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Clint Barton Reading Order, the First Hawkeye

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Today, Clint Barton is known for being a major player in the Avengers as Hawkeye. But before joining the superhero team, he was introduced as a supervillain in Tales of Suspense #57 in September 1964. His career on the wrong side of the law was short as he joined the Avengers less than a year later, in The Avengers #16 in May 1965.

Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, Clint Barton is one of the most famous Marvel heroes and a regular member of the Avengers, who had come and gone from the team several times. He has founded the West Coast Avengers, been the leader of the Thunderbolts, worked with the S.H.I.E.L.D, and served as a mentor to Kate Bishop, the Superior Hawkeye. He also sometimes changed codenames and has been Goliath, the Golden Archer, and Ronin.

Clint has no superpowers but he is a skilled archer, and a very dangerous martial artist and swordsman. In a way, Hawkeye/Clint Barton is a mix between Green Arrow and Nightwing (from DC Comics). His private life is also complicated, as he was first in love with Black Widow, married and divorced Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird, and also had a relationship with Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, Maya Lopez/Echo, and Moonstone.

On the big (and little) screen, Clint Barton/Hawkeye is played by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he has also appeared in numerous animated series and video games.

Clint Barton Hawkeye Reading Order

Clint Barton has been a major part of the Avengers, and to read all about those stories, we invite you to consult our Complete Avengers Reading Order. It is also impossible to ignore massive development affecting the character which took place in the Avengers. So this reading order is not a complete Hawkeye Reading Order, but a guideline, with some important Hawkeye arcs from the Avengers with all his solo adventures!

Clint Barton, the First Years (1964-1973)

Hawkeye made his debut in Tales of Suspense as an Iron Man villain. And soon enough, he chose to become a “straight-shooter” and joined the Avengers led by Captain America. You can find his first appearances, important issues, and his first solo series in the first volume of the Hawkeye Epic Collection:

 

  • Hawkeye Epic Collection: The Avenging Archer
    Collects Hawkeye (1983) #1-4; Avengers (1963) #16, 63-65, 189, 223; Marvel Team-Up (1972) #22, 92, 95; Captain America (1968) #317; material from Tales of Suspense (1959) #57, 60, 64; Marvel Tales (1964) #100; Marvel Fanfare (1982) #3, 39; Marvel Super Action (1976) #1.

To explore Clint’s character during this period, we invite you to check out Stan Lee’s run on the Avengers. This is an important arc for Hawkeye and Captain America’s dynamic as Clint is a man who has problems with authority. Some background information are also naturally revealed about his past

Clint Barton is a key member of the Avengers until Avengers #109 where he left the team for the first team after a jealousy crisis. For those who want to see Clint shooting Arrow left and right, you can check this complete period:

  • Avengers #16-109
    Available on Kindle & Comixology

    • The Swordman is introduced in Avengers #19.
    • Hawkeye becomes Goliath in issue #16.
    • Clint returns to his Hawkeye person in Avengers #98
  • Check out our Avengers Reading Order for a trade paperback listing!

After his departure, Clint’s involvement with the Avengers became sporadic over the next decade.

Hawkeye, Leader of the West Coast Avenger

Clint Barton wanted to prove he could succeed on his own when he broke out from the Avengers. He met and married Bobbi Morse in his first solo series, where he also suffered hearing damage due to the villain’s ultrasound technology. When he returned to the Avengers, he was appointed as the leader of the West Coast Avengers team. Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man, and Tigra were part of the team.

Hawkeye: Earth’s Mightiest Marksman

Following recent events, Hawkeye left the team and stumbles upon a Secret Empire in his second solo series written by Chuck Dixon.

  • Hawkeye Epic Collection: Shafted new
    Collects Hawkeye (1994) #1-4, Hawkeye: Earth’s Mightiest Marksman (1998) #1, Hawkeye (2003) #1-8, Avengers (1998) #502, The Pulse (2004) #10, New Avengers (2004) #26, 30, Young Avengers Presents (2008) #6, and Material From Marvel Comics Presents (1998) #159-161. some of these stories were previously collected in Avengers: Hawkeye: Earth’s Mightiest Marksman. What’s in bold is what you have to read here.

 

Clint Barton is back as a team player, first in the Avengers, then to help the Thunderbolts to redeem themselves, a period written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza.

