A member of the Avengers. He first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57 and was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck.
Born Clint Barton, the man that came to be known as Hawkeye was orphaned at a young age and sent to a children's home along with his older brother Barney. Running away from the home, Barney and Clint joined a traveling circus, where they worked as roustabouts. There the brothers met the Swordsman, a criminal and later fellow member of the super-hero team the Avengers. Initial accounts stated that the Swordsman trained Clint in shooting a bow and arrow. Sometime later (after a sharp-minded revisionist at Marvel Comics realized that it seems highly unlikely that a guy who can swing a sword would be able to train a teenager in shooting a bow), it was revealed that Clint's trainer in archery was Trickshot
the Archer.
Clint later discovered that both of his mentors, the Swordsman and Trickshot, were both criminals. Clint discovered that the Swordsman was a thief, was attacked by him, and fell from the circus high wire, breaking both legs. Clint later discovered that Trickshot was an assassin, who injured Clint's brother Barney, who was in the midst of a robbery, on an assignment. Trickshot fled and Clint got his brother to a hospital. Clint went back to the circus to becoming its star performer, Hawkeye the Marksman.
Hawkeye was later accused of a jewelry robbery, putting him in conflict with Iron Man. Escaping the robbery, Hawkeye took up company with Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow. The Black Widow was a KGB spy and the two again came into conflict with Iron Man. Hawkeye later decided to leave Natasha rather than work for her Communist superiors and she attempted to follow. She was shot trying to escape and Hawkeye decided to make amends for his past life by working for good.
Hawkeye became one of the the Avengers along with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, when many of the original members resigned. Led by Captain America, these new Avengers proved themselves again and again. When Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne (Goliath and the Wasp) married, Hawkeye took up the mantle of Goliath II for a short time, but later returned to his original namesake.
Hawkeye has been a member of the Avengers for a number of years off and on. He headed the teams west coast branch from its beginning. He was married
to Mockingbird, a former SHIELD agent, for a time, but she was later killed.
Hawkeye has recently been working with the reformed criminals that make up the team, the Thunderbolts.
Hawkeye/Clint Barton is portrayed on film by American actor Jeremy Renner in The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and the series Hawkeye (2021).