Clint Barton: Hawkeye Appreciation 2020

[Matternativ]

Bonus points if all the women end up being people he's crushed on or hooked up with .

That's a pretty extensive roster.

[Frontier]

That's a pretty extensive roster.

I think it's almost half the main female Avengers roster at the very least...

[OOTCS]

I know Clint has crushed on/hooked up with a lot of the female Avengers, but I feel like it's a minor part of his relationships with them. He was friends with Janet for so long before Austen wrote Avengers, and his friendship with She-Hulk never went much farther than harmless flirting. I like seeing him as the guy who hangs out with women just because he gets along with them, not necessarily because he wants to sleep with them.

[Dermie]

I know Clint has crushed on/hooked up with a lot of the female Avengers, but I feel like it's a minor part of his relationships with them. He was friends with Janet for so long before Austen wrote Avengers, and his friendship with She-Hulk never went much farther than harmless flirting. I like seeing him as the guy who hangs out with women just because he gets along with them, not necessarily because he wants to sleep with them.

Yeah, Clint's reputation as a 'player' has really been blown out of proportion -- although to be fair, recent writers HAVE made a change in Clint's relationship patterns in more recent years that has shifted him in that direction.

Historically though, Clint has been the guy who falls in love too hard, too fast. He's more of a serial monogamist than a womanizer like Tony Stark or Johnny Storm, etc. Clint fell so hard for Natasha that he committed treason for her and became a super-villain, despite wanting to be a hero. He fell so hard for Wanda that he needed to leave the team to get over her when she started a relationship with Vision. When Sheila Danning revealed that she never loved him, he was so crushed over it that he literally almost gave up and let her kill him. He fell for Bobbi so fast that he married her after knowing her for a matter of days! The one woman he truly fell in love with after Bobbi's 'death' was Moonstone, and he was willing to go to jail himself in order to buy her (and the other T-Bolts) a chance at freedom.

Bobbi's 'death' (and Karla's sort-of death, when he was forced to put her in a coma) really hit him hard, and he has been slower to let people into his heart anymore. It wasn't until after Bobbi's death that we ever saw Clint have casual relationships, like his flings with Maryanne the librarian or Cherry. And the idea of Clint cheating on a girlfriend--like he did on Jessica Drew--would have been unthinkable for the way Clint was with his lovers before Bobbi died.

His fling with Janet Van Dyne was always bizarre (not surprising, as it was written by Chuck Austen, whose characterizations were often a bit wonky), but given the time period it happened in--immediately before "Disassembled"--and how out of character Clint, Jan and Hank all were during that arc, I have always believed that whole fair was one of the early examples of Wanda's increasing mental instability causing her powers to warp things. We saw other cases of her affecting people's minds and emotions during "Disassembled", so it fits.

In terms of Clint's relationships with his Avengers teammates, we've got Black Widow, Mockingbird, Wasp, Echo, Spider-Woman and MAYBE Scarlet Witch (although it has been suggested it was actually a Doombot).

He's had a lot of mutual flirting with She-Hulk and they've kissed a couple of times--but so far that's as far as its gone. He hit on Spider-Woman II (Julia Carpenter) while he and Bobbi were separated, but he was rather half-hearted about it and it never went anywhere.

So, his list of teammates he's hooked up with HAS gotten fairly large in recent years--but he's hardly the only Avenger who has dated multiple teammates.

[Matternativ]

Well no disputing that but my point was: Yeah with the girls he has had any kind of romantic anythings you could easily fill up a roster.

Some outdated phrases aside Clint has always treated women as equals so it would make sense for him to be in the role as "token" guy without him giving it a second thought.

Honestly when written well this could not only be funny but also effortlessly passively woke without any need for a heavy handed message.

[Sneakronicity]

I love it when we agree so hard on something

Yes! It should happen more often!

[Sneakronicity]

Well no disputing that but my point was: Yeah with the girls he has had any kind of romantic anythings you could easily fill up a roster.

Some outdated phrases aside Clint has always treated women as equals so it would make sense for him to be in the role as "token" guy without him giving it a second thought.

