Clint Barton was born in
Waverly, Iowa. At a young age he lost both of his parents in a car crash. After six years in an orphanage, Clint and his brother
Barney Barton ran away to join the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. Clint soon caught the eye of the
Swordsman, who took the young boy on as his assistant. Along with the help of
Trick Shot, the Swordsman trained Clint to become a master
archer. Clint later found the Swordsman embezzling money from the carnival. Before he could turn his mentor over to the authorities, Clint was beaten and left for dead, allowing the Swordsman to escape town. Clint's relationship with his brother Barney and Trick Shot soon deteriorated as well. Clint adapted his archery skills to become a star carnival attraction, a master archer called "Hawkeye", otherwise known as "The World's Greatest Marksman". He spent some time as a member of
Tiboldt's Circus, before joining the
Coney Island Circus. He witnessed
Iron Man in action and was inspired to become a costumed hero. However, after a misunderstanding on his first outing, Hawkeye was accused of theft and believed to be a criminal. On the run, the naive Hawkeye met
Black Widow, a spy for the
Soviet Union, with whom he fell in love. Mindlessly following Black Widow, Hawkeye aided her attempts to steal technology developed by Tony Stark (Iron Man). In one of their battles with Iron Man, Black Widow was seriously injured. Hawkeye rescued her and fled the battle to save her life. But before Hawkeye could take her to a hospital, Black Widow disappeared. Hawkeye decided to be a "straight-shooter" from then on.
Avengers Hawkeye later rescues
Edwin Jarvis and his mother from a mugger. In gratitude, Jarvis invites Hawkeye to
Avengers Mansion and stages a confrontation to allow the archer to clear his name and gain the trust of the Avengers. Hawkeye is then sponsored by his former enemy Iron Man, who sees that he is serious about becoming a hero. Led by
Captain America, Hawkeye joins the team along with
Quicksilver and the
Scarlet Witch to form the second incarnation of the Avengers. Almost straight away, Hawkeye clashes with his fellow Avengers. His romantic intentions towards the Scarlet Witch are met with hostility from her brother, Quicksilver. Hawkeye rebels against Captain America's leadership (due to his past problems with authority figures), but over time comes to respect him as a mentor and a friend. When the
Swordsman attempted to join the Avengers, Hawkeye warned them of his previous history with the villain. on the cover of
Avengers #63 (April 1969). Art by
Gene Colan. Hawkeye enjoys many adventures with the Avengers and proves himself a hero on numerous occasions. However, when his bow breaks during a crucial moment in a battle, Clint decides to adopt the
Goliath costume and identity, succeeding
Hank Pym. Barton (as Goliath) was later approached by his brother
Barney Barton who was now a big-time racketeer. Barney had learned of
Egghead's plans to construct an orbiting laser death-ray to extort money from the United States and came to the Avengers for help. The Avengers confronted Egghead's allies, the
Mad Thinker and the
Puppet Master. Tragically, Barney died in the ensuing battle; It was later revealed that Barney Barton was actually an undercover FBI agent. Soon after this encounter, Egghead hires the Swordsman to capture Goliath (thinking him to be Pym instead of Clint). Clint defeats and captures both criminals, finding justice for his brother at last. At the conclusion of the
Kree-Skrull War Clint resumes the identity of Hawkeye with a new costume. After several adventures, Hawkeye quits the Avengers after a bitter rift with the
Vision over the affections of the Scarlet Witch. Barton returns to his original Hawkeye costume and strikes out on his own. Hawkeye returns to the Avengers when the current members of the team begin to mysteriously disappear. The remaining Avengers discover it to be the work of the
Collector of the
Elders of the Universe. After his teammates were all defeated, Hawkeye single-handedly defeats the Collector, and joins the team for the final battle against
Korvac. Afterwards, Hawkeye's victory is dashed when the Avengers' new government liaison
Henry Peter Gyrich limits the roster and replaces him with the
Falcon, in an attempt to make the team more "politically acceptable". After initially failing to find work in his civilian identity, Hawkeye gains employment with
Cross Technological Enterprises as the Head of Security.
