Clint Barton

Character
Name:	Clint Barton
Occupation:	Assassin/Superhero
Relationships:	Natasha Romanova (partner), Phil Coulson (colleague), Kate Bishop ("student"/partner/colleague), Bobbi Morse (love interest/partner/colleague), Laura Barton (wife in the Ultimate Marvel and MCU), Callum & Lewis Barton (Ultimate Marvel sons), Nicole Barton (Ultimate Marvel daughter) Cooper & Nathaniel Barton (MCU sons) and Lila Barton (MCU daughter)
Fandom:	Marvel Comics, The Avengers (Marvel), Thor Movieverse and The Avengers Movieverse (MCU) Hawkeye (MCU TV series)
Other:
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Clint Barton is the alter ego of Hawkeye from the Marvel Comics series The Avengers. He also appears as a main character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and sometimes appears in other Avengers cartoon related shows.

Canon

Comics

Hawkeye first appeared in Marvel Comics as early as 1964; he has also been featured in television, film, video games and toys.

Clint spent his early childhood in an abusive household in Waverly, Iowa. After his parents died in a car crash, he and his brother spend years in an orphanage before they ran away to join a circus called the Carson Carnival of Travelling Wonders. Clint doesn't have a high school diploma or much traditional education at all.

He eventually becomes proficient enough with a bow in the circus to get his own solo act as "The Amazing Hawkeye." After a stint of villainy on the side of Natasha Romanova, he becomes a superhero. He has played an important role in the Avengers, West Coast Avengers, and the Thunderbolts teams.

Clint Barton has hearing loss in several of the comics.

Has briefly gone by the aliases of Ronin, Goliath, and the Golden Archer.

In the Ultimate Universe, Clint was able to have a more stable family life with his wife, Laura Barton, and his three kids. A traitor within the Ultimates led a black ops team to Hawkeye's home, slaughtering the entire Barton family. Clint was the sole survivor.

MCU

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe portrayed by Jeremy Renner, he first appeared in an uncredited cameo in Thor 1 and later starred in The Avengers film. He appears in The Avengers: Age of Ultron where he is shown as married with children. His MCU version is based on the Ultimates verse in the comics.

The MCU TV series Hawkeye was first aired in 2021 and takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Hawkeye (2021)

Taking place after the events of Endgame in the MCU, it follows Clint as he meets Kate Bishop, and he reluctantly teams up with her as they try and determine who has been stealing things from the former Avengers compound and selling them on the black market. Meanwhile, they are being pursued by the tracksuit mafia, an assassin has been hired to kill Clint, and Kate adopts a one-eyed pizza loving dog. It is heavily inspired by the Matt Fraction comics, and is significant because in the series it is confirmed that Clint has gone almost completely deaf and must use hearing aids, and it establishes Clint as Kate's mentor.

Other Adaptions

Clint appears in the animated movies: Iron Man: Rise of Technovore, as a special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and partner of Black Widow, and Next Avengers, as the father of Francis Barton.

Clint appears in various animated TV series: The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, Super Hero Squad Show, Iron Man: The Animated Series, The Avengers: United They Stand, and Iron Man: Armored Adventures.

Clint also appears in various video and mobile games such as Marvel's Avengers Academy.

Fandom

Characterization

Typical Hawkeye moodboard by buckybuck inspired by Matt Fraction's Hawkeye comics.

Clint's characterization in fanfic is typically a mix of his various incarnations in different but related canons. With the emergence of the Clint/Coulson pairing in 2011 after the premier of the first Thor movie, fans were looking for more canon material to characterize Clint better, as there was not much to build on in the MCU at that point. Lots of people turned to the comics, specifically to Matt Fraction's Hawkeye comic that was being published at the time (see Hawkguy below). Clint's backstory from the 616 verse is often imported into MCU-based fic despite it contradicting established MCU canon, while his personality is often informed by comics-based fanon.

