Hawkeye (comics)

Hawkeye (Clint Barton) is a Marvel Comics superhero, a longtime member of the Avengers. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, he first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964).

Like DC Comics’ Green Arrow, Hawkeye is a costumed archer, possessing a variety of specialized arrows. Brash and somewhat cocky, he’s often butted heads with teammates but has been a member of some segment of the Avengers fairly consistently since 1965. He also lead the Thunderbolts, attempting to guide the former villains to become heroes.

He was also a regular character on the short-lived 1990s animated series Iron Man and United We Stand.

Character history

Hawkeye, whose real name is Clinton "Clint" Francis Barton, ran away from an orphange as a pre-teen to join the circus as a performer, where he was trained by the Swordsman and Trickshot. He decided to become a costumed hero after being inspired by seeing Iron Man in action, but his first attempts were less than successful; he stopped an armed group of jewelry store robbers only to be mistaken by police as the thief himself. On the run from police, he met and became enthralled by the Black Widow, who was a spy for the Soviet Union. The Black Widow's main mission at that time was to steal Stark-developed technology to turn over to her handlers, and she was able to convince the besotted Hawkeye that she was working in the interests of international peace. The pair tangled with Iron Man twice, being defeated (barely) both times. When Hawkeye finally learned the Black Widow's true mission (to steal the technology and destroy Iron Man) he refused to betray his country for her, but was persuaded to help her one last time. When the Black Widow was injured during the last fight, Hawkeye broke off his attack on Iron Man to help her, choosing to withdraw rather than kill Iron Man.

Avengers membership

Eventually Hawkeye applied for membership in the Avengers (by breaking into the Avengers Mansion and announcing that he wanted to be a part of the group) and was accepted. He served alongside Cap, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as "the New Avengers", or occasionally as "Cap's Kooky Quartet". Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch had also initially been supervillains until realizing the error of their prior actions. Although Hawkeye wanted the Black Widow to join the Avengers with him, several other Avengers were resistant to the idea, given her Cold War spy past, and Black Widow's increasing involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. also created tension between the pair, finally resulting in a split.

Hawkeye would remain with the Avengers for many years and roster changes, often butting heads with the team's leaders when not leading a branch of the team himself. At several points in time (notably the Kree-Skrull War and Galactic Storm), he would temporarily adopt teammate Hank Pym's former powers and codename of Goliath, gaining the ability to increase his body to a massive size.

Although Hawkeye was enamored of the Scarlet Witch, she eventually married their teammate, the Vision. During a later solo adventure, Hawkeye met the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, alias Mockingbird while she was investigating Cross Technologies, Hawkeye's "employer" at the time. Unknown to Hawkeye, Cross was run by the villain Crossfire, who had a plan to use an aggression-inducing sonic wave against all of New York's superheroes. Crossfire captured the snooping Hawkeye and Mockingbird and tested the sonic wave on them, causing them to fight each other. Hawkeye used a sonic ray arrowhead, hidden in his mouth, to cancel out the sonic waves, freeing himself from the wave's control but ruining his hearing in the process. After defeating Crossfire, Hawkeye and Mockingbird eloped.

West Coast Avengers

Under the direction of then-Avengers chair The Vision, Hawkeye and Mockingbird subsequently founded the West Coast Avengers and served as two of the most prominent members of that team. The husband-and-wife duo had a rocky relationship caused by a falling-out over the issue of killing - during a time travel adventure, Mockingbird was drugged into forgetting about Hawkeye and into believing she was in love with the western anti-hero known as the Phantom Rider. When she was free of the drug's influence she fought the Phantom Rider and allowed him to fall to his death, refusing the chance to save him. When the details were finally revealed, the couple split. During a temporary reconciliation, they also briefly served with the much less prominent and unofficial Great Lakes Avengers team.

After Galactic Storm they finally permanently reconciled, only to have Ultron kidnap Mockingbird to use her brain patterns to create his "perfect wife," Alkhema (also known as "War Toy"). Feeling that his behavior had been less-than-professional during the rescue, Hawkeye stepped down from chairmanship of the West Coast Avengers and Mockingbird announced that she would be changing to "reserve" status. They had one last adventure as Avengers together, during which Mockingbird was killed by the demon Mephisto.