Marriage to Mockingbird Returning to Cross Technological Enterprises, Hawkeye meets the former
S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, also known as the hero
Mockingbird. Together, they discover that
Crossfire, cousin of the company's original owner
Darren Cross, was hatching a plot to destroy the superhero community via an aggression-inducing sonic weapon. Hawkeye and Mockingbird manage to defeat him (although Hawkeye is rendered 80%
deaf when he uses a sonic arrow to counter Crossfire's weapon) and the two heroes get married shortly afterwards. At the direction of then-Avengers chair the Vision, Hawkeye (now using a
hearing aid) and Mockingbird travel to
Los Angeles to establish a west coast branch of the Avengers, known as the
West Coast Avengers. While searching for a base of operations, Hawkeye and Mockingbird battle a vengeful Crossfire, who had recently broken out of prison. They manage to defeat the supervillain, aided by former actress
Moira Brandon, who later allows her mansion to become the new Avengers Compound. On one of the West Coast Avengers adventures, when the team was lost in time, Mockingbird was kidnapped by an
Old Western hero called Lincoln Slade, the
Phantom Rider. The Phantom Rider drugs Mockingbird, convinces her that they are in love, and forces her to engage in a sexual relationship. Mockingbird soon regains her senses. In the resulting battle between the two, Mockingbird allows the Phantom Rider to fall to his death. Afterwards, when Mockingbird confesses what she did, Hawkeye is stunned that his wife would allow a man to die instead of facing justice. Their relationship becomes frayed as Mockingbird leaves the West Coast Avengers and separates from Hawkeye. Hawkeye is challenged to a duel to the death by his former mentor Trick Shot. Hawkeye reluctantly accepts the challenge and wins. Trick Shot reveals that he is dying of cancer and wants to die honorably in battle. Hawkeye, instead of granting his former mentor's wish, promises to fund his medical care. Later, when Crossfire places a bounty on Hawkeye's right arm, Trick Shot (whose cancer had gone into remission) returns to aid his former pupil. Along with Mockingbird, the two archers defeat an army of supervillains looking to lay claim to the bounty. After this altercation with Crossfire, Hawkeye tells Mockingbird that he was wrong to blame her for what happened with the Phantom Rider. The pair soon reconcile. The West Coast Avengers are then caught in the middle of a supernatural battle between
Mephisto and
Satannish. The team are able to defeat the two demons and force them back to their own realms. However, Mephisto retaliates by firing energy blasts at the escaping West Coast Avengers. Mockingbird sacrifices herself to save Hawkeye and dies in her husband's arms. Embittered by Mockingbird's death, Hawkeye leaves the team, which is disbanded almost immediately afterwards. Hawkeye isolates himself in the Canadian Rockies to separate himself from the world. He is soon forced to battle the
Secret Empire. He manages to defeat
Viper, the leader of the Secret Empire, and her hired supervillains,
Javelynn and his old mentor Trick Shot. Hawkeye returns to the Avengers just prior to the battle with the entity
Onslaught, in which the Avengers (including Hawkeye) are apparently killed.
Franklin Richards, however, transported them all to a
pocket universe where the heroes led altered lives. The heroes eventually learned the truth and they were returned to their own universe. Hawkeye's hearing was fully restored because, when Franklin Richards recreated the heroes in the new universe, he based them on how he remembered them.
Thunderbolts When the Avengers returned, they were abducted by
Morgan le Fay and later they fought the
Squadron Supreme. Then Hawkeye aids Avenger trainees
Justice and
Firestar to defeat the Taskmaster and
Albino. but he later resigns the team to assume leadership of the first generation of the
Thunderbolts, who had broken away from the influence of
Helmut Zemo. Disguised as
Dreadknight, he contacted the team and later he trained them in the fashion of former teammate Captain America, to try to shaped them into a cohesive fighting unit. Hawkeye begins a romantic relationship with fellow Thunderbolts member
Moonstone who Hawkeye is proving to be a good influence on. Later, Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts travel to Hell to save the soul of Mockingbird. They defeat the demonic Mephisto, but Hawkeye is unable to find his wife. To ensure that his Thunderbolts are given full pardons, Hawkeye allows himself to be arrested in their place. The Thunderbolts' past crimes are erased on the condition that they retire from costumed heroics. The team reluctantly agrees. Later, when Hawkeye had gotten out of prison, the team comes back together to defeat Graviton once again. Convinced that they are ready to be heroes in their own right, Hawkeye hands leadership of the Thunderbolts to
Citizen V (whose mind was actually under the control of Baron Zemo) and leaves the team.
