Hawkeye (Clinton Francis "Clint" Barton) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, the character debuted as an antagonist of Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964) before joining the Avengers in The Avengers #16 (May 1965). Hawkeye has appeared as a regular member of multiple Avengers titles since 1965 and received his first solo miniseries in 1983. A fourth volume of his self-titled series, launched in 2012 by writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja, brought significant critical reappraisal of the character.
Barton is introduced as an orphan who trains as an archer with a traveling carnival before being inspired by Iron Man to pursue costumed heroism. A misunderstanding leads him into a brief criminal career under the influence of the Soviet spy Black Widow, after which he reforms and joins the Avengers. He subsequently co-founds and leads the West Coast Avengers, marries fellow superhero Mockingbird, and later leads both the Thunderbolts and various other Avengers configurations. He has no superhuman powers, relying instead on world-class archery, a supply of customized trick arrows, and combat training. He has sustained partial hearing loss on two separate occasions during his publication history, which has been depicted with increasing depth since Matt Fraction and David Aja's 2012 run.
Hawkeye stories have explored the psychological tension between the extreme confidence required of a non-powered hero operating alongside superhumans and the deep insecurity that the same powerlessness produces. Early stories established his abrasive relationship with authority and his pattern of quitting and rejoining teams in response to perceived slights. His redemption arc, from inadvertent villain to trusted Avenger and eventual mentor to Kate Bishop, has been described by scholars as among the most developed examples of character rehabilitation in the Avengers franchise. The Fraction/Aja run represented a significant shift in emphasis, foregrounding his vulnerability and engaging seriously with his deafness as both a formal and thematic element. The run's treatment of disability, particularly the 2014 issue told substantially through untranslated American Sign Language, has received sustained academic attention for its shift from the medical to the social model of disability.
Hawkeye has been adapted into a variety of other media, including film, animated series, and video games. A version of the character was portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from his first appearance in Thor (2011) to his most recent one in Hawkeye (2021).
Publication history
1960s Hawkeye debuted as a villain in Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964), written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Don Heck. Heck conceived the character as "almost like a Robin Hood–type character", being a skilled marksman without superhuman powers whose appeal lay in his physical daring rather than any extraordinary ability. In the issue, Clint Barton creates his costume and trick arrows out of jealousy of Iron Man, and his criminal career stems from his susceptibility to the Black Widow, a Soviet spy who manipulates his affections to recruit him against Tony Stark.Besenyodi, Adam (May 2012). "Quips and Quivers: A Non-Superpowered Hero in a Superpowered World". Back_Issue! (56). TwoMorrows Publishing. Comics historian Adam Besenyodi has described this origin as establishing Hawkeye's central contradiction: "the staggering amount of egotism required of a non-superpowered superhero to be successful in the world he inhabits is repeatedly contradicted by the overwhelming insecurity resulting from that same set of circumstances."
Hawkeye appeared twice more as a villain in Tales of Suspense before joining the Avengers. By early 1965, Stan Lee's insistence on maintaining continuity across all Marvel titles had created what Sean Howe describes as an unmanageable choreography problem. Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp were each starring in their own ongoing series, making their concurrent membership in The Avengers a scheduling and continuity burden Lee could no longer sustain.Howe, Sean (2012). Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-221811-7. His solution, introduced in The Avengers #16 (May 1965), was to replace the founding members with three reformed former villains: Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch, led by Captain America. No superhero team in American comics had previously undergone such a comprehensive roster overhaul.Ridout, Cefn, ed. (2017) . Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History Updated and Expanded. DK. ISBN 978-1-4654-5550-5. Writer Kurt Busiek later suggested that Hawkeye's elevation from disposable antagonist to permanent Avenger was unplanned, and that Lee "saw Hawkeye's potential was too good to waste" only after receiving Don Heck's original art boards."Where have all the bad guys gone?" Wizard Magazine (72).