I was in Clint fandom, and there was so much Fraction from way before [Fraction's Hawkeye book] finished. Even if people weren't actually reading it (and I have no idea if people were), it was definitely a big part of the Clint comics posts passed around to build backstory on. I noped out on the book before it finished, largely because the fandom, which was MCU heavy, was so obnoxious about it. (Also seen a lot: the child abuse flashback parts of Blindspot.)

Anonymous

As subsequent movies failed to develop Clint, more and more fans became disappointed in his MCU portrayal. Some fans went as far as to bash his actor for MCU Clint not being more like the comics or the Avengers Assemble version of the character.

Further reading: Don’t blame Jeremy Renner

Deafness

Clint's hearing loss got a lot of attention in fandom. A lot of people felt like the MCU erased his deafness, making it a case of ableism in canon, while others pointed out that the comics re-canonizing his deafness were published after the first Avengers movie came out so the MCU couldn't have built on that story.

Here is a rundown of the history of Hawkeye's deafness and why it would be nearly impossible to have represented it in the MCU:

-In Hawkeye (1985) #4 he deafens himself by putting a sonic arrow between his teeth in order to get out of a jam.

-He remains deaf until 1993 at which point he dies and when he is brought back his deafness is healed.

Here is where the timeline gets tricky. David Aja can't meet a deadline to save his life so TECHNICALLY Clint is shot in the ears in issue #15 but issue #16 was published before it so in release date it is issue #15 and issue #15 is issue #16. Issue #15 was released Feb 26 2014 and issue #17 was released March 12 2014.

-In Fraction and Aja's Hawkeye #15 he is shot in the ears with his own arrows by a clown-themed serial killer named Kazi. This also paralyzed his brother Barney from the waist down.

-Hawkeye #17 is the sign language issue. We learn that Clint was temporarily deafened as a child due to child abuse and that he and Barney used to sign with each other when they were young. Untranslated sign language is used throughout the issue (along with clear character body language) to illustrate what is going on.

So you see the problem in this. Joss Whedon could not possibly have known during production of either Avengers or Age of Ultron that Clint was deafened. His deafness is not congenital but is caused from outside sources - MCU Clint would only be deaf matching the canon if someone injured him. There was no erasure whatsoever - Ultimates Clint is not deaf and historically Clint had not been deaf in 616 for twenty years.

I am not deaf but the way a number of people talk about Clint's deafness on tumblr makes me uncomfortable. I dislike the ways that it has become fanon for people who have not read the comics, used for headcanons to show how progressive the Avengers are or how he can use it to connect with Coulson. It feels fetish-y in a way that a lot of mental illness fics and headcanons written by people who aren't mentally ill or don't have the mental illness they are writing about (I have bipolar and whoo boy those inaccurate and offensive fics) feel fetish-y.

I also dislike that it's directly related to a trend in which Fraction and Aja's Hawkeye is viewed as the only Hawkeye there is where meanwhile spectacular titles influenced by it (All New Hawkeye, Secret Avengers vol. 3) do not get nearly as much attention. Hawkeye interpretations prior to Fraction and Aja get shafted too.

Anonymous

The Hawkeye Initiative

Created on December 2nd 2012, The Hawkeye Initiative uses Clint Barton/Hawkeye and other male comic characters to illustrate how deformed, hyper-sexualized, and impossibly contorted women are commonly illustrated in comics, books, and video games.

Hawkeye Movie

Many fans feel that Hawkeye/Clint Barton deserves his own movie, especially since the lack of scenes with Hawkeye in The Avengers (2012) - he spent the majority of the film brainwashed or fighting. Others want him to appear in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or his own television series (Example).

Since the lack of lines in the first one and the expected lack of them in the second film, many criticize Joss Whedon for not giving Hawkeye more screen time, even going as far and joking about how he doesn't know the character (see right image for an example).

