Okay, look. The city is flying. We're fighting an army of robots. And I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense. But I'm going back out there because it's my job. 
- —Hawkeye[src]
History
Clint Barton developed exceptional marksmanship skills at some point in his life and used these to great effect in the military arm of S.H.I.E.L.D.. In one of his missions he was tasked to carry out the assassination of a Russian agent codenamed "Black Widow". Instead of killing her though, he opted to let her live, and developed a lasting partnership with her that continued through bringing her in to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.[1]
At some point, he met and married Laura, having at least two children with her before he met Natasha, with Nick Fury keeping Laura's existence so secret that it remained unknown even after most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets were exposed.[5]
Thor's Hammer
Freakish atmospheric events, followed by the discovery of an immovable hammer in an impact crater, saw him deployed to New Mexico as part of a security force to protect the object. Soon after his deployment, an intruder broke into the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound and fought his way to the mysterious hammer. Barton responded to the alarms by collecting a compound bow and claiming a high vantage point suspended from a crane. Despite making several radio transmissions warning that the intruder was reaching the hammer, Barton was never given a shoot order, forcing him to let his target go.[6]
Under Loki's Influence
With his mission complete in New Mexico, Barton was then assigned to guard the Tesseract at a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility. When it began emitting increased levels of gamma radiation the entire facility was placed on high alert and most staff were evacuated, while Barton and a few others remained as rearguard for as long as they could. The emissions proved to be a precursor to the unexpected appearance of Loki, who had used it to reach Earth extradimensionally. Barton and the other guards were quickly overpowered and Barton was promptly enslaved into Loki's service.
Clint and Natasha
For a time, Barton served Loki as a guard, enforcer, and assassin, completely without volition. When Loki was incarcerated in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Barton led a commando raid against the vessel to extricate him, as well as to directly add to the chaos that Loki was seeding within his enemies. The attack drew him into direct conflict with Black Widow, his staunchest ally, who both bested him in close quarters and was able to free him from Loki's influence through what she later euphemistically called "cognitive re-calibration" when she struck a hard blow to his head that helped to dislodge Loki's hold over him.
Battle of New York
Upon recovering from the ordeal, Barton vowed to put Loki down, going so far as to propose an arrow to the Asgardian's eye socket. To that end he willingly grabbed his equipment and offered to pilot Captain America and Black Widow to Loki's location, which had been determined as New York City. Once there, the trio formed up with Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner (the Hulk), and Tony Stark (Iron Man), to fight Loki together.
Avenger Barton
The group quickly found themselves embroiled in a battle for New York City against a huge invasion force of Chitauri that Loki had summoned using the Tesseract. Barton, now operating under the pseudonym of "Hawkeye" initially fought the alien warriors on the streets before switching to a higher vantage point atop a high-rise building to snipe at the alien air support. At one point he even took a shot at Loki, and although the aim was true, Loki simply snatched the arrow from the air before it struck. Hawkeye had planned in advance however, and had rigged the arrow with an explosive head that knocked Loki's transport out of the sky. When he ran out of arrows and with a squadron of Chitauri bearing down on him, he grabbed an arrow from a deceased alien and used it to grapple into the building below for cover.
When the battle was over Hawkeye and the others parted company. He and Agent Romanoff returned to the service of S.H.I.E.L.D. until the next time the world would call on the Avengers.[1]
Loki's Sceptre
Barton was brought back into the field as the Avengers were reassembled to retrieve Loki's Sceptre from Hydra in Sokovia. While in battle, he encountered Pietro Maximoff, an inhumanly fast young man, who distracted him long enough that he was caught in a blast from a Hydra weapon.
Back in New York, Barton was given medical attention by Dr. Helen Cho, who used a portable device that could regenerate human tissue. Even though the wound in his side had been severe, the restorative effect of Dr. Cho's process was able to bring him back to full health in short order. Later, at a party that would celebrate a successful Avengers final mission, the team was attacked by the artificial intelligence Ultron using Stark's Iron Legion robots. Barton and the others fought back against the surprise attack, but failed to prevent one of the attacking robots from fleeing with the sceptre.
Ultron Imperative
It soon became apparent that Ultron was amassing a supply of Vibranium, so the Avengers made their way to a salvage yard on the coast of Africa where Tony Stark knew of a supply. They arrived shortly after Ultron and the Maximoff twins, and when a fight broke out, Wanda Maximoff began systematically incapacitating the Avengers by inducing nightmare hallucinations in them. However, when she attempted to do the same to Hawkeye, he rounded on her and struck her in the head with an an electric discharge arrow before she could use her power.