The new lineup, quickly dubbed "Cap's Kooky Quartet" by readers and eventually by the characters themselves, proved durable. Hawkeye's inclusion showed his confrontational relationship with Captain America's authority and his persistent, unrequited romantic pursuit of the Scarlet Witch. Roger Stern, who wrote The Avengers in the early 1980s, later characterized this behavior not as deliberate sexism but as an expression of the character's self-centeredness. Hawkeye was, in Stern's assessment, "not so much a sexist as an all-purpose butt-head." Writer Roy Thomas, who took over The Avengers from Lee in the late 1960s, tailored his scripts to John Buscema's richly illustrative style, resulting in a succession of mythological and cosmic adventures in which Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch functioned primarily as ensemble members rather than protagonists. Hawkeye briefly adopted of the Goliath identity in The Avengers #63 (April 1969), when, feeling inadequate alongside his powered teammates, he secretly took Hank Pym's growth formula and snapped his own bow in two to signal the abandonment of his Hawkeye persona. Philosopher Christopher Robichaud later identified this act as telling of Clint's "need to live up to the example of his peers and earn their acceptance as well as his own."Robichaud, Christopher. "The Way of the Arrow: Hawkeye Meets the Taoist". In White, Mark D. (ed.). The Avengers and Philosophy: Earth's Mightiest Thinkers. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
1980s The direct-market revolution of the early 1980s created demand for limited series as both collectible commodities and low-risk tests of characters' solo viability. Direct-market sales increased 46 percent in 1982 and a further 32 percent in 1983, and Marvel responded with a wave of four-issue miniseries for characters outside its top tier. Among those greenlit was a Hawkeye miniseries, published from September through December 1983, written and penciled by Mark Gruenwald with inks by Brett Breeding. The series introduced Mockingbird as Clint's professional partner and romantic interest, and ended with their marriage. This development Gruenwald compressed into the final issue at a pace critics noted as premature. The series also introduced Hawkeye's partial deafness as a permanent character trait. By using one of his own sonic arrows to counter the villain Crossfire's mind-control weapon, Clint was left with significant hearing loss requiring hearing aids in both ears. Wizard Magazine later cited the issue directly: "To override the sonic mind-control device of the villain Crossfire, Hawkeye put the head of one of his sonic arrows in his mouth, drowning out the machine... Unfortunately, it cost the archer part of his hearing.""I Said, 'HAWKEYE IS PARTIALLY DEAF!'" Wizard Magazine (78).
The Gruenwald miniseries was commercially successful enough to prompt further solo publication. In September 1984, Hawkeye and Mockingbird were tasked with establishing a West Coast branch of the Avengers in a four-issue limited series; the series "proved so popular that it became a regular monthly book that ran for 102 issues." The ongoing West Coast Avengers (retitled Avengers West Coast from issue #46 in August 1989) ran until 1994, with Hawkeye serving throughout as founder and team leader. Writer Roy Thomas, who worked on the title during the late 1980s, noted that the West Coast location created constant motivational problems for bringing in guest characters from the broader Marvel Universe, though it also allowed him to develop characters with fewer obligations to other ongoing series.Thomas, Roy, interviewed in Wizard Magazine (19).
Hawkeye's solo publication continued with Solo Avengers in December 1987, a split book that gave the character an eleven-page feature while using the second half of each issue to showcase supporting Avengers characters. The title provided Hawkeye with a regular narrative venue while functioning as an incubator for new creative talent and untested characters. The book ran for 40 issues (retitled Avengers Spotlight from issue #21 in August 1989) before concluding in January 1991.
1990s The 1990s saw Hawkeye's solo publication stall. A second volume of Hawkeye ran for four issues in 1994, written by Chuck Dixon and set during Clint's period of isolation in the Canadian wilderness following Mockingbird's death; it failed to generate an ongoing series. Hawkeye: Earth's Mightiest Marksman #1 appeared in 1998 as a standalone one-shot. A third volume, launched in December 2003, lasted only eight issues before cancellation.
Hawkeye's most significant 1990s development came in Thunderbolts, where writer Kurt Busiek cast him as the leader of a team of former supervillains attempting rehabilitation. Clint, himself a former criminal whose redemption had been sponsored by Iron Man, was now replicating Captain America's mentorship relationship for a new generation of reformed antagonists. Busiek's successor on the title, Fabian Nicieza, identified the creative risk of the casting openly: "Hawkeye — much as I love the character — has been too perfect. He's been batting 1,000, but he'll strike out with the bases loaded and shake the team's confidence in him as a leader."Nicieza, Fabian, quoted in Wizard Magazine (97). Nicieza's stated intention was to introduce moral and leadership failures that would test rather than simply affirm Clint's competence.
The character died in The Avengers #502 (2004), during the "Avengers Disassembled" event, sacrificing himself by flying into the engines of a Kree warship conjured by the mentally destabilized Scarlet Witch.
2000s Hawkeye was resurrected during the "House of M" storyline and returned to publication in Brian Michael Bendis's New Avengers, initially operating under the alias Ronin rather than resuming his previous name. The Ronin persona allowed Clint to participate in the team's covert operations without the associations attached to his established costumed identity. Writer Jim McCann, who later worked extensively with the character, described this period as one of genuine psychological instability for Clint: "He went through a lot during that time... He acknowledged as much in that same issue [of New Avengers]. That, and having Bobbi and Cap back, are the things that have led him back to being Hawkeye. Now he is more grounded, sure of himself, and his place in the world."McDermott, Mike. "Another Visit with Jim McCann". 2010.