Originally Posted by
OOTCS
I don't think there's any validity to the argument that the reason Clint has been sidelined in the MCU is because of the family. His family didn't show up until Age of Ultron, his third appearance, a movie where he had exponentially more lines and more agency than in any of his previous appearances. Second of all, Scott Lang has a family, and the MCU used that to enhance his story, not to hold him back. The reason the MCU didn't do Clint justice is simply because Clint Barton wasn't a priority for the people making the decisions. It stinks, absolutely, but their hands were not tied by the existence of the family.
As far as the comics go, Clint actually had a lot going on after the Fraction/Aja run ended, between 2014-2020. There were the two All-New Hawkeye series, he was a member of Ewing's New Avengers, he was the star of Occupy Avengers, one of the main characters in Secret Empire, he had a Generations one-shot, he co-starred in Tales of Suspense, he was part of both Avengers: No Surrender and Avengers: No Road Home, he was in the West Coast Avengers revival, and he had Hawkeye: Freefall. Since Freefall ended, he's been in narrative limbo (while still making tons of guest appearances in other books). Right now, he's kind of in the same place as most of the classic Avengers who don't currently have a solo and aren't currently on the team (like Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Spectrum, Mockingbird, Quicksilver, and so many others).
I think a big part of the problem stems from the fact that Marvel recently has gotten this idea that the Avengers needs to be made up of the biggest stars who are already rocking their own solo titles, which (in my opinion) makes it less interesting and leads to so many classic Avengers getting paid dust.