Clint Barton: Hawkeye Appreciation 2020

[Matternativ]

I'd like him to do stuff with Steve again. Might just be a good follow up to Freefalls fallout anyway since Steve got hurt there.

[cc008]

A Black Cat and Hawkeye team up is long overdue...

Ooohhh this is interesting.

A good team book and Hawkeye team up is long overdue...

I'd like him to do stuff with Steve again. Might just be a good follow up to Freefalls fallout anyway since Steve got hurt there.

Yeah I'd like to see them working together a little more again too. Hasn't happened sinceeeee.... at least before Secret Empire, right?

[Matternativ]

Ooohhh this is interesting.





Yeah I'd like to see them working together a little more again too. Hasn't happened sinceeeee.... at least before Secret Empire, right?

The last time I can recall was when they prepared for Secret Wars. It uhm... It really has been a while if that's the case.

[cc008]

The last time I can recall was when they prepared for Secret Wars. It uhm... It really has been a while if that's the case.

Right? We had Brubaker and Remender's Secret Avengers. I don't remember specifically, but I don't think Clint was TOO heavily involved in Hickman's stuff. Nothing after Occupy Avengers and Secret Empire. Nothing in No Surrender. And just a run in in Freefall. Really too bad. At least we get a good amount of Clint and Bucky, Sam, Nat. So he's not cut off from them all which is good. But they don't have the relationship that Steve does with him. Cap actually holds Clint in high regard.

[Ruby Quartz Diamond]

Okay so I've read Hawkeye: Freefall so be warned of a lengthy post ahead.

I have to say I really really enjoyed Freefall and I really give immense kudos to Rosenberg for writing Clint Barton so well. Rosenberg really captured Clint's character down to his essence and core and it was really remarkable. The storyline, conflicts, premise, characterisation were all uniquely Clint and didnt feel formulaic or cliched. Rosenberg also made some references to previous runs and Hawkeye's past costumes. In just six issues, Rosenberg was able to achieve such a gripping story with great twists and was able to balance the light and heavy moments so well. There are some questions that I have which will go to spoiler territory for those who have read it....

spoilers:

So one of the reasons I love Clint Barton is that he cares about the little people a lot so it makes sense why he would be so pissed off by Parker Robbins/ The Hood evading the corrupt justice system while Parker's less affluent accomplices get captured and served jail sentences. Parker got to escape scot-free and continue his illegal operations that harm the citizens in NY. We found out that Ronin was actually Clint all along because he used a time-travelling technology from a previous run that I have no knowledge about but then that piece of technology got destroyed by Spider-Man when Clint/Ronin battled the latter. Then, Clint improvised and enlisted the help of Bryce, a hacker who used to work for Parker and a Skrull to imitate his likeness. Clint even broke into a secure SHIELD facility to get an LMD of himself (which he had to later dispose of) and it brought some funny shenanigans like wearing his Goliath costume (reference!). But then, the situation grew to be more complicated and out of control when Parker raised the stakes and hired Bullseye who went to kill Bryce and Skrull and dirtied Clint's reputation, and more superheroes were brought into the mix to bring down Ronin. One of those heroes even claimed that Ronin was the cause of the growing havoc in NY and that The Hood was merely a symptom of it. Then, we have the classic Clint Barton solution of him appearing as if he entered the enemy's territory with no plan but then we found out that Clint was several steps ahead and already made an agreement with Count Nefaria. Finally, we had the ending of him tackling The Hood but not finishing him off which led to Clint just walking away (which was also beautiful in the sense that it ended the story as well) but his tainted reputation caused the villains to consider him as 'one of them'. This whole summary is how I understood the story. These are my questions: 1. As Ronin, did Clint actually kill any people? I revisited issue 1 when he stole a briefcase of money from government contractors. He appeared to only incapacitated them but I wasn't sure. Throughout this entire run, Clint seemed to only wound and bruise his opponents but not killing them. We were shown Clint discovering the piles of bodies of criminals that Parker mercilessly killed while trying to uncover Ronin's identity and we saw the immense guilt in Clint's expression so it cannot be that Clint killed anyone in this run, right? It was only Bullseye disguised as Ronin who killed people openly. 2. Why was Cap America beaten so easily by Bullseye that he was landed in a hospital? Bullseye is considered one of the higher level street characters and Cap has the super soldier serum so it shouldn't have been a one-sided battle for the former, right? 3. From what I read online, Freefall was supposed to be an ongoing run but because of alleged dismal sales of issues 3 and 4, it was decided to be a limited run. Is this true?

end of spoilers

All in all, I enjoyed Hawkeye: Freefall. Rosenberg did an incredible job and I am also a fan of Otto's art. I like this even more than Fraction's run and wish we had seen more if it. (Also, I must be in the minority who didn't really enjoy Fraction's run.) I hope the future runs will revisit the ending of Freefall. Right now, we can only expect to see Clint in Thompson's Black Widow and Captain Marvel, right?