Since many of Clint fans are also Clintasha and Natasha Romanoff fans, who also want a Black Widow Movie, many want to see a "Budapest" or "Strike Team Delta" type film, where the two are partners (Example, Example). Others would love a live-action version of the Hawkeye comics by Matt Fraction, along with starring roles for Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog.

After the MCU fandom blew up when it was revealed that Clint owned a farm, movie possibilities also appeared.

#WheresHawkeye

In 2018, Clint was the only original Avenger who was pointedly absent from the marketing campaign of the eagerly anticipated Infinity War movie despite being listed as part of the cast on IMDB, which lead many fans scratching their heads and coming up with possible explanations. Some believed his role was too spoilery to include in trailers, others thought Marvel completely forgot about him. The #WheresHawkeye hashtag appeared on social media, getting more and more use with every new teaser trailer and poster. It also lead to various wacky fanworks. Another hashtag, #JusticeForHawkeye, was used for the same purpose.

Terminology

• Hawkguy: The term is most often used to refer to a specific characterization seen in Hawkeye comics written by Matt Fraction. Fraction deviated from previous characterizations by portraying Clint as an endearing human disaster who didn't seem nearly as competent or smart as previous stories have established. Some claimed it was due to Clint being in a depressive funk, others claimed it was character assassination. Out of context comic panels circulated on Tumblr made the Hawkguy portrayal fairly popular among MCU fans who otherwise didn't care for the comics. The Hawkguy characterization comes with a handful of easily recognizable traits: clumsiness, social ineptitude, an exaggerated love of pizza, coffee and the Dog Cops show, as well as the "This looks bad." and "Aww, [X], no." catchphrases.
• Ronin Clint: Ronin is an identity he takes up in the comics after the apparent death of Steve Rogers. The term started appearing more in the MCU fandom when someone leaked behind the scenes photos of Jeremy Renner wearing what appeared to be the Ronin armor on the set of Avengers: Endgame. The photos sparked many fan theories.

Common Tropes and Fanon

• Six Degrees of Jeremy Renner - There have been several fics that reference previous roles for Jeremy Renner; crossovers with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (in which Jeremy Renner played the spy character of William Brandt) tend to be the most common. Some notable examples are the Just Twinny verse, in which Brandt and Clint Barton are look-alikes but not related and the one out of many and all of them the same series, in which all of Jeremy Renner's previous character roles have been Clint Barton undercover. This later included Hansel from Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
  • Clint Barton is William Brandt tag at AO3
  • Clint Barton is Aaron Cross tag at AO3
  • Clint Barton is Brian Gamble tag at AO3
  • Clint Barton is William James tag at AO3
• Fix-it fics for the big spoiler in the movie quickly became one of the most common tropes in the pairing after the release of The Avengers (2012).
• Budapest - Several fanworks have attempts to explore an exchange between Natasha and Clint in The Avengers film in which Natasha says "Just like Budapest all over again!" and Clint responds "You and I remember Budapest very differently."
• Domestic Avengers (also known as Superfamily): a common fanfic idea where Clint and the other Avengers characters live together and/or are family. Clint is sometimes considered a parent alongside Natasha or as an "uncle".
• Ceiling Vent Clint Barton - A collective headcanon (that is taken as actual canon by a large number of fans), where Clint spends his time crawling through air ducts and vents. Nesting may also be involved in some cases.
• Hearing Loss/Disability fic - where fans often use his comic book history of having hearing loss in fics, where he's wearing hearing aids or have to see a person's lips to understand what they are saying. Some MCU works have it canonized in that universe since it is not clear if MCU version has hearing loss or not.
• Post-Mind Control - fanworks that deal with Clint dealing with Loki's mind control in the The Avengers film, in some works, it usually shown as a solidarity with Bucky Barnes (brainwashed and altered to become the Winter Solider), Natasha Romanoff (Red Room and KBG past ties, plus possible AOU spoilers), and Erik Selvig (also was mind controlled by Loki in the film, he apparently went a little insane as shown in Thor: The Dark World). (Gif Example of Clint, Bucky and Natasha)
• Where was Clint during CA2? - fanworks that dealt with the whereabouts of Clint during CA2.
• Clint Barton's Farm - A clip from Avengers: Age of Ultron shown Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are at Clint's farm. Since it's been two years since the first film and no news since about Clint in the MCU (not in Thor 2 or CA2), and his MCU history is a mystery - many fans took to the news.
• Pizza Dog (Lucky) and Dog Cops - In comics canon Clint adopts a one-eyed dog named Arrow, which he renames Lucky (it's also known as Pizza Dog due to its favourite food). He shares Lucky with Kate Bishop, who takes him with her to LA when they separate. He is also a fan of a TV show called Dog Cops and tries to avoid spoilers from Wolverine, Spider-Man and other fans. Both of these interests are often imported into stories set in the MCU.
• Tracksuit Mafia - A group of Russian gangsters who Barton fights in the comics, sometimes referred to there as the "Tracksuit Draculas"; Barton forced them to sell him the apartment building he lives in after they used illegal tactics to raise the rent, they subsequently tried to kill him. Although none of this is in MCU canon, they are often seen in MCU fanfic, invariably under the "Tracksuit Mafia" name.
• Wingfic and wing fanart - Usually involving hawk-like, more rarely purplish or white wings inspired by his codename. Various examples of this trope: 1st example 2nd example 3rd example 4th example 5th example.
• Woobie Clint - Brainwashed, used as a weapon to fight against his friends, abused as a child and orphaned in comics canon, all of which made it easy to woobify him in fic. An especially popular trope when he's paired with Phil Coulson.

