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Folks have often seen Hawkeye as an afterthought or even a punchline in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he's now a leading man on Disney+.
The archer debuted in comics as a villain, with his time in Loki's thrall in the first Avengers movie a likely nod to that. Following the lead of the Black Widow, Clint Barton tangled with Iron Man and Spider-Man before joining the team with which he is most associated.
As a child, Clint moved between foster homes with his brother Barney before literally running away and joining the circus. There, he would be mentored by future supervillains Swordsman and Trick Shot.
Even after turning over a new leaf and joining the Avengers, Hawkeye often did not play well with others. This was due at times to romantic rivalries, feelings of inadequacy or a belief that he should be running the show. He too questioned whether an archer had any business standing shoulder-to-shoulder with super-soldiers, thunder gods and high-tech wonders. This led him to borrow Hank Pym's size-changing gimmick and codename and operate as Goliath for a while.
Clint returned to his original identity and briefly joined the Defenders. Later, he would team up with time-traveling cowboy, the Two-Gun Kid.
Hawkeye's next partnership was with Mockingbird, whom he married before returning to the Avengers fold and heading up their West Coast team. When the government put U.S. Agent in charge, Hawkeye left and mentored the Great Lakes Avengers, a hilarious collection of midwestern heroes who adopted the team name without permission.
Although divorce and her apparent death separated Hawkeye and Mockingbird, he remained a frequent member of the Avengers. He left for a while to try his luck leading another team, the villain-turned-hero Thunderbolts. He rejoined his first team before dying at the hands of an unhinged Scarlet Witch in the "Disassembled" storyline.
A wealthy teenager named Kate Bishop took up his mantle as a member of the Young Avengers. The Scarlet Witch brought Clint back in "House of M," but he used the identity of Ronin for a while.
The "Secret Invasion" arc revealed that Mockingbird hadn't been killed, just abducted by the shapeshifting Skrulls, and the two briefly reunited on one of multiple Avengers teams. They later split for good, with Hawkeye becoming involved with teammate Spider-Woman.
In 2012, writer Matt Fraction introduced a solo Hawkeye series that showed what the archer got up to away from the Avengers, and the answer was trouble. Purchasing a Brooklyn apartment building, Hawkeye ran afoul of a group of tracksuit-wearing Russian mobsters and became more of a mentor to Kate, with the two of them sharing the Hawkeye name. The Disney+ show looks to borrow heavily from that series.
This and other recent portrayals of Hawkeye show him as more immature and reckless than Jeremy Renner's take on the character. He's also not the family man the movie Hawkeye was revealed to be. That element comes from the "Ultimates" version of the character, though his family was murdered when the Black Widow betrayed that alternate version of the Avengers.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.
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Recommended Reading
* "Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble" -- Hawkeye leads a new crew of Avengers based in California.
* "Hawkeye: Avenging Archer" -- Collects multiple series that explore Hawkeye's past, his reunion with his long-thought-dead ex-wife Mockingbird and an injury that threatens to rob him of his sight.
* "Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon" -- The opening salvo of the series by Matt Fraction and David Aja, these issues set the stage for Hawkeye's life away from the Avengers, including his partnership with Kate Bishop, and will apparently be a big influence on the show.