Hawkeye over Goliath

[babyblob]

I have always loved Hawkeye. He is just a regular guy with great skill among gods. He proves that skill, courage and skill go a long way to making him a hero. Then Marvel writers turned him into Goliath. I hated this change. To me it was like a slap in the face to the Hawkeye character. It was like them saying that the skill and courage he had were not enough. It was like saying that he had to have a special power to be a decent hero. What are your thoughts.

[Hypestyle]

I don't know how this was handled in-story, but as part of an ongoing storyline, it was interesting, I suppose. Long-term, he was probably meant to come back eventually.

[Snoop Dogg]

On one hand, it's not in sync with the core, compelling premise of the character. On the other, I can't hate it because of Kree/Skrull War nostalgia and I think about Clint in that suit a lot in regards to 60's Avengers. So while I would never have made that decision and I'm glad it was undone, this cover is everything--

[Panic]

I have always loved Hawkeye. He is just a regular guy with great skill among gods. He proves that skill, courage and skill go a long way to making him a hero. Then Marvel writers turned him into Goliath. I hated this change. To me it was like a slap in the face to the Hawkeye character. It was like them saying that the skill and courage he had were not enough. It was like saying that he had to have a special power to be a decent hero. What are your thoughts.

I suspect it was born out of the decision to put Hank Pym back to a shrinking identity. For me, one thing that made The Avengers instantly recognisable was the fact that always had a giant superhero hulking over the rest of the team in group shots. I started reading comics in the 70's, so I doubt younger fans think that way, but it was the Avengers trademark when I was a kid. Maybe they thought they needed another giant, and Hawkeye drew the short straw.

I know there were are ton of complaints at the changes. This is a letters page from Avengers #67 (and it's only one of several that had people commenting on the change - the previous two issues letters pages were of a similar theme):

[Dreaded Porcupine]

He's definitely better as an archer. Being Goliath did get him into space during Operation Galactic Storm. He also got to be the teams heavy hitter in the 70's while Thor and Iron Man took a break.

[XPac]

I never understood making him Goliath, when they already had a shrinking/growing guy. Plus his costume was pretty stupid.

If they absolutely needed a new growing guy, they should have just created a new character rather than changing an existing one.

[Mike_Murdock]

I understand why they did it, but I think Hawkeye is cool as Hawkeye. It has story potential but it works best for me when he realizes that he's great as the greatest archer in the world.

[K7P5V]

I have always loved Hawkeye. He is just a regular guy with great skill among gods. He proves that skill, courage and skill go a long way to making him a hero. Then Marvel writers turned him into Goliath. I hated this change. To me it was like a slap in the face to the Hawkeye character. It was like them saying that the skill and courage he had were not enough. It was like saying that he had to have a special power to be a decent hero. What are your thoughts.

Me too. Been a Hawkeye fan since the beginning. Long may he reign...

[Snoop Dogg]

Hail to the king, baby!

[JudicatorPrime]

I never quite understood the fixation with giants, either, but this was the early years and I don't think they wanted to risk bringing in a new character to replace the personality that Clint brought to the team. I prefer him as Hawkeye as long as he's not wearing this...

[gurkle]

One thing Roy Thomas mentioned in the letters sections was that he wanted Hank to be Yellowjacket because he thought Hank and Jan would be a better team if they had matched powers again. (I think he really wanted Hank to be Ant-Man again, but he didn't get to do that until the early '70s.) But then that left Vision as the only strong guy on the team, so Hawkeye - who even then got some razzing for being a guy with a bow and arrow on Earth's Mightiest Heroes - stepped into the role.

I notice that once Thomas was able to reinstall Iron Man and Thor as full-time Avengers, Goliath went back to being Hawkeye. When Stan Lee was editor he always refused to let Thomas use those characters as regular Avengers because he didn't like characters starring in two books, so it wasn't until Thomas became editor that he was able to change that and make Goliath redundant.

[Phoenixx9]

I never quite understood the fixation with giants, either, but this was the early years and I don't think they wanted to risk bringing in a new character to replace the personality that Clint brought to the team. I prefer him as Hawkeye as long as he's not wearing this...

I guess Thor knew who it was from...er, ah....his legs?

[Digifiend]

I suspect it was born out of the decision to put Hank Pym back to a shrinking identity. For me, one thing that made The Avengers instantly recognisable was the fact that always had a giant superhero hulking over the rest of the team in group shots. I started reading comics in the 70's, so I doubt younger fans think that way, but it was the Avengers trademark when I was a kid. Maybe they thought they needed another giant, and Hawkeye drew the short straw.

I know there were are ton of complaints at the changes. This is a letters page from Avengers #67 (and it's only one of several that had people commenting on the change - the previous two issues letters pages were of a similar theme):

I don't suppose you have issue 63's letters page as well? Someone asked about that a couple of weeks ago. It's not in the digital edition you can buy from Comixology.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...25-Avengers-63

[Panic]

No problem, I've posted them in the relevant thread.

[Michael Watkins]

Clint Barton's a character that they rarely do justice. I really only "got" the character when he took over the Thunderbolts. i'm not sure why he's so hard to write. but I generally have to ignore most of his continuity.