She's getting worse.

Young Avengers #6 cover
In the comments section of my last post, someone helpfully posted a link to the cover of the next issue of this series, which features young Kate front and center. I've cropped and enlarged it so we can take a closer look...



Well, well, well... where to begin?

First, as was noted in the comments section, she is drawing the bow by squeezing the nock between her knuckles, an impressive act of strength but not such a good shooting technique. Second, her finger is on the arrowhead at full draw, which is a safety issue, and one that would be unnecessary if she weren't holding the bow sideways and actually tipping it almost upside-down. Speaking of upside-down, so is the arrow; the index fletch is pointing toward the bow. And of course there's the matter of her useless gloves again; where is the protection for the fingertips?

But the big issue is really glaring. First, she is drawing the string up over her shoulder. Think about it; how does she get the bow into that position? She has to hold it with the string on the outside of her bow arm, then rotate the bow sideways 90 degrees and then draw the string up over her shoulder. Why is she doing this?

Try it yourself. Stand up and mime holding a bow the normal way. Now rotate the imaginary bow to the position shown here. Naturally, the string hand would rotate to be palm-up and would want to drop down somewhat. Under no circumstances would the position Kate is using be remotely safe or comfortable.

While we're at it, the flowing scarf is a big safety issue, as is the halo of gravity-defying hair. When we give beginner lessons at Pasadena Roving Archers, we have been known to hand out ponytail holders to people with long hair. You really don't want hair or clothing to get tangled into the string.

Just as a matter of form, there's no point in drawing the bow without first straightening the bow arm.