Death Hawkeye joins the Avengers once more, and begins a brief romantic relationship with team member
Wasp. He also embarks on some solo adventures where he uncovers a plot to steal an ancient artifact in Laos, and investigates the murder of a former Soviet colonel. A past version of Hawkeye is also plucked from time by the
Time Variance Authority to serve as a juror in a case involving former Avengers teammate
She-Hulk. She-Hulk tries unsuccessfully to warn Hawkeye as to his future.
Revival When the Scarlet Witch inadvertently
alters reality, Hawkeye is resurrected with no memory of previous events. When young mutant
Layla Miller gives several heroes (including Hawkeye) the ability to remember, he is horrified at the Scarlet Witch's actions. Hawkeye shoots Wanda in the back with an arrow. In retaliation, one of her recreated children wipes Hawkeye from existence, killing him once more. When the Scarlet Witch's reality is eventually undone, Hawkeye is still presumed dead. However, the recently formed
New Avengers find his bow and arrows on the site of the old Avengers Mansion, pinning up an article about his death.
Return and New Avengers Unknown to the New Avengers, Hawkeye is resurrected once reality was restored. He seeks out Doctor Strange who offers Hawkeye shelter while he comes to terms with his new life. Against the advice of Dr. Strange, Hawkeye eventually travels to
Mount Wundagore and finds the
Scarlet Witch living a normal life with no memory of her past and apparently without mutant abilities. The two become intimate and Hawkeye then leaves Wanda to her normal life. Returning to the United States, Hawkeye learns about the assassination of
Captain America. He confronts
Tony Stark, who then offers Hawkeye the Captain America shield and costume to continue the legacy. Hawkeye is later inspired by the words of
Kate Bishop, whom he met while hiding his identity, and rejects Stark's offer. Hawkeye returns to see Dr. Strange and meets the New Avengers. The team invites Hawkeye to join the team. Hawkeye accepts, and accompanies the team on a mission to Japan to rescue
Echo. However, leaving behind his Hawkeye identity, Clint Barton takes on the disguise of
Ronin. Echo, the original Ronin, later gives Barton her blessing to adopt her old identity. Clint later meets Kate Bishop again, but this time reveals his true identity, much to Kate's surprise. Impressed with Kate's skill with a bow, and the fact she reminds him of himself at her age, Clint blesses Kate to continue using the Hawkeye codename. Clint (as Ronin) was part of the New Avengers team that head to the
Savage Land after a tip from
Spider-Woman that a
Skrull ship had crash landed there. Emerging from the crashed ship was a selection of heroes claiming to have been abducted, one of which was Mockingbird. Clint believes that she is the real Mockingbird until
Mister Fantastic's invention proves that the heroes from the Skrull ship were all imposters. Later, after the war for Earth was won, Clint is reunited with the real Mockingbird, who was revealed to have been held captive by the Skrulls for years.
