This month for the most underrated hero inclusion I decided to go with someone that a lot of people know but very few know anything about, that hero is Hawkeye. Hawkeye shot to stardom with his inclusion in the MCU, first appearing as a backdoor cameo in the first Thor, he didn’t appear again until Avengers. Clint Barton aka. Hawkeye, is an agent of SHIELD, former circus performer and full-time Avenger.
Side bar, Hawkeye is the only person in all of comics to belong to both the Justice League and the Avengers.
Let’s take a look at his background…
HISTORY
Clint Barton was created by none other than Stan the man Lee and artist Don Heck, and in his first appearance Hawkeye was the villain of the story. His first appearance was in Tales of Suspense #57 in September of 1964; it wasn’t until May 1965 that he became a member of the Avengers.
Clint was born in Waverly Iowa, but lost both of his parents in a tragic car accident when he was young. After spending over six years in an orphanage Clint and his brother Barney ran away to join the Carson Carnival of Travelling Wonders. Impressed with Clint, Swordsman took him under his wing and with the help of Trick Shot, they trained Clint to become a master archer. When Clint discovered his mentor and father figure, Swordsman was embezzling money from the Carnival he resigned to turn him in, but before he could accomplish this, he was beaten and left for dead. Clint bounced from circus to circus and eventually adopted the title of Hawkeye the World’s Greatest Marksman. When he witnessed Iron Man in action he decided to become a costumed superhero himself, but was mistaken for a thief on his first outing. He ran into Black Widow (who was spying for the Soviet union at the time) and fell in love with her going so far as to aid her in stealing tech from Stark Industries. After a battle with Iron Man, in which Widow was seriously injured, Hawkeye broke off the battle to help her only to find she had disappeared, it was at this time that he decided to be a “Straight Shooter”.
After saving Edwin Jarvis and his mother from a mugger, Hawkeye was invited back to Avengers mansion to force a confrontation to allow him to clear his name. He was eventually invited to join the Avengers along with new recruits Scarlet With and Quicksilver, the latter of which he clashed with constantly.
During a pitched battle with the Avengers, Hawkeye’s bow was broken. He adopted a new costume and identity and succeeded Hank Pym as Goliath. Several adventures occur involving Clint’s brother Barney (who turns out to be an undercover FBI agent) and Swordsman in which Swordsman is captured bringing Clint justice for his brother’s death. At the end of Kree/Skrull War Vision and Hawkeye butt heads over their affections for Scarlet Witch causing Clint to return to his original costume and go solo.
LOSS OF HEARING
Clint held many positions in his many years of comic publications from Avenger to solo hero, Head of Security of Cross Technological Enterprises, It was during his time as the head of security for Cross Technological that he met and fell in love with Barbara “Bobbi” Morse aka Mokingbird. When the two of them battle Crossfire to save the superhero community Hawkeye was rendered deaf by a combination of a sonic arrow and the sonic weapon being used by Crossfire. They briefly established the West Coast Avengers, and battle Mephisto and Satannish. During the battle with Satannish and Mephisto Mockingbird is killed and dies in Hawkeye’s arms. Hawkeye leaves the West Coast Avengers and disbands the team. He rejoins the original Avengers right before the Onslaught event and has his hearing restored by Franklin Richards because when Franklin remade the Avengers he remade them how he remembered them, which was when Hawkeye wasn’t deaf.
DEATH + RESURRECTION
He leaves to head up the first iteration of the Thunderbolts, but quickly returns to the team in time for the House of M. During the House of M he sacrifices himself to save his fellow Avengers only to be reborn by Scarlet Witch’s powers with no memory of his previous death. When he is given the ability to remember he is horrified at what Wanda has done and during the final confrontation shoots her in the back with an arrow. In retaliation one of Wanda’s children wipes Hawkeye from existence killing him once more. When House of M is fixed and reality re-written Hawkeye is still presumed dead.
Unknown to the rest of the Avengers Hawkeye was resurrected when Wanda fixed reality. he traveled the Earth for several months, finding a Wanda with no memory of her life as Scarlet Witch and no powers. The two get it on and then Hawkeye leaves and returns to New York when he hears of the assassination of Captain America. He joins the New Avengers as Ronin and keeps this identity for several months until the Secret Invasion story line where Mockingbird is revealed to have been alive for years as a captive of the Skrulls.
So many things happen since Secret Invasion it’s hard to list them all, he begins losing his sight, his brother is alive, he kills Bruce Banner in Civil War II. Yes.. he kills Bruce Banner and is found not guilty during a full criminal trial.
Let’s move onto his powers..
POWERS AND ABILITIES
Hawkeye is a human man with exceptional aim.
He is trained to the peak of human conditioning and is bale to battle many meta-human foes with just his body and his bow with trick arrows.
He is an exceptional fencer, acrobat and has considerable strength for someone who is not meta.
It is revealed that Hawkeye’s bow has a 250lb draw weight which is considerable when you take into account the average long bow has a 75-100lb weight draw.
As I said before he uses a variety of trick arrows much like Green Arrow from DC comics. Some of these arrows include: sonic arrows, explosive arrows, shock arrows, disruptor arrows, EMP arrows, and good old fashioned broadtipped.
During his tenure as Ronin he was also proficient with several melee weapons including the Katana.
He is also shown to have the ability to turn any object into a weapon by throwing it.
REASONS HE’S UNDERRATED
Hawkeye is vastly underrated because on a team that boasts a demi-god, a hulk, a tech genius, immortal warrior with metal claws, spider-man, and Captain America… he is just a guy with a bow an arrows.
There is a scene from Avengers Age of Ultron wherein Hawkeye tells Scarlet Witch that “there is an army of evil robots attacking the city, the city is flying, and I have a bow and arrow… none of this makes sense. But if you step out that door you are an Avenger…” This scene shows Hawkeye’s true power and that is to inspire his fellow teammates. When the super human teammates are down and feeling like they can’t win Hawkeye is there to bring them back into the fight. Most of the time it consists of him saying “…how can you be down and I’m not?! Get up!”.
Not only does Hawkeye provide the pick me up that some of the heroes need in the fight but he also doesn’t back down from a challenge. Hawkeye is a man, a man with a bow and arrow who never misses, but still just a man. Yet, he fights people like Ultron, Thanos and even Hulk on occasion without batting an eye because he knows he has to. Hawkeye will take on whoever is challenging him because as an Avenger you don’t get to pick your enemies, he knows he might not make it but he believes in himself and his team that they will win in the end.
Currently Hawkeye is portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the MCU and he does a fantastic job. In Age of Ultron we were introduced to his family which is a sad point as well. The Russo brothers confirmed that Hawkeye will be in Avengers 4 but he will adopt the persona of Ronin, this means there’s probably a good chance that his family is going to die in the third Avengers.
This concludes the third issue of Most underrated heroes. Let me know who you think an underrated hero is!
The Multiverse 
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