a clint barton retrospective

coming off last issue's mission, hank is injured and jan gets to cry over him. this seems to remind hawkeye that, yes, he does have someone he loves! and thought she's barely been mentioned for thirteen issues, she is once again on his mind. can we read into the last 13 issues and say he was just playing a brave front? maybe, but that's not really on the page. 

it's important to remember hawkeye's standing with the team, at this point. he's been there more consistently than hank and janet, but he isn't nearly as well-liked or well-trusted as they are. cap vouches for him, and seems to be concerned about him, but even he can be annoyed by hawkeye most of the time. it's an interesting reversal of their dynamic, that here cap's questioning hawkeye's decisions or plans, when usually it's the other way around. but, true to form, hawkeye doesn't listen. 

it does make one wonder what his plan actually was. did he think to go retrieve natasha and bring her back to the town house? we've already seen that he didn't have any life outside of the avengers; did he see her fitting into that life? she's obviously not unqualified for it, but i think ultimately hawkeye wasn't really thinking here--like he says, once he heard natasha was back, nothing else mattered. 

alas, nothing is so simple. because natasha is, in fact, brainwashed by her russian superiors (cap's guess was right on the nose!) and she's not really interested in running away to the avengers town house. she's brought along a few lackeys from the avengers' list of foes--swordsman and power man. and what hawkeye may have perceived as a joyous reunion ends up becoming a battle.

it's interesting to note that the temptation of joining black widow as a villain never really occurs to hawkeye, here. obviously that's the point he started from, but his months with the avengers have seemingly stuck, and he's firmly a hero now. so even when natasha asks him to join her, he doesn't. it might have been a different story if she'd been acting of her own will, but it seems being an avenger has also done a lot to strengthen hawkeye's convictions. 

like all hawkeye and black widow stories, this one ends tragically. even with back up from the other avengers, hawkeye doesn't succeed. natasha and her cronies get away, and hawkeye is left heartbroken, once again. at least cap's around to comfort him... or just make him feel worse by being nice. 

put simply-- avengers #28: an issue about hawkeye and cap flirting.

but no, in all seriousness, there's a lot about their relationship in this issue that i love. it has been only a dozen issues since hawkeye joined the team, since he started butting heads with his leader. that's a year in real time, and who knows how long in the ever-contracting comics timeline. months, at the least.

on the surface, the relationship hasn't changed a lot in that time. steve is still issuing orders, and hawkeye is still questioning them and generally being an ass. but there's a new element to their friction now, a kind of good natured taunting that can only be born out of camaraderie. so much so that when hank questions hawkeye's taunts, steve defends him (albeit sarcastically) as their "little sunbeam." 

i think it's more than the two of them simply having gotten used to one another. i think their months of working together have fostered mutual respect, even if hawkeye would hardly admit to that. and i think, most of all, it's a bond born of battle and facing danger together, of having saved each other's lives more than once, by this point.

hell, they've even got contigency plans for those situations, now.

simmer down, pietro.

also in this issue: underwater adventures!

presented without commentary. 

the obvious and constantly played father-and-son aspect of steve and clint's dynamic is even more amusing when pietro of all people calls them out on it. it really does seem like all these avengers do is hang around their town house and show off (hawkeye is particularly good at this). and the extent of hawkeye's non-avenger activities include him going out to dinner in costume, to be fawned over by women who think that purple mask is dreamy.

the team ends up going to latveria, having been tricked their by dr. doom posing as the twins' long-lost aunt! the fantastic four hears about this and is going to go help, but end up not getting there in time. that aside, though, a few interesting things...

this is the first time we've seen hawkeye in civilian clothes (he still doesn't have a civilian name). it's only the third time we've seen him without his mask, too; the first was in his original appearance, and the second was back in tales of suspense. it's funny that he's the only one not colored-coded civies, since that's something of a quirk later on.

and the rusting arrow, so good at combating someone in armor, was first used in suspense #57, against iron man!

with hank and janet's return to the team on the horizon, this is the kooky quartet's penultimate mission as a group. so it seems an apt enough time to review their relationships. wanda has been falling for steve the entire time, while hawkeye's been hitting on her on and off. hawkeye has an explosive relationship with steve that isn't tempered even in the middle of crisis. pietro goes back and forth, at times challenging steve and at others berating hawkeye. 

but despite all, it seems that hawkeye does have some self-awareness, if only retroactively. he acknowledges that his temper keeps him from certain things, but that doesn't help him curb it any. and so he gets defensive instead of trying to work on it.

the kooky quartet's fight against kang culminates in this issue. cap's quartet goes through a lot--from trying to convince the inhabitants of the future that they're worth anything, to pietro's encounter with a young mother, to switching opinions on kang himself--but two things are important, here.

firstly, hawkeye refers to cap as "steverino."

and secondly, hawkeye once again gets to prove how useful he can actually be. this was perhaps his shining moment, in this arc.

following the big break up issue, pietro, wanda and hawkeye come back to the team, only to have steve quit on them. and so, when kang attacks, it's up to the three of them to stop him! (spoilers: steve comes back.) what's interesting is that, for most of this team's existence, they've been bemoaning their lack of a heavy hitter; their first mission, which they never completed, was to find the hulk to fill that void. and without captain america's leadership, kang seems pretty confident he can take the other three out, no problems. but the three rookies, as they are, don't do too badly for themselves! hawkeye tries a little to lead, but each of them really gets a moment to shine, and when wanda and hawkeye are taken out, quicksilver finds cap and then the whole team reunites for a fight with kang.

for all that they say they don't need cap, the entire team spends this issue quoting his words of wisdom. and they are decidedly relieved when he comes back.

