Hawkeye & Black Widow's Greatest Team-Ups

Together, Black Widow and Hawkeye have been romantic partners, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Iron Man villains, and Avengers. Even when they try to go separate ways, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton always find their way back to each other. 

Although their earliest appearances saw them as a couple, the dynamic between Hawkeye and Black Widow eventually evolved into a durable friendship built on a deep familiarity. Despite the challenges of being a hero in the Marvel Universe, their connection always reemerges—even when they fall on opposite sides of the law.  

Now, let's take a closer look at some of Hawkeye and Black Widow's most memorable team-ups, just as these two Avengers reunite in BLACK WIDOW & HAWKEYE (2024) #1 by Stephanie Phillips, Paolo Villanelli, Mattia Iacono, and VC's Joe Sabino.

HOW HAWKEYE AND BLACK WIDOW MET

With nothing but his bow and arrows, Hawkeye almost defeated Iron Man on Black Widow's orders in his debut. After seeing Iron Man in action, Hawkeye wanted to use his archery skills to start fighting crime. However, when he was mistaken for a thief, Clint fell into the web of Black Widow, a spy for the Soviet Union, in TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #57 by Stan Lee and Don Heck. 

After helping him escape from the police, Black Widow charmed Hawkeye into taking on Iron Man. With a quiver of specialty arrows, Hawkeye defeated Iron Man and turned part of his armor into rust. But when Hawkeye tried to finish Iron Man off with an explosive arrow, the blast ricocheted and knocked out a nearby Black Widow. As she screamed out for Hawkeye, he abandoned his mission and rushed the spy to a doctor.

BLACK WIDOW SWINGS INTO ACTION

Hawkeye and Black Widow were only villains for a little while, but they encountered Iron Man a few times during their criminal careers. After her Soviet bosses briefly recalled her, Black Widow received a new costume that gave her more battlefield capabilities in TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #64 by Stan Lee and Don Heck. Although her feelings for Hawkeye made her doubt her commitment to her homeland, Natasha tested her costume's new wall-climbing boots and web-slinging capabilities against Iron Man. 

In the battle, Hawkeye dazed Iron Man with a sense-shattering noise arrow and hit him with an acid arrow that dissolved most of his armor. Desperate, Iron Man hit Black Widow with an energy blast. Although he pushed Iron Man to the brink of defeat again, Clint relented to get Natasha treatment once more.

BLACK WIDOW MEETS THE AVENGERS

With Iron Man's support, Hawkeye joined the Avengers, although his relationship with Black Widow concerned his teammates. As Hawkeye became the hero he always wanted to be, Black Widow was abducted by her spymasters and put through their rigorous brainwashing process. When ordered to attack the Avengers, Black Widow hired Swordsman and Power Man (Erik Josten) and went after the team. 

After the villains' first attack, Hawkeye took on the trio by himself in AVENGERS (1963) #30 by Stan Lee and Don Heck. He successfully defeated Swordsman, but was captured by Power Man. Once she saw him in trouble, Black Widow's lingering feelings for Hawkeye helped her break through her brainwashing. Natasha saved Clint, who cautiously accepted her explanation about the brainwashing.

BLACK WIDOW: DOUBLE AGENT

After reuniting with Hawkeye, Black Widow spent more time around the Avengers and started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. While spying on the Soviets, Black Widow's former spymasters captured her and unsuccessfully tried to brainwash her again with the Psychotron. When the Avengers tried to save her, they encountered the Red Guardian (Alexei Shostakov), Natasha's thought-dead ex-husband. 

After Hawkeye was also captured, the Avengers tried to rescue their teammates and stop the Psychotron's activation in AVENGERS (1963) #44 by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. In the meantime, Natasha convinced her captors she was still loyal, then helped destroy the Psychotron before it could be used on a large scale. Although Black Widow defected and resumed her relationship with Hawkeye, the heroes drifted apart as she began doing more for S.H.I.E.L.D.

WHEN THE WIDOW CALLS

While Hawkeye served as a core member of multiple Avengers teams, Black Widow bounced around the Marvel Universe with brief stints as Daredevil's partner; she also joined groups like the Avengers and the Champions. Despite her affiliations, Black Widow attempted to infiltrate an A.I.M. base alone. When she sent the Avengers a distress signal, Hawkeye answered in SOLO AVENGERS (1987) #14 by Tom DeFalco and Al Milgrom. 