  • Avengers Assemble, Vol. 1
    Collects Avengers vol. 3 #1–11, Annual 1998; Iron Man vol. 3 #7; Captain America vol. 3 #8; Quicksilver #10.
  • Thunderbolts Omnibus Vol. 2
    Collects Thunderbolts (1997) #34-63, Thunderbolts Annual 2000, Avengers (1998) #31-34, Avengers Annual 2000, Thunderbolts: Life Sentences (2001) # 1, Thunderbolts: From the Marvel Vault (2011) # 1, Citizen V and the V-Battalion (2001) #1-3, Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting (2002) #1-4. Also collected in:

  • Thunderbolts Omnibus Vol. 3
    Collects Thunderbolts (1997) #64-75 And #100-109, Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6, New Thunderbolts #1-18 And Thunderbolts Presents: Zemo — Born Better #1-4

Hawkeye leaves Thunderbolts and returns to the Avengers at the end of Avengers (1998) Vol. 3 #73. Most importantly, he headlined his third solo series written by Nicieza, where Clint travels in search of the world’s best chili to take Hawkeye out of spandex and into the real-world problems of real-world losers.

Clint Barton, New Avengers (2005-2010)

In 2005, Bendis took over the Avengers and changed the way Marvel worked, launching one event to prepare for the next one. It all began with Avengers Disassembled, a very important story for Hawkeye’s future.

In the wake of “Avengers Disassembled“, the Young Avengers were created with a new Hawkeye in town named Kate Bishop. She will become an important part of Clint’s life, so we invite you to check out our Hawkeye Kate Bishop Reading Order to know more about her! As for Clint Barton, he reappears later in New Avengers under the codename Ronin.

Clint Barton in the Heroic Age (2010-2012)

After the event of Siege, a new Heroic Age started for Marvel superheroes. The Avengers were reassembled with Hawkeye as part of the team. Barton also had a stint as a teacher in Avengers Academy and is chosen by Captain America to be the leader of the Secret Avengers team. During this time, Hawkeye also stars in several miniseries, as Marvel was putting a lot of material out there as the release of The Avengers movie was approaching.

Hawkeye Marvel Now (2012-2015)

Until now, most solo series starring Clint Barton were short-lived. It changed with Matt Fraction & David Aja’s run on Hawkeye. In it, Clint Barton continues his fight for justice — and good rooftop BBQs! With Young Avenger Kate Bishop by his side, he’s out to get some downtime from being one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes — but when the apartment building he’s moved into, and the neighbors he’s befriended, are threatened by a tracksuit-wearing, dog-abusing gang of Eastern European mobsters who say “bro” an awful lot, Clint must stand up and defend his new adopted family…any way he can. 

 

The Complete Fraction & Aja run in Omnibus:

Previously collected in a big paperback:

And, of course, also collected in several trades before:

Following Fraction and Aja’s departure, the title is relaunched as All-New Hawkeye under the creative team of Jeff Lemire and Ramón Pérez. Also, as a Halloween treat, Hawkeye and Deadpool had to team up without killing each other in a limited series written by Gerry Duggan.

What about the Avengers? You guessed it, Clint was a very busy man and was also shooting arrows for the Avengers. He was first a main player in the digital series Avengers: Millennium, then was starring in the Nick Spencer’s Secret Avengers, working with Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hulk, Mockingbird, Taskmaster, and a new Iron Patriot. He was still on the roster for the relaunch by Ales Kot. He also acts as a supporting player in Avengers, Avengers World and Avengers Assemble during Jonathan Hickman’s era.

All-New, All-Different Hawkeye (2015-2017)

Following the 2015 Secret Wars event, the Marvel Universe was relaunched. Jeff Lemire and Ramón Pérez continue to write Hawkeye before a new Civil War was triggered. Hawkeye played a major role in issue #3 of the event. His actions will lead him to travel across America and pair up with a character named Red Wolf in Occupy Avengers. He then became a leader of the resistance against Hydra during the Secret Empire event. 

Meanwhile, Kate Bishop was starring in her own Hawkeye comic, written by Kelly Thompson, and is reunited with Clint for a story, before the latter teamed up with the Winter Soldier.

Marvel Fresh Start (2018-Present)

Though more centered on Kate Bishop, both Hawkeyes star in the relaunched West Coast Avengers, by Kelly Thompson. Next, Hawkeye is determined to stop the Hood in a story written by Matthew Rosenberg.

Superheroes were made illegal by Wilson Fisk in Devil’s Reign. Now that Luke Cage is the mayor of New York, he can’t reinstate vigilante, but he can help redeem the Thunderbolts’ name. He chose  Hawkeye to lead the new version of the team, consisting of America Chavez, Persuasion, Gutsen Glory, Power Man, and Spectrum.

After that, Clint Barton made a few appearances, short apparitions in isolated issues. That was until he was accused of a rogue assassination attempt that put the U.S. and Madripoor at odds. A situation that led to a team-up with Natasha Romanoff.

  • Black Widow & Hawkeye (coming soon)
    Collects Black Widow & Hawkeye (2024) #1-4.

Old Man Hawkeye, an alternative version of Hawkeye

There are a lot of different versions of Hawkeye out there, but this version received his own miniseries! Old Man Hawkeye first appeared as a supporting player in Old Man Logan before being the star of his own title, set five years before the events in Old Man Logan.

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