#abtd

ok so in the 80s, clint used tiny in-the-ear (ITE) ones (even referred to as "miniature") that were completely invisible to us in the ~8 times a hearing aid was mentioned, except for one time (where it was shown outside his mask??) as you can see in the panels here

the hearing aids he gets at the very end of the fraction run is in 2014, as you said, are purple behind-the-ears (BTE), worn on both ears:

now here's where things get tricky: you don't really consistently see a hearing aid from 2014-2018.

his next major appearance chronologically is in hawkeye vs. deadpool (which btw is the only other series that portrayed him using ASL), where he mentions having hearing aids but you don’t see them

then in all-new hawkeye, he mentions his hearing aids are stark tech ones, which are, presumably, in-the-ear aids (ITEs).

in the next issue, he takes them out, revealing them to be purple ITEs, which he also uses as communicators:

in this series, they’re only visible in-ear in a close-up:

recounting his subsequent major series appearances, i can't recall anything consistently visible. not in new avengers, occupy avengers, secret empire, or tales of suspense. the degree of his hearing loss was also portrayed inconsistently tbh. i think some don't realize that the comics haven’t exactly been the pinnacle of representation here, and honestly the show is doing better at this point with regards to consistency in the portrayal of clint’s hearing loss

so, for 2014-2018, the one most commonly used by clint is assumed, by default, to be ITEs because of the visibility of a hearing aid--and probably purple, since that’s the one shown in all-new hawkeye

that is, until hawkeye v5 #15 in 2018, where he gets fed up with the stark tech ITEs and switches back to a purple BTE:

his next major series appearances were in west coast avengers v3, which only remembered to have his hearing aid visible in the latter issues. it also showed him with a purple BTE, on the right side only:

and now, when consistently remembered (yes, often clint’s minor appearances in other series have nothing is visible), it seems the comics have settled on clint wearing a purple BTE on the right ear, but not the left.

here’s some example panels from hawkeye: freefall and black widow v8, which both consistently depict clint with a purple BTE on the right but not left:

additionally, there’s now no indication he has hearing problems on the left ear where he has no BTE--

here’s him using the phone on his left in black widow v8 #1:

and here’s him carrying on a hushed conversation with bucky on his left side in black widow v8 #2:

--so i guess he has unilateral hearing loss? (fyi i’m hearing i just tried to look this up best i could)

it's never explained when he learned, so it's entirely plausible to conclude narratively that clint learned ASL while hard of hearing, maybe with bobbi/his avengers team family.

he’s never shown actually using ASL until he was once again deafened in fraction/aja’s hawkeye, as shown in issue #19, which came out in 2014. clint’s deafness wasn’t ever exactly written with good representation in the 80s-90s (in fact very few people remembered or ever knew clint had been deaf at this point in time), so fraction wanted to do an issue using mostly ASL. to do so and fit within the story, clint needed to communicate with his brother barney.

barney had been “dead” in the comics during the entirety of clint’s initial period of deafness, so fraction needed to explain how barney was also fluent in ASL. this was done via a retcon that clint experienced bouts of hearing loss as a child due to his father’s physical abuse, and so both bartons learned ASL in childhood.

i think the idea of mcu clint trying to learn ASL now portrays the complexities of someone who’s become HoH much later than early childhood. i will say though, a good chunk of the ASL in episode 3 of hawkeye seemed to be cut off from the frame? anyways, in a rare showing of me actually wanting something from the mcu to “affect” the comics, i hope this creates the opportunity for marvel comics writers to portray clint using ASL occasionally in future issues. after hawkeye v4, he used ASL again in hawkeye vs deadpool in 2014-2015, but hasn’t been shown using it himself since (kate used ASL in a convo with him in an issue of west coast avengers in 2019).

see here for my simplified timeline of 616 clint barton’s deafness

clint barton debuted in 1964 as a hearing character. in the last issue of his first solo series, hawkeye vol. 1 #4 (released in december 1983), clint became hard of hearing when he activated his hypersonic arrowhead in his mouth to drown out a mind-control frequency:

clint’s subsequent official marvel handbook entries would note that he was 80% deaf in both ears:

he would remain so up until either 1996 or the end of 1997, after which he was hearing once again (we’ll get to his re-deafening in 2014 later). the following panels will focus on the 1984-1996 period.

clint returned to the avengers after the events of his solo series in avengers #239 (1984), wherein he informed the team of his hearing loss and was given a hearing aid (which he chooses not to wear in the issue because he’s appearing on tv):

he informs cap, who wasn’t present in #239, of his hearing loss (and elopement) in avengers #241 (1984):

his hearing loss isn’t brought up again until over a year later in west coast avengers v2 #1 (1985):

he first mentions that he’s wearing a hearing aid in captain america #317 (1986). this issue was written by mark gruenwald, who also wrote hawkeye v1 where clint was deafened, so he was in a good position to call back to it and remind the reader of this development:

all further acknowledgment of clint’s hearing loss in this period occurred in one series: solo avengers (later renamed to avengers: spotlight). it’s interesting to note that in all but one of these instances, clint is written as either turning down his hearing aid to avoid sound-based attacks, or “turning it up” to hear extraordinarily quiet noises.

