Clint BartonHawkeye

Earth’s Mightiest Marksman, Clint Barton employs a devil-may-care attitude and mastery over one of civilization’s oldest weapons as the Avengers’ ace archer, Hawkeye. A mainstay of the hero team, Barton brings along an undying heroic spirit and the ability to hit any target.

Stringing the Bow

Orphaned at an early age, Clint Barton and his brother Barney escaped an oppressive orphanage and ran away to join the circus—the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. The youth fell under the sway of the Swordsman, a charismatic fellow performer who teamed up with the talented Trick Shot and trained his young charge to be an expert with a bow and arrow. When Barton found his mentor embezzling funds from the show, he attempted to alert the authorities. But, instead, he suffered a beating from his roguish role model, bringing the apprenticeship to a violent end.

Recovering, but separated from both Swordsman and Barney, Clint continued to hone his archery aptitude, taking the name Hawkeye and wandering the world joining several circuses as he searched for greater purpose. Inspiration struck when Barton witnessed Iron Man in action and decided he would use his unique skill set to become a costumed Super Hero. Unfortunately for the would-be do-gooder, his initial outing ended in a misunderstanding that saw him labeled a criminal.

Before Barton could correct public perception, destiny brought him in contact with The Black Widow. The brave bow slinger immediately fell in love with the sultry spy. Using his attraction to manipulate the smitten archer, Widow set him against her nemesis, Iron Man. The duo clashed several times with the Armored Avenger before the Russian suffered an injury and escaped, leaving Hawkeye to reconsider his path and attempt to get back on the straight and narrow.

A chance encounter changed Hawkeye’s fortunes, as the bowman saved butler Edwin Jarvis and his mother from a mugger, earning him the gratitude of a key Avengers ally and an opportunity to align with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. With Captain America recruiting a revamped roster for the team, Jarvis arranged for Clint to audition before Iron Man, impressing his old enemy and gaining his sponsorship. Hawkeyes would join Cap, Quicksilver, and The Scarlet Witch as the Avengers’ second generation, kicking off a long and distinguished tenure with the team.

A Living Weapon

Nobody in the Marvel Universe comes close to matching Clint Barton when it comes to skilled marksmanship. Though he can easily make use of almost any weapon thanks to extensive training with Swordsman, Trick Shot, Captain America, and others, Hawkeye prefers his trademark bow. The Avenging Archer also employs an arsenal of trick arrows, including shafts that emit everything from smoke and knockout gas to a powerful electromagnetic pulse.

Even stripped of his tools, Hawkeye packs a punch, having mastered the martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, thanks to his friend and mentor Captain America.

During a brief stint under the codename Goliath, Barton makes use of fellow Avenger Hank Pym’s size-changing Pym particles to grow to giant-size. Years later, Clint takes on the masked identity of Ronin, proving adept at swordplay and melee fighting, but he always returns to his array of arrows.

Hawkeye’s most adaptable asset may be his keen mind, honed to a point as sharp as any arrowhead, thanks to years learning from other skilled leaders. Clint has captained his own Avengers teams on multiple occasions, as well as taking the reformed criminal Thunderbolts under his wing in hopes of helping the one-time rogues to follow his road to redemption. Barton possesses a sophisticated savvy that belies his blustery attitude, able to game plan calculated courses of attack and quarterback his troops in battle.

Hard Targets

Early on in his tenure as an Avenger, Hawkeye contends with the unwelcome return of an old foe in the form of The Swordsman, who claims he had reformed like his pupil and seeks to join the heroic alliance. Barton warns his teammates of their new recruit’s duplicity, and ultimately has his suspicions confirmed when Swordsman turns on the team, capturing Captain America; the archer defeats his one-time teacher in combat and manages to exorcise that particular demon of his past.

During a period where Clint leaves the Avengers, he takes a job as security chief at Cross Technological Enterprises, but uncovers corruption within the organization, pitting him against the villain Crossfire. Hawkeyes and new ally Mockingbird triumph over their adversary. This comes at the cost of the former’s hearing, as he uses a sonic arrow at close range to thwart his foe. Crossfire would return, seeking revenge on the duo who undid him, but the unlikely aid of aged actress Moira Brandon help the heroes triumph once more.