With his estranged wife, Mockingbird, tailing him, Hawkeye rescued Natasha from having her brain and combat skills copied into an android, the Attackoid. After taking down the powerful machine, Hawkeye and Black Widow investigated A.I.M.'s disturbingly large collection of human brains, which led them to a captive Hank Pym in the hands of A.I.M. scientist S.O.D.A.M. With Mockingbird's help from afar, the heroes defeated S.O.D.A.M. and took down the A.I.M. base, proving they were as formidable a team as ever.

WIDOW MAKER

As Black Widow and Hawkeye became fixtures in the Avengers and the group's offshoot teams, they continued to operate as secret agents. When Hawkeye and Black Widow separately started to investigate the deaths of several spies, they bumped into each other and teamed up in WIDOW MAKER (2010) #1 by Jim McCann, Duane Swierczynski, David López, and Manuel Garcia. 

While the heroes were looking into killings at the Red Room, they learned the massacre had been committed by Ronin, an identity formerly used by Hawkeye. With help from Mockingbird and Dominic Fortune, Hawkeye and Black Widow investigated Ronin and realized the masked killer was Alexei Shostakov, Black Widow's ex-husband. 

To goad Russia and Japan into a war he believed would restore his homeland's glory, Shostakov used the Ronin identity to target spies from both nations. However, Clint, Natasha, and their allies ultimately foiled his plans.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

When a new Zodiac criminal group emerged, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and a small group of Avengers stumbled onto their plans to steal a Cosmic Cube and other powerful weapons for Thanos. After stopping Thanos from getting an Ultimate Nullifier, Hawkeye and Black Widow stepped aside for a tender moment in AVENGERS ASSEMBLE (2012) #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. 

As Clint treated Natasha's wounds, the former couple shared a passionate kiss before she reminded him he was dating Spider-Woman. After that crisis passed, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman teamed up with Black Widow to help her repay an old favor by stopping Galina Anokhin from disturbing drugs that turned people into reptilian lizards in AVENGERS ASSEMBLE (2012) #12 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Pete Woods.

SECRET AVENGERS

When Captain America (Steve Rogers) was given command over the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., he formed the Secret Avengers, a black-ops team that could quietly handle complex threats. Naturally, Black Widow was one of his first recruits, and he brought in Hawkeye to replace him when he stepped down. Hawkeye and Black Widow remained core members of that team, even as it morphed into a S.H.I.E.L.D. unit commanded by Maria Hill. 

Although Hawkeye tried to quit the team and had his memory erased by Hill, he stumbled into Black Widow and Spider-Woman in SECRET AVENGERS (2014) #1 by Ales Kot and Michael Walsh. During a chase with A.I.M. agents, Hawkeye ran into a spa where his two exes happened to be relaxing. Wearing nothing but towels, the three heroes defeated the agents before jumping into a flying car and traveling to space for their next mission.

BLACK WIDOW: THE TIES THAT BIND

When the Red Guardian, Viper, Arcade, and several of Black Widow's deadliest enemies banded together, they brainwashed Natasha into thinking she was Natalie Grey, an architect with a husband and son who lived in San Francisco, California. After Natasha walked through the background of a live news broadcast, Hawkeye and Natasha's other close allies came together to rescue her. 

Hawkeye, Winter Soldier, and White Widow helped Natasha recover her lost memories in BLACK WIDOW (2020) #5 by Kelly Thompson, Elena Casagrande, and Rafael De Latorre. While Bucky hid her family in parts unknown, Clint and Yelena helped Black Widow take out the sniper Weeping Lion, Viper, Snapdragon, Red Guardian, and several Hydra agents. Although Natasha tried to push Clint out of her life, he returned to save her from the Living Blade, a villain who briefly cut off her arm.

BLACK WIDOW AND HAWKEYE: BROKEN ARROW

While Hawkeye went on to lead the government-sanctioned Thunderbolts of New York, Black Widow bonded to a symbiote called Widow. After Hawkeye seemingly assassinated a foreign dignitary named Sergei Larionov, he became a target for every assassin in the world in BLACK WIDOW AND HAWKEYE (2024) #1 by Stephanie Phillips and Paolo Villanelli. As numerous governments and assassins tried to hunt Clint down, Natasha used her connections and her symbiote's mind-reading powers to track him down to Madripoor. 

Although she saved him from an assassin, Hawkeye tried to push Black Widow away, saying he needed to stay in Madripoor. He even told her they needed to break the cycle of only coming into each other's lives in moments of crisis. After doing everything in his power to push her away, he told her he really was the killer. Whether he's ready to admit it or not, Hawkeye needs Black Widow's help more than ever.

Catch Clint and Natasha's latest team-up in BLACK WIDOW AND HAWKEYE #1, now on sale!

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