Hawkeye is a Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964). The title has been used by three major characters; Clint Barton, Bullseye, and Kate Bishop.
Raised in a broken home, Clinton "Clint" Barton and his older brother Barney had a difficult life. After his parents died in a drunk driving accident, Clint and Barney were sent to an orphanage for 6 years. Hungry for a better life, Clint and Barney ran away until desperation forced the brothers to join up with the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. Years passed, during which Clint caught the attention of the Swordsman and Trick Shot, two talented circus performers. Under their tutelage, Clint gained the sharpshooting skills that would allow him to become a hero.
As Swordman's assistant, Clint was happy until the day he found out that his mentor was embezzling from the carnival. About to turn in the Swordsman, Clint was brutally beaten by his mentor until Barney and Trick Shot intervened. Trick Shot became Clint's new mentor while Barney grew tired of carnival life. Having condemned Clint for his perceived disloyalty to the Swordsman, Barney prepared to enlist in the Army. Asking Clint to join him, believing the two needed a fresh start, Barney was disappointed when his younger brother declined.
Jealous of the fame the then-new hero Iron Man was getting, Clint decided to use his skills to become a superhero as well, Hawkeye. Unfortunately, his weakness for pretty women got him involved with Black Widow, who at the time was a spy working for the Russians against Iron Man, and she tricked him into attacking the hero. He soon realized he'd been duped, however. Given a chance to redeem himself, Hawkeye joined the Avengers and has been affiliated with the team ever since, even leading its spin-off, the West Coast Avengers. Ironically, the Widow would later end up doing a Heel–Face Turn herself and becoming a superhero, and even joined the Avengers, having made her peace with Clint.
Years later, Clint fell in love and married Mockingbird, though they had troubles after she killed a man who had raped her. She appeared to have been killed by the Demon Lord Mephisto for a long time, until it was revealed that it was actually a Skrull spy in her place during Secret Invasion. The real Mockingbird and Hawkeye have since reunited. However, tragically, Clint was one of the casualties during the rampage of Scarlet Witch in Avengers Disassembled.
Afterward, Kate Bishop is introduced in the pages of Young Avengers, when the Young Avengers (Hulkling, Wiccan, Patriot, and Iron Lad) literally crash into her sister's wedding mid-hostage situation, which they're barely able to prevent from getting worse. After the encounter, Kate takes it upon herself to investigate the fledgling team of superheroes, ultimately deciding that she wants in on their operation. Although technically a civilian at this point, Kate's athleticism and training allow her to become the token Badass Normal of the team, proving herself to be a skilled archer and fighter within a short span of time.
After breaking into the Avengers' old headquarters and putting together an outfit made from aspects of Hawkeye and Mockingbird's respective costume, she approaches the Young Avengers and announces herself as part of the team. After helping them take down Kang the Conquerer, she's accepted into their likes, and adopts the "Hawkeye" codename left dormant by Clint Barton's death — which Jessica Jones claimed Captain America suggested for her, since she was only the second person after Clint to stand up to him.
Meanwhile, due to the events of House of M, Clint was Back from the Dead, and took up the mantle of Ronin with permission of the original Ronin (Maya Lopez), eventually joining the New Avengers, leading to the events of Secret Invasion (and also reunited with the real Mockingbird in the aftermath). During the Dark Reign, he was appointed as the leader of the New Avengers and was doing a fair job (aside from one Leeroy Jenkins moment), until the return of Captain America. After Dark Reign, Clint became a mainstream Avengers member, once again donning the Hawkeye alter ego. However, shortly after this he and Mockingbird got divorced.
During this time, Clint and Kate finally met each other. The two weren't exactly buddies upon meeting, but Clint ultimately encouraged Kate to keep the Hawkeye name, claiming the world was now big enough for two Hawkeyes.
Clint eventually starred in his own title in 2012 under the Marvel NOW! line, which can best be described as an indie comic set in the Marvel Universe, and focused on Clint as well as the other two Hawkeyes, Kate Bishop and Clint's brother Barney, with Kate now effectively Clint's partner — rather than his protégé. This series further developed Kate's character; the "L.A. Woman" story is notable for being entirely Kate-centric, following her (brief) move to California, where she attempts to start her own private detective agency.
Fraction's Hawkeye ended in 2015, but the oft-delayed title caused its followup series, All-New Hawkeye (by Jeff Lemire and Ramon Perez), to launch before the former's final issue came out. Nonetheless, All-New Hawkeye ran for an initial arc of five issues —told in the present as well as through flashbacks to Clint's youth— before Secret Wars ended the Marvel Universe, effectively putting the series on hiatus.
Kate returned to the All-New, All-Different Marvel universe in a second volume of Lemire's All-New Hawkeye, this time with a twist: while the first volume was told in the past and present, the second one is being told in the present and future. As told through flash-forwards, the disagreement that drove her and Clint apart goes unresolved for decades, and the only thing able to bring them back together —in spite of their differences— is an opportunity to resolve some unfinished business from the very mission that strained their relationship.
Kate starred in her own series beginning in 2016, where she moved to Los Angeles to become a private investigator. After living in Los Angeles for a while, Kate realized that there were more supervillains than she could handle alone and enlisted Clint in the new reformed West Coast Avengers.
Clint Barton made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thor, portrayed by Jeremy Renner, while Kate Bishop made her debut in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld.