This is one of my favourite episodes for many of the reasons you mentioned! Mostly I enjoy it as a Clintasha fan, and their interactions in this episode (and Avengers Assemble in general) make me very happy.

Have you watched Iron Man: Armoured Adventures? I didn't watch the whole series as I wasn't really a fan of the animation, so once again I just went for the Clint and/or Natasha episodes and they're definitely worth watching! Another version of Clint that I really love, and I love how the two characters play off of each other as well.

Yeah every AA episode is guaranteed to have Clintasha interactions and I love the writers for that. There's no doubt that Clintasha trusts each other the most, especially for Nat's case since she's a hardened spy and masks her emotions well but when Clint is in danger, she openly shows her concern for him like when he was got swallowed by Giganto, she panicked and immediately alerted the others.

I did watch Iron Man: AA but I only watched the episodes that had my darling Hawkeye. This animated series was before the MCU exploded and it's great that they acknowledged and depicted Clintasha so well. I love it when Clint called her 'Tash' and openly flirted with her in between their missions and Nat was quick in saving him and giving him assistance. Also, it was interesting that the show acknowledged Clint's brother and Count Nefaria (who coincidentally made an appearance in Hawkeye: Free fall).

Nothing ever beats that. lol

Although this costume is so weird and impractical for super-heroing, I will always have a certain fondness for it.



The miniskirt costume made its debut in AVENGERS vol.1 #98 and lasts until #108.

Thank you! I really love Barry Windsor-Smith for this costume!

[Matternativ]

Right? We had Brubaker and Remender's Secret Avengers. I don't remember specifically, but I don't think Clint was TOO heavily involved in Hickman's stuff. Nothing after Occupy Avengers and Secret Empire. Nothing in No Surrender. And just a run in in Freefall. Really too bad. At least we get a good amount of Clint and Bucky, Sam, Nat. So he's not cut off from them all which is good. But they don't have the relationship that Steve does with him. Cap actually holds Clint in high regard.

He was mainly one of Steve's "Operatives" in the end although always at his side iirc.

spoilers:

These are my questions: 1. As Ronin, did Clint actually kill any people? I revisited issue 1 when he stole a briefcase of money from government contractors. He appeared to only incapacitated them but I wasn't sure. Throughout this entire run, Clint seemed to only wound and bruise his opponents but not killing them. We were shown Clint discovering the piles of bodies of criminals that Parker mercilessly killed while trying to uncover Ronin's identity and we saw the immense guilt in Clint's expression so it cannot be that Clint killed anyone in this run, right? It was only Bullseye disguised as Ronin who killed people openly. 2. Why was Cap America beaten so easily by Bullseye that he was landed in a hospital? Bullseye is considered one of the higher level street characters and Cap has the super soldier serum so it shouldn't have been a one-sided battle for the former, right? 3. From what I read online, Freefall was supposed to be an ongoing run but because of alleged dismal sales of issues 3 and 4, it was decided to be a limited run. Is this true?

end of spoilers

Right now, we can only expect to see Clint in Thompson's Black Widow and Captain Marvel, right?

I don't think you need spoiler tags, we talked about details of that book quite a bit all year
But oh well:

spoilers:

1) No he didn't. If he was in killing mode here, Bullseye would be dead now. And so would the Hood. It's rare that Clint kills and when he does it's usually a big deal. 2) It was most likely not much of a fight. Steve thought it was Clint and he wouldn't expect Clint to straight up shoot him which is probably what Bullseye did. If there had been fisticuffs the outcome would have to be different. 3) That's a bit of a mystery. I think initially it was supposed to be a mini but at some point it was called ongoing somewhere so people just assumed that's what it was. And then it wasn't. Rosenberg said it was always supposed to be a mini but he didn't say the option to continue was never in the cards because he did answer the question "What do we have to do to keep you on the book?" with something like: "Travel back in time and buy more issues." I'm paraphrasing of course.

end of spoilers

4) I wouldn't bank on him showing up in Captain Marvel too much unless there will be more flashbacks. In Widow's book he supposedly left but stuff happened so who really knows?
And then there is the possibility of him having some sort of role in King in black.


Also: I think here's one more for you, lol.
https://twitter.com/RT_CLINT/status/...064730624?s=19

[Sneakronicity]

Speaking of Captain Marvel's current arc:

spoilers:

In the last issue, Clint was heavily featured in the flashbacks, and we saw he made it through the first war and pretty much everything else until they showed the bomb, then we don't see him again, so I think it's assumed he died then. But we also saw in this issue that Luke Cage is alive while having been presumed dead. So I'm wondering if there are other heroes like that, and if Clint and Natasha are among them so we might see them again in this arc. Or perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part lol

end of spoilers

[Matternativ]

The same thought crossed my mind but I kind of doubt it.