so, in this era, hawkeye, pietro and wanda hang out a lot! or are at least seen lounging around the avengers townhouse (tony has not yet sprung for the mansion) together. they are supposed to be peers, with cap as their seasoned leader, and there is a bit of distance, there. so, in this story, cap is telling them about his adventures!! and the other three are very impressed, except hawkeye is hawkeye and doesn't admit this. and, inevitably, they end up on the topic of bucky, and we discover that hawkeye has absolutely no tact!

gee, cap, it's only been 20 years since your partner died, and it's not like you weren't conscious for most of them! get over it!

also i just like it when bucky is mentioned in older stuff because it makes everything that happened post-winter soldier so much funnier. or more poignant. take your pick.

in what is dubbed "possibly the best annual of all time," reed and susan's wedding is interrupted by an onslaught of different villains. luckily, a sampling of just about every other hero group is there to help out--dr. strange, daredevil, the x-men, and the avengers all make appearances. (though if you try and reconcile which avengers show up with what was going on in that series at the time, you may get a headache. but it seems that thor and iron man are there as representative of their own titles, while cap and hawkeye are the stand-ins for their entire avengers team, and continuity be damned.)

anyway, it wouldn't be a marvel get-together with out everyone's favorite, spider-man! and as far as i know, this is his and hawkeye's first meeting. and, hey, spidey saves hawkeye from a falling safe! so that's pretty cool. two panels, and they are already "chums."

in the end, reed saves the day, as he does, and all the people who showed up to help get to attend possibly the most famous marvel marriage of all time. what a great annual, indeed.

so, the unthinkable happens: the group continues to be so dysfunctional that they actually break up! pietro basically attacks steve, hawkeye holds him back, wanda finally loses her temper, and then the maximoffs storm off. interestingly, wanda had earlier said that even if they did break up, they should try to do so as friends, but pietro doesn't let her follow that advice, here. 

hawkeye and steve are then left on their own, and steve, in his way, thanks him for the help. hawkeye doesn't seem to be too mad, here: maybe seeing someone else go at cap the way he's been has made him see how foolish it was. whatever the case, the breakup doesn't go well for anyone, as hawkeye, pietro and wanda have no luck reintegrating into the world outside of the avengers. cap eventually cracks amora and power man's plot, and the other three show up to help. but things aren't automatically fixed, because of that, as steve is still angry over these events.

i don't know whether it's a nod at hawkeye's general decency as a person that he protected cap, here, or whether, as he says, he just didn't want pietro to throw the punch that he's been wanting to. i think it's probably a combination of the two, however; even though hawkeye is playing lancer, we're still meant to like him, after all. and giving him a chance to play the decent one helps, with that.

this issue, on a surface level, is about amora and power man making the avengers look bad to the public, to the point of them questioning whether the team will actually survive without popular opinion behind them. but, in reality, this issue is more about cap and hawkeye, and their increasingly strained relationship. when wanda and pietro are around, there's a certain degree of mediation, but without them... well, steve definitely gets angrier than he has before, and it seems like his patience with hawkeye is quickly running out.

it doesn't help that amora is humiliating all of them and attacking the institution they all believe in more than themselves. and steve eventually curbs his temper, but only because he's so defeated by the public attacks. but most important is hawkeye's question: "how'd we win the war with you on our side?" 

don't you just hate it when you leave for five or six issues and your whole team is up and replaced by young upstarts? 

this is mostly here because it's the first time thor and hawkeye interact. also, he thinks that they're all pretty worthless!

spoilers: that's not actually iron man. in this, the age of rampant orientalism, the avengers fight many eastern villains. in these past few issues, they've popped up a lot--first it was the commissar and his gang, and now it's iron man foe mandarin, who is impersonating him. (also spoilers: his plot to use the swordsman to blow up avengers hq doesn't work.)

but, that aside, here we have an attempt at character development! hawkeye's been running his mouth more than usual, he and quicksilver had a battle for superiority (which hawkeye lost), and his attacks on captain america are growing a bit tired. so the stand-in iron man has to remind him that no one had to let him join the avengers, because he used to be a villain! and that shuts him up for about three pages, and then he's back to yelling at cap.

but, seriously, when even the villains have figured out the flaw in your argumentative facade, it's time to find a new gimmick.

baby's first origin story! the swordsman is first introduced in this issue, and becomes the first of hawkeye's failed mentors--he'll round up a few more over the years, too. it's been building for the past few issues, but it's really at this point that hawkeye definitely claims his role as captain america's back-talker. and that's probably why the swordman gets to come in at this point, too, to show us why hawkeye takes that stand.

also, in this first portrayal of hawkeye's origin, he doesn't get to know who his parents are. this is probably because stan lee and co. were still deciding if there would be some big reveal about his parentage. i think, in not trying him biologically to any other hero, they ultimately freed up the character, a lot. which isn't to say being the long-lost son of steve rogers wouldn't have been interesting, but i'm glad things went the way they did. 

so, two things about this: first, hawkeye never really gets an alter ego. at this point in time, he still doesn't even have a proper name! so in the beginning of this issue, when the avengers have some downtime, pietro and wanda go to the circus and theater, respectively, and hawkeye spends his time training and making new arrows! that is literally the extent of his outside activities. and since his lady love is still absent, and he fights with most of his teammates at this point, he really has no life outside the avengers. it's something that writers try to correct, down the line, especially when they are tasked with writing him in solo series. but outside occupations and supporting casts for hawkeye never really stick; his life always circles back to being avengers-centric, even when he's on other teams!

secondly, this is another example of hawkeye as a science-guy! he may not be presented as a scientist, per say, like hank pym or tony stark or reed richards, but he's definitely far from incompetent.