Honestly when written well this could not only be funny but also effortlessly passively woke without any need for a heavy handed message.

My thoughts exactly! Done well it could be a book that everyone could enjoy.

I've been tempted to post this book idea in the Dream Avengers Roster thread but couldn't settle on who all to put on the team with Clint besides Nat and Jess, just 'cause I really love that trio. Tigra would be fun, as would Jan. Maybe someone new as well like Riri on tech?

[Frontier]

I know Clint has crushed on/hooked up with a lot of the female Avengers, but I feel like it's a minor part of his relationships with them. He was friends with Janet for so long before Austen wrote Avengers, and his friendship with She-Hulk never went much farther than harmless flirting. I like seeing him as the guy who hangs out with women just because he gets along with them, not necessarily because he wants to sleep with them.

I really feel like Fraction set Clint's emotional maturity level down a peg. Then again, he did that with a few characters (Cough)Dr. Strange(Cough).

[Dermie]

Well no disputing that but my point was: Yeah with the girls he has had any kind of romantic anythings you could easily fill up a roster.

Absolutely; I do agree. My post was just about the perception in recent years (not necessarily in THIS thread specifically) of Clint as the "male slut" of the Avengers, and how that it is a mistaken perception from people just looking at the numbers of women he's been involved with, without taking into account the types of relationships he's had with them or his emotional investment in them.

A roster of Clint's exes would certainly end up highlighting some similarities in type though, with Tasha, Bobbi and Jessica all being trained spies. Even Maya, although she doesn't have a formal background in espionage, has ended up doing a fair bit of undercover work. We also end up with a spider theme too, with him dating Black Widow and Spider-Woman, and trying to date Spider-Woman II.

[Ruby Quartz Diamond]

I quite liked Kelly's Hawkeye run but you have to remember it was a Kate book first and foremost and Clint was only a supporting role for a single arc.
I'll say I liked WCA a lil bit better due to the team dynamics but it benefitted from the fact that it was a direct continuation of the Hawkeye book.

I read Thompson's Hawkeye knowing that it is centred around Kate Bishop and I was interested to know more about her after reading about her in Fraction's Hawkeye and Duggan's Hawkeye VS Deadpool. But I found Kate to be very obnoxious and rash in Thompson's run, acting like a spoilt brat which was a turn-off for me. Clint was also acting quite off during that run. That run is definitely one of my least favourite comic runs that I've read so far but I'll still put it slightly above Bendis' All-New X-Men and Greg Pak's Phoenix Endsong.

You might like Generations: Hawkeyes though.
It's also a work by Kelly Thompson and it sees Kate traveling back in time and and meeting younger Clint.
And if you don't like it: It's a oneshot, you won't have to dedicate much time.

Every time I come here, there's a recommendation for a new Hawkeye-centred comic and I thought I have covered all of the titles lol

Well, Kate and Nat have very different personalities, so the two books show off different sides of Thompson as a writer. If you like her Black Widow, you might like her Jessica Jones book, which has a similar tone.

There's no doubt that Clint will show up again sometime soon. After all, he's been an Avenger since nearly the beginning, and the fact that he's in the MCU roster and getting his own television show gives him an even bigger profile. I'm wondering more, how will an MCU TV show affect his characterization in the comics. Will they try to change his character to fit the show (like they did when the MCU depicted him as a SHIELD agent), and if so, what will that mean? Since Kate will be a co-star in the show, we'll probably be seeing more of them together in the comics, and if the rumors about Mockingbird in the show are true, maybe we'll see her and Clint together more than we have been lately (although probably not together-together, since Marvel seems to be enjoying the "relationship disaster" version of Clint these days). I really hope Marvel follows up on the ending of Freefall, but that's only likely to happen with a new solo and only if said new solo comes out before the next big thing that changes the status quo.

I would also love to see Clint back on the Avengers. As unbelievable as it seems, he hasn't been a regular on the main team since before Secret Wars--although he was on Sunspot's New Avengers from them until Civil War II, and, of course, on Kate's WCA team more recently, but it'd be nice to see him interacting with his old friends and teammates for more than event team-ups. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will happen within the next year, since Carlos Magno has been stealth-announcing the roster of the upcoming series on his Twitter, and Clint hasn't been included in any of his posts.