After her death Hawkeye left the team and the West Coast Avengers were disbanded. He finally returned to the Avengers shortly prior to the battle with Onslaught, after which the Avengers (including Hawkeye) were presumed deceased for a time. In actuality, they were revived in a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards for the events of "Heroes Reborn", and returned to Earth-616 during "Heroes Return". As a part of the "return" process, Hawkeye's deafness was cured.

Thunderbolts

Shortly after Hawkeye's return, he quit the Avengers, giving his spot in their roster to Justice and Firestar. He then became affiliated with the Thunderbolts, a group of former supervillains who had apparently turned over a new leaf by battling menaces such as Graviton. He joined the team as their de facto leader and mentor, ultimately helping several members obtain pardons for their past crimes. During one adventure, Hellstorm sent them to Mephisto's Purgatory, where they attempted to rescue Mockingbird's soul but instead returned Hellcat to the land of the living. Hawkeye later entered a romantic relationship with his teammate, Moonstone.

After the Thunderbolts defeated the Scourge and Henry Peter Gyrich, both of whom were under Baron Strucker's domination, the Thunderbolts were offered a full pardon for their actions under two conditions: Hawkeye turn himself in for incarceration, and the other Thunderbolts retire permanently. They accepted, and Hawkeye went to prison, but later helped SHIELD by infiltrating a jailbreak that was led by Mentallo at the behest of Justin Hammer. Meanwhile, half of the Thunderbolts were teleported by Graviton to Counter-Earth (the "Heroes Reborn" world, now in orbit around the Sun opposite the Earth). Hawkeye led the remaining Thunderbolts, plus several of the escaped criminals and some former members of the Crimson Cowl's new Masters of Evil team, to form a new Thunderbolts team. Once this team was reunited with the lost members, they together defeated the Crimson Cowl, but several Thunderbolts were returned to government custody for violating the terms of their pardon. Hawkeye then left the team and rejoined the Avengers, giving Baron Zemo the opportunity to assume leadership of the Thunderbolts. After the next meeting between the Avengers and Thunderbolts, the Thunderbolts were again disbanded, although this would again prove temporary.

Shortly before the Avengers' assault by the Scarlet Witch, he had a brief fling with team member Wasp.

Avengers Disassembled and House of M

During the Avengers Disassembled storyline, the Scarlet Witch went insane over the loss of her children with the Vision and used her reality-manipulation powers to create deadly threats to her teammates. Hawkeye apparently died during this storyline, sacrificing himself to destroy a Kree starship in Avengers #502. However, during the House of M miniseries, he showed up alive once more in the Scarlet Witch's mutant-dominated altered reality, with no memory of the previous reality. When a young mutant named Layla Miller gave several of the heroes the ability to remember the way the world once was, Hawkeye and the others were horrified at what the Scarlet Witch had done. In addition, Hawkeye remembered the experience of his own death. When the heroes confronted the Witch and her children (who were real and had similar powers to their mother's in this reality), Hawkeye broke rank, shooting her in the back (although it did her no harm), and demanding to know why she had killed him, as he was her friend and had only love for her. One of the Witch's children, annoyed, made Hawkeye vanish into nothingness with a thought. At present his fate is ambiguous; House of M #8 depicted several heroes arriving at the ruined Avengers mansion, after a report that someone had been there, only to find Hawkeye's costume and a newspaper cutting about his death, pinned to the ruins by Hawkeye's trademark purple arrows.

Kate Bishop

In time period between Avengers Disassembled and the House of M events (during the time Clint Barton was believed dead), Kate Bishop, a member of the Young Avengers, adopted the codename "Hawkeye" at Captain America's suggestion. As explained to Kate by Jessica Jones, Kate reminded Captain America of the first Hawkeye not only because of her skill with a bow and arrows but because she was unafraid to stand up to Captain America for what she thought was right, as the first Hawkeye had also often done.

Powers and abilities

Hawkeye has no superhuman powers (although he uses Pym particles to become Goliath on occasion). He possesses exceptional strength, endurance, and stamina. His reflexes and agility represent the absolute pinnacle of human perfection. He is capable of acrobatic maneuvers that would put an olympic gold medalist to shame. His accuracy as an archer is virtually unerring. He is also a highly competent strategist, tactician, and field commander. He is an exceptional hand-to-hand combatant having been trained by Captain America.