The mission was largely a failure after Wanda's power caused the Hulk to go on a berserk rampage, so Barton decided to pilot the quinjet to his farm where the group could lie low and reassess their situation in relative safety. Fury had kept Barton's family home a secret as a condition of his recruitment into S.H.I.E.L.D., so the other Avengers were surprised by the appearance of Barton's wife and two children. The brief stay at the farm gave the team time to take stock of the situation, and they soon anticipated that Ultron was going to need the same regenerative technology that had been used to restore Barton after the battle in Sokovia.
Barton, Rogers, and Romanoff, raced for South Korea where Dr. Cho worked at a genetics research facility, and found that Ultron's plan to create a new android body for itself using her technology was already well underway. The robot had already detected their arrival and tried to flee, although Barton's uncanny ability to spot his target led him straight to the trailer being used to transport the android in its regeneration cradle. Barton's skill as a pilot and his ability to line up targets precisely were put to good use in flying the quinjet backwards, and nose-down, to catch the falling regeneration cradle in mid air, but the mission had a major setback when Romanoff was captured by their enemy.
Sokovia
Barton took the regeneration cradle back to Stark and Banner in New York where they began to work on the android body while he turned to using Cold War-era covert communications monitoring to listen for any signal from Romanoff. He eventually located her in Sokovia just as the others were reforming as a group, with three unexpected new allies in the android, now calling itself the Vision, and the Maximoff twins.
In the ensuing battle in Sokovia, Barton found himself fighting alongside Wanda against Ultron's robot force, and he encouraged her to continue fighting by sharing his own doubts, but also his determination. When the battle died down some of the Avengers turn their attention to evacuating civilians, and when Barton attempted to save a little boy, he came under attack by Ultron in the Avengers' own quinjet. As the quinjet's gunfire lanced out at him, Pietro rushed in to save both Barton and the boy, but sustained mortal wounds in his final act.
After the crisis was over, Hawkeye took time off to be with his family, and named his third child Nathaniel Pietro Barton, in recognition of his long time comrade, Natasha, and Pietro, the man who had sacrificed his life to save him.[5]
Return to Action
Although Clint had intended to focus on his family, he soon found himself frustrated with civilian life, with an attempt to take up golf as a hobby proving unsatisfying, joking that he scored eighteen holes-in-one whenever he played. As a result, when tensions rose among the Avengers due to the new Sokovia Accords putting the team directly under U.N. authority, Clint responded to Rogers' call for help, rescuing Wanda Maximoff- the 'scapegoat' used by the U.N. to justify the Accords- from house arrest at the New Avengers Facility, even when that decision forced Clint to face the Vision. He briefly fought Natasha in a subsequent confrontation at the airport, but the two agreed that this wouldn't affect their future friendship even as the fight ended with Clint, Wanda, Sam Wilson, and new ally Scott Lang (aka the Ant-Man) being captured by Stark's team. After a brief period of confinement in the Raft, Clint and the other Avengers were rescued by Rogers.[2] Most of the team parted ways, with Clint returning to his family.[7]
House Arrest
Barton and Scott Lang were under house arrest for their actions, thus they were unable to reunite with their fellow Avengers. [8] After Barton's house arrest was over, he and his family held a picnic, with Barton training his daughter Lila in archery. But when Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed half the universe, Barton lost his family to the snap. [3]
Ronin
Over the next five years, Barton learned of Thanos's actions and became consumed by rage and grief over losing his family. He became a vigilante under the name Ronin and sought vengeance against criminals he felt deserved to be slain by the snap, but survived. The Avengers kept tabs on Ronin, discovering his actions in murdering a Mexican cartel.