[Sneakronicity]

Yeah, probably wishful thinking since I just really wanna see them interact with Katie.

[Ruby Quartz Diamond]

I don't think you need spoiler tags, we talked about details of that book quite a bit all year
But oh well:

spoilers:

1) No he didn't. If he was in killing mode here, Bullseye would be dead now. And so would the Hood. It's rare that Clint kills and when he does it's usually a big deal. 2) It was most likely not much of a fight. Steve thought it was Clint and he wouldn't expect Clint to straight up shoot him which is probably what Bullseye did. If there had been fisticuffs the outcome would have to be different. 3) That's a bit of a mystery. I think initially it was supposed to be a mini but at some point it was called ongoing somewhere so people just assumed that's what it was. And then it wasn't. Rosenberg said it was always supposed to be a mini but he didn't say the option to continue was never in the cards because he did answer the question "What do we have to do to keep you on the book?" with something like: "Travel back in time and buy more issues." I'm paraphrasing of course.

end of spoilers

4) I wouldn't bank on him showing up in Captain Marvel too much unless there will be more flashbacks. In Widow's book he supposedly left but stuff happened so who really knows?
And then there is the possibility of him having some sort of role in King in black.

haha it's less about the spoiler tag but more of a huge chunk of text because I tend to ramble, especially about subjects that I like.

I'm so glad that Ronin/Clint didn't kill then. Thank you for answering all my questions!

Hawkeye: Freefall was really impressive and had high reread value. I didn't quite like Thompson's Hawkeye in 2016 and was surprised that I didn't like it because I like Thompson's BW (so far).

I hope Hawkeye will still appear in future comic runs, maybe team up with Bucky again. I love that Rosenberg referenced his TOS: Hawkeye and Winter Soldier in Hawkeye: Freefall with Natasha saying that if she had known Clint had a bad boy side, she would've asked him for help too. I was so gutted at the end of TOS: HatWS because she chose Bucky to come with her to destroy the Red Room and to leave Clint in the dark so I was happy for Nat's comment in Freefall lol

Also: I think here's one more for you, lol.
https://twitter.com/RT_CLINT/status/...064730624?s=19

ahhh you just know how to kill me

[Matternativ]

Yeah, probably wishful thinking since I just really wanna see them interact with Katie.

I mean that certainly would be cool and I'd hardly complain if it happened

haha it's less about the spoiler tag but more of a huge chunk of text because I tend to ramble, especially about subjects that I like.

I'm so glad that Ronin/Clint didn't kill then. Thank you for answering all my questions!

Hawkeye: Freefall was really impressive and had high reread value. I didn't quite like Thompson's Hawkeye in 2016 and was surprised that I didn't like it because I like Thompson's BW (so far).

I hope Hawkeye will still appear in future comic runs, maybe team up with Bucky again. I love that Rosenberg referenced his TOS: Hawkeye and Winter Soldier in Hawkeye: Freefall with Natasha saying that if she had known Clint had a bad boy side, she would've asked him for help too. I was so gutted at the end of TOS: HatWS because she chose Bucky to come with her to destroy the Red Room and to leave Clint in the dark so I was happy for Nat's comment in Freefall lol



ahhh you just know how to kill me

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.

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.

[OOTCS]

Hawkeye: Freefall was really impressive and had high reread value. I didn't quite like Thompson's Hawkeye in 2016 and was surprised that I didn't like it because I like Thompson's BW (so far).

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.

I hope Hawkeye will still appear in future comic runs, maybe team up with Bucky again. I love that Rosenberg referenced his TOS: Hawkeye and Winter Soldier in Hawkeye: Freefall with Natasha saying that if she had known Clint had a bad boy side, she would've asked him for help too. I was so gutted at the end of TOS: HatWS because she chose Bucky to come with her to destroy the Red Room and to leave Clint in the dark so I was happy for Nat's comment in Freefall lol

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.

[Sneakronicity]

Honestly, one of my dream books would be a play on the old books where the team was all men except for the one token female character. I would love to flip that and have Clint be the only man and the rest all women, but only if the writer portrays him as equally competent and not just there to be the butt of the jokes.

[OOTCS]

Honestly, one of my dream books would be a play on the old books where the team was all men except for the one token female character. I would love to flip that and have Clint be the only man and the rest all women, but only if the writer portrays him as equally competent and not just there to be the butt of the jokes.

I love it when we agree so hard on something

[Frontier]

Honestly, one of my dream books would be a play on the old books where the team was all men except for the one token female character. I would love to flip that and have Clint be the only man and the rest all women, but only if the writer portrays him as equally competent and not just there to be the butt of the jokes.

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