Dark Reign and Siege Clint attempts to help Mockingbird as she tries to adapt to life back on Earth. He accompanies her to Zaragoza, Spain, to battle
Monica Rappaccini and the hordes of
A.I.M. in an effort to deactivate a "dirty bomb" designed by the evil scientific group. Despite their years apart, Clint and Mockingbird battle with comfort and understanding. They manage to defeat A.I.M. and foil their evil plot. At the conclusion of the Skrull war,
S.H.I.E.L.D. is dissolved and
Norman Osborn is
placed in power of national security. Osborn creates his own team of
villainous Avengers by stealing the costumed identities of previous Avengers. The supervillain assassin
Bullseye joins the team and takes on the Hawkeye mantle. Watching the Avengers news coverage on television with the rest of the New Avengers, Clint is stunned to see the events taking place. Clint unmasked himself on network television and publicly denounces Osborn's regime. He is later elected as the leader of the New Avengers and makes toppling Osborn and the Hood from power his number one priority. Clint argues that the only way to beat Osborn is to kill him, although the rest of the team disagrees. Clint attempts to storm Avengers Tower single-handedly to achieve his goal. He defeats the Dark Avengers, but is captured and arrested when, after failing to kill Osborn, he is attacked from behind by
Ares. Clint was imprisoned and tortured at the hands of
Mentallo. He was later freed by his teammates and apologized for his actions.
Heroic Age During the "
Heroic Age", Steve Rogers puts together a new team of Avengers. Clint joins the team and returns to his Hawkeye identity Although he encourages
Kate Bishop to keep the Hawkeye identity as well. He and Mockingbird are also members of the New Avengers, Although Hawkeye later leaves the New Avengers when he receives an Avengers priority call from the main team, claiming that he was only there to spend time with his wife. Hawkeye aids Mockingbird and her anti-terrorist organization, the
World Counter-terrorism Agency. Together, they thwart Crossfire's illegal arms operation, and encounter Lincoln Slade's descendant, Jaime Slade, who later goes onto become the new Phantom Rider. Crossfire and the new Phantom Rider team-up to battle the heroes. This feud has its casualties with Mockingbird's mother being severely wounded and the death of Hamilton Slade, both at the hands of Crossfire. Hawkeye leaves the W.C.A. after it becomes clear that his relationship with Mockingbird has become too strained. However, he quickly rejoins after being informed by Steve Rogers that a kill list of international spies includes Mockingbird. Hawkeye and Mockingbird team up with Black Widow to take on the mysterious new Ronin and the Dark Ocean Society. The new Ronin is later revealed to be Alexei Shostakov, the former
Red Guardian and ex-husband of Black Widow. During the final battle with the new Ronin, Hawkeye receives a strong blow to the head. When the battle is won, he assures Mockingbird and Black Widow that he suffered no ill effects from the blow. The blow to the head that Hawkeye received proves to be more serious than first thought. While battling the
Lethal Legion with the Avengers, Hawkeye's aim is shown to be faltering. After the battle, Tony Stark,
Donald Blake and Steve Rogers examine Hawkeye to discover what is causing it. Their diagnosis is that Hawkeye is steadily losing his sight and will soon go blind. Barney Barton, who has since taken up the Trick Shot mantle, agrees to a bone marrow transplant to save his brother's sight, but only so he could battle Hawkeye again in the future.
Shattered Heroes Following the "
Fear Itself" storyline, the
Avengers Academy is reopened in
Palos Verdes at the former West Coast Avengers headquarters, where Barton accepts an offer to become a teacher. The character receives a new costume in
Avengers vol. 4 #18.
Cullen Bunn, writer of
Captain America & Hawkeye, stated the costume was influenced slightly by
The Avengers film. In 2012, Hawkeye becomes the leader of the
Secret Avengers. The 2012
critically acclaimed Hawkeye vol. 4 solo series focuses on Hawkeye defending an apartment building from the
Tracksuit Mafia with the assistance of Kate and his brother Barney. This series also reintroduces Hawkeye as a deaf character after a mercenary known as
Kazi the Clown jammed two of Hawkeye's arrows into his ears. Hawkeye became a member of the New Avengers led by
Sunspot at the request of S.H.I.E.L.D., who are suspicious of Sunspot's activities and want Clint to spy on them. However, during a conflict, Hawkeye is fired from S.H.I.E.L.D. due to deciding to side with the New Avengers against them and following Songbird's betrayal of the team as a S.H.I.E.L.D. double agent.