His primary weapons in crime-fighting are a long bow and an arsenal of 36 arrows carried in a back quiver. Half of them have either target or blade points, while the rest carry a wide variety of customized special heads; high explosive, acid, cable (for climbing or crossing gaps), webs and bolas (to entangle suspects), smoke and freeze arrows are just a few samples. For emergency use, Hawkeye has several spare arrowheads in his costume's belt and straps, enabling him to refit the target point arrows into Trick Arrows if need be.

Alternate versions

Marvel MAX

In the Marvel MAX series U.S. War Machine, Hawkeye appeared alongside Captain America and The Falcon; he and Falcon served as Captain America's backup and wore no costumes, only being addressed by their real names. In this reality, Captain America was actually Bucky wearing the Captain's uniform as here the Captain had died in World War II in his stead.

Ultimate Hawkeye

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Ultimate Hawkeye is a member of the Ultimate version of the Avengers, the Ultimates, where he is the partner of the Ultimate version of the Black Widow. The Ultimate versions of these characters are much more ready to use lethal force than are their normal Marvel Universe counterparts.

Hawkeye has a metahuman-level of accuracy, an ability resembling that of the 616 character Bullseye. Essentially, he can turn any sharp object, however small, into a deadly projectile. This ability extends to a seemingly superhuman-effectiveness with firearms and bow weapons, as well as a number of improvised weapons like silverware, plates, and in one case, fingernails.

His Ultimates "field" costume is a black sleeveless bodysuit with silver-ridged body armor on the chest and red insets at the back and sides. In many scenes he wears S.H.I.E.L.D. fatigues or uniform instead of his Ultimates costume. He often - but not always - wears glasses or sunglasses, although it hasn't been stated why (or if) he needs them to correct his vision.

For reasons of pacing he was not featured in the animated film Ultimate Avengers, but is rumored to appear in the sequel.

Ultimates

Clint Barton lives with his girlfriend in a domestic partnership. As observed by his teammates, he has a tradition of calling her and their children to say goodbye before every mission, should it one day be his last.

Hawkeye and Black Widow led a team of Black Ops S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel into a sleeper colony of Chitauri agents operating out of two New York City office buildings. The mission subsequently went sideways, with only Hawkeye and Widow surviving it.

Hawkeye fought the Chitauri at the Air Force base in New Mexico, and sustained several wounds in the process. Despite the injury, he was responsible for sedating (and thus immobilizing) the rampaging Ultimate Hulk after the invasion had been quashed.

Ultimates 2

In issue #7 of volume 2, Hawkeye's home was invaded and his family was murdered by masked agents. The issue ended with the implication that Hawkeye was about to be killed as well, though in the next issue his body was missing. The killers were not revealed. In issue #8, members of S.H.I.E.L.D. see what seems to be Captain America on the video that shows the killing of Hawkeye and his family. Nick Fury sends a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to hunt down and capture Captain America, although it has not been proven that he was the traitor.

However, at the beginning of issue #9, it was revealed that Hawkeye was not killed, but had been kidnapped and is held in an unknown location. After regaining consciousness, Hawkeye learned that over the previous three days, he had been drugged, presumably tortured, and the security codes to the Triskelion were ripped from his mind.

After the invasion and subsequent pacification of the United States, the Liberators arranged a meeting between a restrained Hawkeye and Captain Dragomir Branislav, who survived one of Hawkeye's attacks and sported a disfiguring scar over his eye for the trouble. In the absence of any nearby projectile weapons, and demonstrating a remarkable display of his meta-human accuracy and pain resistance, Hawkeye tore his own fingernails off and used them as lethal projectiles, flicking them into the other soldiers mouths so they choked to death. The squad of soldiers that arrived to pacify him found themselves outmatched, and subsequently dead when he shot them with guns he stole from dead soldiers.

Animated series

Hawkeye was a regular character on the animated programs United We Stand (voiced by Tony Daniels) and Iron Man (voiced by John Reilly).

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