Pairings

See List of MCU pairing names for Clint pairing names.

In the comics fandom, Clint/Bobbi, Clint/Natasha, and Clint/Kate are all fairly common. Rarepairs include Clint/Deadpool and Clint/Wanda Maximoff.

In the MCU fandom, the most popular pairing for Clint is Clint/Coulson, but Clint/Natasha is nearly as popular. Other common pairings for Clint are Bucky/Clint, Bruce/Clint, Clint/Tony, and Clint/Darcy. Hawkeye has been paired with all of the Avengers - in OT6 fics. Clint/Loki is a moderately common dark or enemies to lovers ship. The comic canon pairing of Bobbi Morse/Clint is still fairly rare in the MCU fandom, but it does show up - usually as a past relationship. Clint/Thor, Clint/Scott Lang, and Clint/Maria Hill are rarepairs.

Since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Clint has started being shipped with Clint/Sam Wilson, Clint/Bucky Barnes, and Clint/Brock Rumlow. Clint/Steve is paired up more, sometimes in a threesome with Bucky Barnes or Brock Rumlow. As of 2017, Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes is the third most popular Clint pairing after Clint/Coulson and Clint/Natasha.

Avengers: Age of Ultron making Clint/Laura canon was much complained-about for sinking both Clint/Coulson and Clint/Natasha, but the pairing did gain some fans while many people abandoned the then-juggernaut C/C and C/N ships over time. Clint/Pietro is uncommon but has a loyal following, particularly among Japanese and Korean fans. Clint/Wanda is still fairly rare in the MCU.

Fanworks

Fanfic

• Hollow Your Bones Like A Bird's by Scifigrl47 In the wake of the Chitauri invasion, Clint Barton wakes up in a world that he very nearly had a hand in destroying. And confronting a loss he might not be able to cope with. The Avengers always needed something to avenge, but once the crisis is past, what keeps them together? Part 6 of the Toasterverse
• Untitled by paginationline
• Previously on Dog Cops by Beth H (bethbethbeth), Wherein art imitates life, or, The Avengers Watch the Season Two Premiere of Dog Cops. Arf!
• Just Another Guy With A Bow by myrmidryad, Clint's life is a steady progression from point A to point B, but it's everything that happens between those points that make the story interesting. Things like joining the circus, losing Barney, finding Barney, stumbling into SHIELD, trusting Coulson, making a different call when he's sent to kill the Black Widow, and becoming part of the dysfunctional Avengers team.
• Trainwreck Through A Rear Window by flawedamythyst, Through Clint's big main window, you could see straight across the street and into the apartment opposite, where a man was standing, staring at Clint as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. When he caught Clint's eye, he just shook his head slowly.
• Marriage of Convenience: Marvel Cinematic Universe untitled Thor/Clint fic by harcourt, One year, Earth-time, after taking over Loki's claim on Clint, Thor is back, Clint is different in ways that are odd and disturbing, and Tony is determined to figure out exactly what's going on between him and Thor, because he's not sure he likes what things are looking like.