Hawkeye appears in
- Iron Man: Rise of Technovore
- Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher
- Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers
- Hawkeye Vol. 1 (1983)
- West Coast Avengers (1984-1994)
- Hawkeye Vol. 2 (1994)
- Hawkeye: Earth's Mightiest Marksman (1998)
- Hawkeye Vol. 3 (2003 - 2004)
- New Avengers: The Reunion (2009)
- Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010)
- Widowmaker (2010 - 2011)
- Hawkeye: Blindspot (2011)
- Ultimate Hawkeye (2011, set in the Ultimate Marvel universe)
- Hawkeye Vol. 4 (2012 - 2015)
- All-New Hawkeye Vol. 1 (2015)
- All-New Hawkeye Vol. 2 (2015)
- Hawkeye Vol. 5 (2016-2018)
- Tales of Suspense: Red Ledger (2017)
- West Coast Avengers (2018)
- Old Man Hawkeye (2018, set in The Wastelands)
- Hawkeye: Freefall (2020)
- Hawkeye: Kate Bishop (2022)
Storylines
- Secret Wars
- Age of Apocalypse
- JLA/Avengers
- Marvel Zombies
- House of M
- Secret Invasion
- Dark Reign
- Old Man Logan
- Siege
- Portrayed by Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld:
- Thor (2011) note
- The Avengers (2012)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Hawkeye (2021)
- Captain America and the Avengers: Hawkeye is one of the four playable characters.
- Spider-Man: The Video Game: Hawkeye is one of the four playable characters along with Spider-Man, Black Cat and Namor.
- Venom & Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety: An Assist Character, Hawkeye can be summoned after players pick up "hero icons" scattered throughout the game.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Hawkeye is a playable character on the PSP and X-Box 360 versions of the game.
- Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
- Marvel: Avengers Alliance as one of the playable characters and a major NPC.
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
- Disney Infinity
- Marvel Future Fight
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
- Marvel's Avengers as free DLC.
- The Marvel Super Heroes
- Iron Man: The Animated Series
- The Avengers: United They Stand
- The Super Hero Squad Show
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
- Iron Man: Armored Adventures
- Avengers Assemble
Hawkeye provides examples of:
- Captain Obvious: In issue #4, a villain helpfully tells Hawkeye, "I am a villain."
- Disability Immunity: Hawkeye invoked this, using one of his sonic arrows to fry his own eardrums, rendering him immune to a bad guy's sonic mind control. Since then, Hawkeye has used hearing aids.
- Silence Is Golden: Most issue #2 plays out not only without any dialogue but without any sound effects at all, due to the power of the assassin known as The Silencer to perfectly mute all sound.
- Smokestack Drop: Professional Killer the Silencer fights Hawkeye aboard his Skycycle and the two wind up atop a smokestack. Hawkeye seems to fall into the smokestack to his death but climbs back out, catches the Silencer by surprise, and throws him down the smokestack.
- Agents Dating: Hawkeye and Mockingbird go on a date, after making arrangements for it during the course of one of their missions together. It's notable because, despite being married for a good few years, this is one of the first times they're actually on a date, since they got married less than ten days after meeting each other and spent most of their marriage fighting evil, so 'dates' for them mostly consisted of punching things in the face (though, they had been shown previously going on dates occasionally). Of course, the date shown doesn't go well as Clint decides to surprise her by tracking down her mother...having not realized that Bobbi had faked her death to keep her family out of danger, and that by dragging her mother back into her life, it ultimately gets her mother shot.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: In Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Hawkeye fires three Pym Particle arrows — arrows whose heads were capsules filled with dozens of toothpick-sized arrows that were treated with the chemical Ant-Man uses to get bigger/smaller. When they deployed and expanded, the thugs they were facing got to fight in the shade. Every single one was taken down non-fatally. Hawkeye simply said he never hits what he wasn't aiming for. This was during a motorcycle chase.
- AB Negative: The only clue Clint has to Trick Shot's killer is his blood type being A+. This trope is subverted, as the blood type really doesn't help much. Clint even lampshades that's his blood type. Eventually, this comes back to help him at the end, as it is revealed the killer, his brother Barney, is a perfect genetic match for a stem cell transplant that can save him from permanent blindness.
- Hard Head: The miniseries plays this trope somewhat realistically (at least at first). Hawkeye is dealt a head injury during a battle with Ronin, and the resulting brain damage is severe enough that he slowly starts going blind. Of course, since Status Quo Is God, the hero is cured by the end of the story.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: The arc The Tape revolves around Hawkeye's mission to retrieve a VHS tape owned by a criminal organization that has several SHIELD secrets. Why the heck does a videotape even exist, you wonder (and Hawkeye asks Captain America) when everybody and their dog would just upload it to a computer? Because in the post-Civil War world, with Tony Stark's Extremis-given super-Hollywood Hacking capabilities being well known, criminals have had to go extremely low-tech to maintain their secrets (with some success, to boot).
- Trouser Space: During "The Tape", Clint stuff his "Amex Black" credit card with no credit limit down the front of his pants. While interrogating him Madame Masque is disgusted to hear this but is the only one willing to reach in and get it and then it turns out Masque is actually Kate Bishop in disguise.
- Call-Back: In Freefall, Bryce shows Clint footage of him in Chernaya the previous year, which is to say Tales of Suspense: Red Ledger.
- Lampshade Hanging: As it is written by Matthew Rosenberg, this trope happens a lot during Freefall.Bryce: It's kinda amazing that you stole a time machine and your first thought was "I'll go back in time and beat myself up to confuse my friends".
- "Not So Different" Remark: Played for laughs during Freefall, when Clint informs the Hood that without his magic cloak he's just another loser with delusions of grandeur, just like himself.