Does anyone else miss the days when most of Clint's social circle was mostly women? He used to be really good friends with Wasp, She-Hulk, Tigra, Scarlet Witch, and so on. I like seeing him interact with Bucky and Sam, but there's something special about those old friendships.

I'm honestly hyped for the Hawkeye show. Renner posted on his social media recently about "going for training" so I speculate that it's for the tv series and it's very likely that more casting news for the show will be announced. I hope the show will be able to give justice to Clint's character and not just focus on Kate. I'm also hoping that the show will have more than one season and if they do, have Clint return as well as a main character. This is just wishful thinking but I hope that there'll be a crossover episode between FatWS and Hawkeye so that we can have the Sam-Bucky-Clint bromance that we were robbed off (I don't know if I have mentioned it before in this thread and if so, I'm a broken tape recorder lol)

Kinda sad that Clint had not been in a regular on the main team for that long. Maybe they should introduce a whole new team and roster instead of trying to reboot WCA with Clint being the leader of course. I hope Clint will have another solo comic run next year, or another team-up with Bucky and Falcon. I always ask for more but I have yet to read the ones that he was already in lol

[cc008]

I read Thompson's Hawkeye knowing that it is centred around Kate Bishop and I was interested to know more about her after reading about her in Fraction's Hawkeye and Duggan's Hawkeye VS Deadpool. But I found Kate to be very obnoxious and rash in Thompson's run, acting like a spoilt brat which was a turn-off for me. Clint was also acting quite off during that run. That run is definitely one of my least favourite comic runs that I've read so far but I'll still put it slightly above Bendis' All-New X-Men and Greg Pak's Phoenix Endsong.

Yeah I didn't start reading any of that run until after the Generations One Shot when the book became more of a buddy book between Clint and Kate before it ended. And FWIW, I had so much excitement and hope for All-New X-Men and then the second arc started. God, I miss Stuart Immonen's art.

[OOTCS]

Yes! It should happen more often!

We'll probably never agree on anything when it comes to ships, but I think for a lot of other things, we do, yeah?

My thoughts exactly! Done well it could be a book that everyone could enjoy.

I've been tempted to post this book idea in the Dream Avengers Roster thread but couldn't settle on who all to put on the team with Clint besides Nat and Jess, just 'cause I really love that trio. Tigra would be fun, as would Jan. Maybe someone new as well like Riri on tech?

*chants* She-Hulk, She-Hulk, She-Hulk! Seriously, she and Clint have such a fun dynamic. Riri is much younger than everyone else you have listed here, so it might be awkward for her without anyone else her age (plus, I like her on the Champions). Maybe Toni Ho instead?

A roster of Clint's exes would certainly end up highlighting some similarities in type though, with Tasha, Bobbi and Jessica all being trained spies. Even Maya, although she doesn't have a formal background in espionage, has ended up doing a fair bit of undercover work. We also end up with a spider theme too, with him dating Black Widow and Spider-Woman, and trying to date Spider-Woman II.

I had a thought about him and women with advanced education (Bobbi and Karla both have PhDs, Linda Carter is an MD, Maryanne Sherbrook must have had a Master's in Library Sciences, the Red Room doesn't give out diplomas but I'm sure Natasha's got enough information in her head for multiple degrees, and Jess didn't have time for a formal education but both of her parents were distinguished scientists).

Kinda sad that Clint had not been in a regular on the main team for that long. Maybe they should introduce a whole new team and roster instead of trying to reboot WCA with Clint being the leader of course. I hope Clint will have another solo comic run next year, or another team-up with Bucky and Falcon. I always ask for more but I have yet to read the ones that he was already in lol

The latest run of the WCA was basically a whole new team and roster--Clint was the only one there from the old team. I think that probably would have done better with a new name, though. It wasn't like the Champions, where nobody really missed the old team, so it was easy to introduce a brand-new team that was entirely unrelated. The original WCA has a devoted fanbase who've been vocal about wanting a revival, and most of the characters on the old roster aren't really being used in anything lately, so bringing back the team name with no connection (except for a single joint member) probably wasn't the best move. And Clint was too old for that team, anyway. I can imagine that team, with a different name and without Clint on the roster, being active on the West Coast in parallel with a comeback of the old West Coast Avengers. The problem is that, outside of the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, team books that aren't called Avengers have a hard time selling, and books that don't sell get canceled. Strikeforce and Future Foundation had a similar problem.