the first instance is in solo avengers #9 (1988):

solo avengers #10 (1988) establishes in-comic that clint is 80% deaf in both ears, a specificity which had only previously been mentioned in his marvel handbook entries:

one i initially forgot: in west coast avengers #40 (1988), clint turns up his hearing aid to hear the shroud’s movement in pitch darkness

solo avengers #16 (1989) has clint hearing something that would be undetectable by an average hearing person. notably, this is also the only panel i’ve seen from 1984-1996 where clint visibly has a hearing aid. although as you can see, the coloring places it outside of his mask (half the time clint’s mask is portrayed as covering his ears and half not because of coloring):

here’s a sound attack dodge in solo avengers #17 (1989):

in avengers: spotlight #26 (1989), clint disables high-tech devices, and is shown not to hear tony speaking to him once his hearing aid is turned off in the last page:

in avengers: spotlight #28 (1990), clint is immune to the combined sound powers of the issue’s villains--where others perceived a visual illusion of them as other people, clint saw them in their true forms:

from what i’ve observed, there were no mentions of hearing loss or appearances of hearing aids from 1991-1996. so to tally these up, 6/11 of all mentions after hawkeye v1 #4 were from the same series.

in 1996, clint was killed in marvel’s onslaught event (along with most marvel heroes). he then appeared in marvel’s briefly rebooted universe, counter-earth (created by young franklin richards and accessible through his toy ball. yeah.). whether counter-earth hawkeye is considered the same person as 616 clint is a whole can of comic worms we’ll not worry ourselves with...

he did appear without a mask on counter-earth in avengers v2 #11 (1997). honestly, with how it’s drawn, i can’t entirely tell if it’s meant to be a hearing aid, some take on a futuristic hospital monitor, or what. in any case:

in 1998, clint is revived/returned, and is no longer deaf. an in-universe explanation for why is given in avengers annual v3 2001:

the editorial reason given for the change is that clint’s hearing loss was treated very inconsistently in-comics, and by ‘98, was largely not known among both writers and readers. this seems plausible; unless they had read hawkeye’s 1983 miniseries, consistently read solo avengers, or scoured what were essentially marvel encyclopedias, there had been little indication that clint was deaf (no visible hearing aids, not brought up in main titles for 12 years...). since it seemed to the writer that clint had continued to be written as if he were a hearing character, he decided to revert him to one.

clint’s period of hearing loss was acknowledged in she-hulk v2 #2 (2006), when jen walters states that clint knows sign language:

in fact, this appears to be the very first mention of clint knowing sign language, as ASL was never referenced in all preceding issues and handbooks.

in 2014, clint would be deafened again in hawkeye v4 #15. currently, the degree of his hearing loss and the type of hearing aids he wears--though usually a BTE when visible, and at times IICs in the form of “stark tech”--is dependent on the writer/series. here’s clint in hawkeye: freefall #6 (2020):

he is, however, shown to be fluent in ASL, as it was retconned in hawkeye v4 #19 that he had temporary hearing loss as a child and learned it with his brother

because the average person is thrown off by constant retconning

1964 - 1983:

he was not deaf upon his introduction

1984 - 1996:

clint was deafened in hawkeye (vol. 1) #4 which came out in december 1983. this was an act of sacrifice, as he and mockingbird were being mind-controlled to fight each other to the death (comics!) by a sound frequency, and so he used his own sonic arrowhead on himself:

the extent of his deafness would vary due to inconsistencies in handbooks and writing, but usually people went with this:

his deafness (by its mention or the use or appearance of hearing aids) would be referenced in about 10-12 issues over those 12 years

1996 - 1998:

along with the other avengers, clint was killed during “onslaught” and showed up in another (grittier! 90s!) iteration, so it’s a little iffy on whether these characters are considered the same as their 616 counterparts (they’re technically them but in franklin richards’ pocket dimension so...). but here’s how he showed up in a panel:

1998 - early 2014:

upon his revival, clint was no longer deaf, and this was the explanation:

it was still acknowledged that he had been deaf previously, and jennifer walters even mentions that clint knows sign language: 

2014 - present

clint was again deafened in hawkeye (vol. 4) #15

and though it’s been established that clint experienced abuse at the hands of his father, the series retconned that as a result of this abuse, clint experienced bouts of hearing loss in his childhood, and that he learned sign language at this time

currently, clint wears hearing aids in the comics, though sometimes it’s a wash whether they’re “stark-tech” and not really visible or not (very series dependent)

since mark gruenwald wrote clint’s deafening in his solo series, he naturally referenced it throughout the issue featuring clint’s return to the avengers in 1984

and also referenced it when he wrote clint as a guest appearance in cap’s solo series:

the first issue of west coast avengers also made a point to remind everyone in its first issue as an ongoing series:

but thereafter, pretty much the only references to it were in solo avengers, which featured 11-page clint stories for the first half of their issues

all in all, it was probably referenced, at most, just short of a dozen times from 1984-1996.

when clint’s hearing was restored following his revival from heroes reborn, the narrative explanation of “that’s just how franklin richards remembered him” also reflected the editorial reason– it seems that almost nobody at marvel remembered that clint was deaf. busiek (who wrote the revival) reasoned at the time that it would, editorially, be better to revert clint to hearing than have everyone writing a deaf man as if he wasn’t.

his deafness was never referenced in cartoons or video game appearances, and so the average person wouldn’t know about it unless they had read the ~10 or so issues of comics that referenced it or bought some of the marvel handbooks from the 80s-early 90s that stated he was 80% deaf (not every handbook even did!)

by 2012, clint’s deafness was so forgotten, or not at all in the public consciousness, that when marvel was asked if any of their heroes wore hearing aids, it had to come down exec editors going “oh right! hawkeye!”

this is likely why mcu!hawkeye, along with being based off ultimates!hawkeye (who is hearing), was not introduced deaf; remember, he first appeared in thor in 2011, and the avengers came out in 2012.