More than once in recent times, Clint contends with roguish imposters seeking to co-opt some aspect of his identity. During his “Dark Reign,” Norman Osborn dubs the psychotic Bullseye as his “Hawkeye” on a team of twisted Avengers, leaving Barton as Ronin to storm the villains’ headquarters and attempt to take down the operation himself; ultimately Mockingbird and others come to the marksman’s rescue. Later, Baron Zemo, who blames Barton for taking leadership of the Thunderbolts from him, sets Clint’s own brother, Barney, against him as the new Trickshot. After several skirmishes between the siblings, they ultimately reconcile and the elder Barton assists Hawkeye in defending his New York apartment building against the Russian mob.

Avenging Allies

Clint Barton finds a surrogate family and the stable home he lacked through his early years as a stalwart member of the Avengers. Though Hawkeye clashes with Captain America when they first meet—the brash youth questioning the leadership of the seasoned super soldier—the two ultimately form a close bond, with Cap taking on the role of first mentor and later proud peer. The archer also counts former enemy Iron Man and the temporarily time-displaced Two-Gun Kid among his closest confidantes within the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Our merry marksman doubles as a hopeless romantic and has fallen for more than one of his teammates. His initial dalliance with Black Widow convinces the Soviet to reform; though the two have rekindled their affair more than once over the years, they find firmer footing as friends. Upon joining the Avengers, Hawkeye pines for The Scarlet Witch, earning the ire of her twin brother, Quicksilver. Clint even quits the team when Wanda Maximoff chooses the android Vision over him, but all parties eventually reconcile. After only one adventure alongside the magnificent Mockingbird, a smitten Clint proposes marriage to beautiful Bobbi Morse, and the duo go west together to found a new team of Avengers. Unfortunately, the honeymoon does not last forever, and these two strong-willed heroes aren’t able to make their marriage work, though they always have each other’s backs.

Perhaps nobody understands the Avenging Archer better than his protégé and namesake Kate Bishop, AKA Hawkeye too. Though mentoring a successor would mark maturity for most, more often than not Clint learns lessons from this extraordinary young woman, as much as vice versa. The two have been estranged on more than one occasion, stemming from conflicting philosophies when it comes to mission objectives. But, inevitably, they always reconcile, two straight arrows that fly true together.

Hitting the Mark

Hawkeye has come a long way since being an orphaned boy seeking purpose—he has traveled to outer space and other dimensions alongside his era’s most decorated champions, faced down ferocious foes who dwarfed his abilities with their seemingly omnipotent power, and even overcome seeming death to continue his suspenseful tales.

Following a leave of absence from the Avengers, Clint sought to rejoin his heroic fraternity, but found most members of the team to have disappeared, claimed by a mysterious source. Hawkeye led a small team after the cosmic-powered Collector, the entity responsible for the abductions. With all his fellows defeated, Barton refused to lose, pitting his unerring aim and unyielding spirit against the Elder of the Universe. In the end, Clint let loose with a single arrow that proved the Collector’s undoing, succeeding in winning the day where the likes of Thor and Iron Man had come out short, proving no man with two hands and the spirit of an Avenger should ever be underestimated.

On the darkest day in Avengers history, when a mad Scarlet Witch turned on the team and unleashed simulacrums of their greatest enemies, Hawkeye went out in a blaze of glory, sacrificing his life to defend his fellows against the forces of the alien Kree. When Wanda Maximoff altered the timeline and created the House of M, she unconsciously restored Clint to life, allowing him to pick up where he left off. Rejoining a cadre of Avengers when reality realigned, Barton would lead the charge against the Skrulls’ Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign, and the Siege of Asgard that brought about a new Heroic Age.

When he’s not busy with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Clint Barton spends his days off continuing to do good in the community. Becoming superintendent of an apartment building in Brooklyn, the everyman Avenger insinuated himself into the lives of his tenants, trying to provide a better quality of existence in a manner less flashy than battling Super Villains or fending off extraterrestrial incursions. However, when danger descended on his homestead in the form of Russian mobsters and silent assassins, Clint rallied his allies, including Kate Bishop and his brother Barney, to safeguard the common man against those who would prey upon them.

Whether bringing his bow and arrow to Earth’s defense on a grand scale or taking to the streets and sticking up for the little guy, Hawkeye can be counted on to stand fast as one of the Marvel Universe’s staunchest champions for justice.