[LAWtoyoto 432]

The latest run of the WCA was basically a whole new team and roster--Clint was the only one there from the old team.And he was too old for that team, anyway. I can imagine that team, with a different name and without Clint on the roster, being active on the West Coast in parallel with a comeback of the old West Coast Avengers.

Kelly's WCA is the worst portrayal of Clint Barton I had ever seen in the last freaking 10 years!! He is acting like a 5 year old toddler.

[Matternativ]

We'll probably never agree on anything when it comes to ships, but I think for a lot of other things, we do, yeah?



*chants* She-Hulk, She-Hulk, She-Hulk! Seriously, she and Clint have such a fun dynamic. Riri is much younger than everyone else you have listed here, so it might be awkward for her without anyone else her age (plus, I like her on the Champions). Maybe Toni Ho instead?



I had a thought about him and women with advanced education (Bobbi and Karla both have PhDs, Linda Carter is an MD, Maryanne Sherbrook must have had a Master's in Library Sciences, the Red Room doesn't give out diplomas but I'm sure Natasha's got enough information in her head for multiple degrees, and Jess didn't have time for a formal education but both of her parents were distinguished scientists).



The latest run of the WCA was basically a whole new team and roster--Clint was the only one there from the old team. I think that probably would have done better with a new name, though. It wasn't like the Champions, where nobody really missed the old team, so it was easy to introduce a brand-new team that was entirely unrelated. The original WCA has a devoted fanbase who've been vocal about wanting a revival, and most of the characters on the old roster aren't really being used in anything lately, so bringing back the team name with no connection (except for a single joint member) probably wasn't the best move. And Clint was too old for that team, anyway. I can imagine that team, with a different name and without Clint on the roster, being active on the West Coast in parallel with a comeback of the old West Coast Avengers. The problem is that, outside of the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, team books that aren't called Avengers have a hard time selling, and books that don't sell get canceled. Strikeforce and Future Foundation had a similar problem.

And it ends with Clint revealing he is working on an Engineering Degree in his spare time, haha.

Kelly's WCA is the worst portrayal of Clint Barton I had ever seen in the last freaking 10 years!! He is acting like a 5 year old toddler.

To be entirely honest between All New Hawkeye, much of Fractions run, Secret Avengers (which I loved), his guest appearances in Kate's book the latter halfs of Occupy Avengers and even Old Man Hawkeye I have a hard time taking this statement seriously considering he and America Chavez basically play the adults in that book.



EDIT:


The Solicits for February's issue of Avengers #42 don't mention Clint by name but curiously enough this is the variant cover.

[Sneakronicity]

*chants* She-Hulk, She-Hulk, She-Hulk! Seriously, she and Clint have such a fun dynamic. Riri is much younger than everyone else you have listed here, so it might be awkward for her without anyone else her age (plus, I like her on the Champions). Maybe Toni Ho instead?

Ooh, yes! She-Hulk definitely. And Toni Ho would be great! Seriously, this title would be the absolute dream!

Though I'm also so down with a more classic Avengers roster book, and echo the people that want Clint and Steve interacting again. After everything that went down in Secret Empire, and now Freefall, there's just so much potential for some great character work between them. I know Clint & Bucky is like The Thing right now, but it feels a lot like Clint & Kate from a few years back where one writer does something great with a dynamic and suddenly it feels like Clint ONLY gets that dynamic for a while. It's fun, but Clint has so many other great relationships that we've barely seen for years, so I'm reaching the point where I'm personally over it.

EDIT:

Another Marvel podcast story, this time with SiriusXM and featuring Old Man Hawkeye:

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