Ronin eventually went to Japan and dueled and killed Yazuka member Akihiko. Just then, Romanoff arrived, having learned of a way to bring back his family: travel through time to collect the Infinity Stones that Thanos had destroyed five years prior. After convincing him, Romanoff took Barton to the Avengers Complex, where he volunteered to test their time-traveling. Upon his success, Barton regained his lost hope. [3]
Time Heist
With the Avengers reassembled, Barton joined the Avengers on their plan to reclaim the Infinity Stones across time and space. Barton joined Romanoff, James Rhodes, and Nebula to 2014 to get the Power and Soul Stones. Traveling to Vormir, Romanoff and Barton encountered the Soul Stone's guardian, the Red Skull, who explained that they had to sacrifice someone dear to them to earn the Soul Stone. The two fought each other over who would sacrifice themselves, but ultimately, Romanoff sacrificed herself for the stone. [3]
Reversing the Snap
With the Soul Stone in hand, Barton returned to his timeline, where he reunited with the Avengers and mourned Romanoff. Afterwards, they assembled a gauntlet to hold the stones, with Banner donning it and snapping his fingers to resurrect the fallen. Barton was contacted by his resurrected wife, confirming that it worked. But unknown to him, a past version of Nebula had infiltrated their ranks and let a past Thanos into their timeline. Thanos then had his forces fire upon the Avengers. Barton escaped the wreckage with the gauntlet in hand, attacked by Outriders and the past Nebula, but present-day Nebula and the past Gamora rescued him and killed the past Nebula. [3]
Battle of Earth
Barton fought in the Battle of Earth, aided by the resurrected heroes. While protecting the Gauntlet, Barton was saved by the resurrected Black Panther, who took the gauntlet. Eventually, Thanos's forces were snapped away by Stark, who took the Infinity Stones. Barton attended Stark's funeral and afterwards reunited with his family. [3]Attributes
Abilities
Extreme Targeting: He possesses an intuitive aptitude for targeting that is reflected highly in his ability to hit distant targets, and is also useful in identifying and tracking one target among many.
Marksmanship: Clinton Barton is a skilled marksman with an exceptional ability in archery. His aim is such that he is able to send an arrow into a moving targets with pin point accuracy. He is versatile with the kinds of missile weapons he employs, and possesses an exceptional accuracy with thrown darts. He has also stated that he scored eighteen holes-in-one while playing golf.
Martial Arts: Barton is a competent martial artist, and fights with a style that occasionally employs his bow as a melee weapon in addition to his more conventional attacks.
Pilot: Barton is a highly skilled fixed-wing aircraft pilot. His spatial awareness and precision targeting, coupled with his piloting experience, allows him to perform incredible stunts to the limits of an aircraft's capabilities.[5] [1]Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
Collapsible Recurve bow: The bow is capable of folding on itself (most likely for either easier transport, concealment, or both) that can be quickly snapped into its 'armed' form. It has a selector and transmitter that allows Hawkeye to control his mechanical quiver so that he can acquire certain arrows from it. It also has a laser sight.
Compound bow (formerly): Used when in New Mexico.Notes
- Jeremy Renner portrays Hawkeye in the films Thor, Marvel's The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. Renner will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney+ series Hawkeye.[9]
Trivia
- The cinematic version of Clint Barton resembles the Ultimate version of Hawkeye more so than the mainstream version.
- Hawkeye appeared in early drafts of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He would've been featured in an scene set between Captain America's escape from the Triskelion and his arrival to the hospital to retrieve the USB stick. Hawkeye would have confronted Captain America in the outskirts of Washington D.C., with both of them closing in on each other. After Cap took down Hawkeye, he would have realized Clint was trying to trick S.H.I.E.L.D., Clint would've alerted Rogers that his uniform had a tracking device, and would've asked Steve to punch him to make the fight look real, as there was a Quinjet hovering above where they were watching the feedback back at S.H.I.E.L.D.. This scene would've been shot if there hadn't been a conflict with Jeremy Renner's schedule.[10]
- Clint and Natasha Romanoff never needed an extraction team when they went on missions.[11]
See Also
- 28 appearance(s) of Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 30 minor appearance(s) of Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 7 mention(s) of Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 117 image(s) of Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 3 quotation(s) by or about Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
- 2 victim(s) killed by Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)
Links and References
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Marvel's The Avengers
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Captain America: Civil War
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Avengers: Endgame
- ↑ Hot Toys's Official Artwork
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Avengers: Age of Ultron
- ↑ Thor (film)
- ↑ Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War Prelude #1
- ↑ Avengers: Infinity War
- ↑ Couch, Aaron; Kit, Borys (July 20, 2019) Marvel Unveils Post-'Endgame' Slate with 'Eternals', 'Shang-Chi' and Multiple Sequels THR. Retrieved on April 01, 2020.
- ↑ Connelly, Brendon (2 September 2014) The Missing Hawkeye Action Scene From Captain America: The Winter Soldier Described Comicbook.com. Retrieved on 2 September 2014.
- ↑ Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E07