I recently finished reading volume 1 of Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye (My Life As a Weapon). Outside of reading up on things related to the movies, I’ve never been very into any of the Avengers comics. But I’ve heard such good things about this particular run of Hawkeye since it debuted a couple years ago that I wanted to give it a shot (I have no idea if I intended that pun).

This isn’t an origin story and doesn’t hint much at Clint Barton’s background pre-Avengers. This storyline throws you in when he’s already Hawkeye and has been on the team for a bit. But there is a lot of everyday life shown, which is cool because Clint lives pretty much in the ghetto and you’re not getting a spoiled, rich superhero forgetting about the little people.

I think my favorite part of this series, though, is Kate Bishop. She ultimately takes up the mantle of Hawkeye but at this point they still share the name. Now she is a spoiled rich kid, but she uses that to her advantage in fighting crime and helping Clint, not to show off or have someone else deal with things. And this isn’t some cute way to get another female superhero in the game – Kate knows her stuff and is just as good as Clint at what they do.

Of course, this does bring to mind the whole gender-swapping of characters. So many people who don’t read comics and don’t know the storylines (e.g., tumblr fans) get all up in arms when their favorite characters change in some way and, obviously, gender is a big one. But most fans who read the stories and know even a bit of the history will go with the flow and give the writers and artists a chance to prove a change works.

In the vast majority of cases, it doesn’t matter if a character is male or female. (If you’ve watched Jessica Jones on Netflix, you can see that in Hogarth, who is a male in the comics, but female on screen without any change to the script.) And it’s rarely a gender-swap of the exact same character – Thor did not suddenly transform into a woman and, as noted above, Kate Bishop is a different Hawkeye. The superhero names by which these characters are known are mere titles. Like it or not, Captain America is not always Steve Rogers (though he has not yet been female) and Wonder Woman has not always been Diana Prince (considering that title and the Amazon requirement, it would be a difficult gender-swap to get away with).

Honestly, I believe good storytelling is far more important than the gender, race or whatever of a character. That’s why you pick up a book or a comic or go to a movie. If the story sucks, it’s unlikely to be because the hero was female – and the same goes for if it’s fantastic. Fans need to look beyond what, admittedly, in some cases could be a bit of a gimmick or grab at attention and appreciate the art itself. Ask yourself “does it make a difference to the story?” because if it doesn’t, what’s the problem? Get immersed in the story and watch how the hero saves the day – don’t worry so much about the he/she.

(Oh, and yes, I did like volume 1 of Hawkeye enough to already have volume 2 ready to go.)