Civil War II During the
Civil War II storyline, Hawkeye shoots Bruce Banner in the head with an arrow in light of
Ulysses Cain's vision of a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the dead superheroes. During the Avengers-presided trial, Hawkeye stated that Banner approached him and asked for Hawkeye to kill him if he ever became Hulk again. He is acquitted of all charges and his actions heavily divided the superhero community in the Ulysses conflict.
Occupy Avengers In the pages of "
Occupy Avengers", Clint starts traveling the country and focuses his efforts towards helping the underprivileged with community based problems in an effort to redeem his actions from the event, beginning with the water supply in Santa Rosa. He eventually gains the aid of the
Red Wolf of Earth-51920 to help him fight for those who cannot defend themselves.
Secret Empire In the "
Secret Empire" storyline, Captain America leads
Hydra's takeover of the United States. Hawkeye becomes the leader of the few free heroes left in the country (the others are either trapped outside Earth's atmosphere, trapped in New York behind a
Darkforce shield, or working with Hydra). After
Rick Jones is able to send information to the heroes revealing that Captain America has been "brainwashed" by the
Cosmic Cube Kobik to believe that he has been a Hydra agent since childhood, Hawkeye is one of the heroes favoring the idea that they can recover the fragmented cube and use it to restore Rogers to normal, in opposition to Black Widow's plan to just kill Rogers and stop him. Despite their opposing viewpoints, Hawkeye falls back in love with Black Widow and is devastated by her supposed death at the hands of the evil Steve Rogers.
Fresh Start Shortly after Natasha's supposed death, a number of her enemies have been killed off. Hawkeye and
Winter Soldier start investigating the trail of bodies left behind to uncover the mysterious assassin and determine if Black Widow is still alive. They eventually discover that she was cloned by the Black Widow Ops Program following her death. When Winter Soldier and Hawkeye arrive at the
Red Room, the Black Widow clone drops her cover and begins killing her superiors, liberating the recruits, and destroying all the clones and Epsilon Red. When authorities arrive, Black Widow leaves the Red Room, leaving a note for Hawkeye to stop following her and for Winter Soldier to join her in ending the Red Room. During the "
Fresh Start" relaunch, Clint and Kate decided to revive the
West Coast Avengers following an attack by land sharks in
Santa Monica. For that, they recruited
America Chavez and Kate's boyfriend Johnny "Fuse" Watts, who helped in the mission, and were eventually joined by
Gwenpool and
Kid Omega. Given their lack of funds, the newly formed team tried to get financiers by starring in a
reality show following their exploits.
Freefall After successfully arresting
Hood, Clint is outraged to learn that the court let Hood go free while sending his underlings to jail. During this time, he is also dating
Linda Carter. Shortly afterwards, someone dressed as Ronin begins attacking and robbing the Hood's facilities around New York. As Hood hunts down Ronin, Clint struggles to maintain his relationship with Linda and continue to lie to the other heroes. This comes to a head when Hood hires Bullseye, who steals Clint's Ronin costume to frame him for murder. Clint confronts Hood and defeats him by removing his powers with
Count Nefaria's help.
Thunderbolts (Revival) Following the events of "Freefall",
Luke Cage, now mayor of New York City, asks Clint to lead a new Thunderbolts team that would operate as the only legally sanctioned super-hero team in the city, to which Clint accepts. The team consists of
America Chavez,
Power Man (Víctor Álvarez), Guston Glory, Eegro the Unbreakable,
Persuasion and
Spectrum. At a press meeting, Clint hallucinates Black Widow and Mockingbird berating him for his past. His hallucination is cut short when the city is attacked by
Nightmare. Nightmare reveals that most of the events are a product of Nightmare's manipulations, including Clint rekindling his relationship with Mockingbird. Nightmare wants to use America Chavez's powers to dimension-hop to absorb the nightmares of the
multiverse. Nightmare causes the team to hear voices that prey on their insecurities. Nightmare mocks Clint, commenting on his leadership skills and selfishness, going as far as to urge Clint to die. The team ultimately prevails and is put on a probation due to their property damage. Clint agrees to keep leading the team. Clint contacts Mockingbird, asking her to get coffee with him, to which she agrees. ==Skills and abilities==