain if a minion with the "Guard" keyword is out or if you are stunned.

Just a new review, because now (2027) this card isn't usable. I know, most people know this, but for newer players to not get thrown off by older reviews. Even if you only own the core set, don't use this card except for a few niche moments/decks that need an attack event to boost or something but even then, there are usually better alternatives. Heck, Uppercut is better.

Recently played my first game with Ghost-Spider and this card and it was by far my favorite card to see in a hand. Two player, from the get-go I was able to defend knowing it would trigger unflappable and a web-bracelet and then hopefully do a Desperate Defense or even another basic defend with Defiance for the next player.