Artwork

• Let him sleep in his nest by kanapy (original posting deleted)
• Wings Clint by kingbirdkathy
• Hawkeye, ^{Archived version} by Alicexz
• Hawkeye by Lintufriikki
• Avengers in Ink: Hawkeye by loominosity
• Hawkeye by silverginko
• Hawkeye by SeraphimSeranade
• Hawkeye by Phobic42
• Hawkeye by ryodita
• Purple flame by lintares ("What if Barton has his own Tesseract")
• omg-hawkeye
• “love” in korean sign language, ^{Archived version} by rheroism
• The Sounds of the City, ^{Archived version} by petite-madame
• Icarus!Clint, ^{Archived version} by when-it-rains-it-snows
• Hawkeye, ^{Archived version} by petiteallemande

Vids

• Bishop & Barton by puffabilly, Clint and Kate Bishop.
• "Will all our sins be justified?" by TatyanaOracle, a Clint focused vid with Clint/Natasha pairing.
• Hawkeye (Fan-Made Trailer) by TatyanaOracle
• Tribute (Kryptonite)
• Bulletproof
• Hawkeye Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., a fake trailer
• Hawkeye: Vantage Point, fake trailer
• Medicine
• S.H.I.E.L.D. Origins : HAWKEYE
• Sail by Lucy'sHeart

Zines

• Hawk²
• Nothing Burns Like The Cold
• Remember, I Loved You
• Swallow Your Soul

Fanmix

• Vagabond by superbarton
• captain america ain't here by nolifecrisis
• A Real Hero by megalomatic

Meta

• Who do you ship Hawkeye with? by fuckyeahavengingarcher; a note on Clint and love.
• Hawkeye, ^{Archived version} character profile by everycharacterisamarvel

Podfic

• The Only John Wayne Left In This Town written by gyzym, read by regonym

Other Fanworks

• Hawkeye Key chain by ansei. Adorable key chain.
• Hawkguy fancomic: Afternoon Stroll by AstridV, neveralarch
• HAWKEYE: Blindspot #1, ^{Archived version} by bobbimorses, a fake trailer-like gifset depicting Clint's childhood.
• you’re all knotted up inside your skin graphic by clintnatalias

Additional Art Gallery

• 

  Avengers Hawkeye by sean-izaakse, the piece highlighting his classic comics look. As of March 2019, it has over 23,200 views on deviantart

• 

  how ya doin' over there, hawkeye? by crespella, showing Clint with the other Hawkeye Kate Bishop. The style based upon the Matt Fraction Hawkeye comics

• 

  two assassins sitting on a beam by templeait, this being MCU Clint, partnered with Bucky Barnes

• 

  Cover art by brilliontinylines for the fic Hollow Your Bones Like a Bird

Archives and Fannish Links

• Clint Barton works tagged at AO3.
• Barton's Farm community at FFN
• FY-Avengers-Hawkeye (Tumblr)
• Only Human, a shrine dedicated to Clint Barton

Resources

• Hawkeye the Marksman Home Page - 1990s fansite
• Hawkeye page at Wikipedia
• Clint Barton page at Marvel Movies wiki
• Hawkeye chronological and canonical deafness by capitalcitysexdecay
• Mentions of 616 Hawkeye’s deafness prior to 2014 by bobbimorses