i've been dead. it's overrated.

some meta posts: timeline of clint barton’s deafness and mentions (1984-98); what’s the difference between 616 and mcu hawkeye?; maximoffs’ romani heritage

some comic recs/guides including chronology of clint appearances

first off, me and your friend:

so! it depends on how much you want to read to start with, and what angle you wanna approach clint as a new reader. i have lots of different versions of reading recs depending on which approach, so i'll just tackle what you presented:

clint's solo 80s run (hawkeye vol. 1) is his first solo, and only 4 issues. i would absolutely read it before reading fraction and aja's run (hawkeye vol. 4). it introduces clint's relationship to bobbi and is kind of foundational to v4, what with clint being off his game, down-on-his-luck, powering through, and it introduces his deafness. gruenwald (the writer) is also referenced in v4.

only the first half of each solo avengers was rec'd bc the second half of each issue is dedicated to a different character, and is generally unrelated to the story in the first half. thus, each clint story in solo avengers (barring a few issues where he's the only story) is about 11 pages. so they're short, succinct, mostly self-contained narratives, and a little goofy, so it's light reading that gives you a feel for clint's tactics and general (80s) vibe.

hawkeye: blindspot is a good beginner's rec at any point bc it's only 4 issues and has several flashbacks interspersed throughout that not only go over clint's childhood backstory (which is also partially covered by v1), but are a sort of sparknotes of clint's life up until that point. so if you decide to delve into clint further with additional reading, a blindspot panel may help with future pattern recognition. this series also came out a year before v4, so read it beforehand.

old man hawkeye i'm not sure would have as much impact if you're unfamiliar with thunderbolts? but if you're really into desolate, post-apocalyptic settings i guess you could venture into it if it inspires you to read thunderbolts to see what all that was about. i would say it's certainly nowhere to start, but if that's your thing, maybe...? also, as you've gathered from the title, this AU clint is an old man

hawkeye: freefall is excellent (and 6 issues), but probably not necessarily somewhere to start either. rosenberg, the writer, also wrote clint in tales of suspense #100-104 a few years before this series (many read tales of suspense for a short clint and bucky romp). i do wonder if people are able to delve into freefall without having any ronin!clint experience beforehand. reading hawkeye & mockingbird before it might get someone there, character arc wise? maybe a few haphazard ronin panels to get the Vibe about what was going on during the angsty new avengers era could help?

but of course, freefall is more lighthearted...initially.

clint (and maya!) crashed into a 4-issue arc for disability pride month in uncanny x-men v6 #31:

which continued into the back half of fantastic four v8 #14:

thunderbolt belt cameo!

and concluded in wolverine v8 #24, where clint enjoyed what was either a topped strawberry milkshake or many scoops of ice cream:

verdict: tasty.

clint also made a pit stop in captain marvel: dark past #3-4:

wherein a coloring snafu briefly gave him briefs--

--and another coloring snafu had his costume looking like a hybrid of his past two

(he had no dialogue for this appearance so might i just say carol's backstory only continues to get more needlessly convoluted and retconned)

it's complicated!

from 1984-1991, there are about 8 references total to clint having hearing aids. in some of those panels he just says "hearing aid," in others he says hearing aids (plural), but in any case he's shown to touch both the left and right ear at separate points.

a visual depiction of a hearing aid is only shown once (confusingly, the ear is not shown to be outside the mask so it doesn't make sense. let's attribute that to a coloring error despite the linework suggesting otherwise).

so, i would say after clint initially went deaf in hawkeye v1 #4, he wore in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids in both ears (thus, two)

after clint is again deafened in hawkeye v4 #15 (2014), he's shown wearing behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids in both ears.

and then all-new hawkeye immediately switched that to ITE hearing aids

but, presumably, still in both ears. he switches back to BTE hearing aids in hawkeye v5, but it seems he only has one in the right ear.

he then was consistently portrayed with a BTE hearing aid in only the right ear

as for his last most substantive series appearances: in black widow & hawkeye, he wasn't really visually portrayed with any hearing aids, but a small ITE aid was shown in the left ear in like two panels, and in avengers assemble v3 and subsequent related infinity comic appearances, there were no visual depictions at all.

however, for his 2-issue arc appearance for this disability month, he's portrayed with a BTE aid again, but only in the left ear.

i guess they mixed up that it had previously been the right ear?

clint shady....?