Hawkeye has been in the Marvel Universe for 54 years. He started out as a minor villain who quickly turned into a good guy. Over time, he became a beloved superhero to the Marvel fandom.
He was not one of the original Avengers but became one of the most popular, somewhat due to his anti-authority leanings and sarcastic and cocky attitude.
When Hawkeye became the leader of his own branch of the West Coast Avengers, it gave fans a chance to see a very different side of Clint Barton. However, this was just the beginning of the changes.
Clint was originally a circus performer who was trained to become a master archer. When he became a hero, he was in the second tier of The Avengers and has been a member off-and-on ever since.
While he was arrogant and rebelled for most of his career, things changed when Marvel created the Ultimate Universe. The movie version of his character portrays him as his Ultimates version - a military man who works for S.H.I.E.L.D. and is a total company man.
Throughout the years, Clint also took breaks from his role as Hawkeye and took on the role of Goliath and Ronin, while a female version of the character also showed up during the Ronin years named Kate Bishop.
With so much history, here is a look at the 20 Crazy Details About Hawkeye’s Body.
HE CAN SHOOT ARROWS FASTER THAN SOMEONE CAN SHOOT A GUN
One of the most impressive things about Hawkeye, at least when he is in battle, is his speed with his bow and arrows.
A person who is holding a gun can fire as many shots as they can by simply pulling a trigger. However, when it comes to firing the bow, an archer must takes pull out an arrow, place it in the bow, aim it, pull back, and fire.
Shooting arrows involves a lot of extra steps, but with Hawkeye, it is almost nothing.
According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Hawkeye is able to shoot multiple arrows at a target in a matter of seconds.
According to his bio, Hawkeye can shoot up to six arrows in the time that it takes a person to fire a single shot from a gun, and he remains precisely accurate with every shot.
He HAS TOP LEVEL REFLEXES
According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Hawkeye’s reflexes are superior to all but 98-percent of normal human beings.
This allows Clint to dodge oncoming attacks while maintaining his ability to fire arrows and never get hit.
This makes him an invaluable asset in any battle, as he showed in the first Avengers movie when battling the Chitauri.
When battling his brother Charles, who took on the supervillain moniker of Trickshot and became as close of an expert marksman as Hawkeye himself, Clint showed how sharp and precise his reflexes were.
Trickshot rarely misses his shots as well, but in Hawkeye: Blind Spot #3, Hawkeye was able to dodge multiple arrows from Trickshot as well as numerous bullets coming his way.
HE WAS TRAINED BY TRICK SHOT AND SWORDSMAN
Hawkeye learned everything he knows about shooting the bow and arrow while working in the circus early in his life as a youngster.
However, while he became the most accurate marksman the world has ever seen, he worked with a variety of different items to improve his proficiency.
Two men trained Clint when he was a boy to become the weapons master he is today - the original Trick Shot and the original Swordsman.
Trick Shot taught Clint how to hit his targets by training him with blades, bolas, boomerangs, and balls.
As a result, Hawkeye can not only hit anything with his bow and arrow, but he also has the skills to throw any weapon and hit a target as well.
Meanwhile, Swordsman taught Clint how to fight with a sword, making Hawkeye a very dangerous fighter in any situation.
HE’S A CIRCUS-LEVEL ACROBAT
Clint Barton was sent to foster homes as a child after his parents perished in a car accident. Clint and his brother Charles ran away from home, as they disliked traveling from foster home to foster home.
They ended up joining a traveling circus, which is where Clint was trained under the original Swordsman and Trick Shot.
While his relationship with both Swordsman, Trick Shot, and his own brother deteriorated over time, Clint became a huge attraction for the circus.
He became Hawkeye – the World’s Greatest Marksman. He was able to hit any target and improved his act by doing it in the most acrobatic and impressive ways as possible.
He trained to become an expert acrobat, and as told in Avengers: Roll Call #1, his training as an aerialist and acrobat makes him able to achieve complex acrobatic maneuvers while firing his arrows.
HE’S A MASTER MARTIAL ARTIST
While Clint showed over time that he was able to hit just about any target as a master marksman and that he was able to do so using complex acrobatic and aerial movements, there was one area of experience that Hawkeye never needed to emphasize in battles.
Despite not showing it early on, Clint is also a master martial artist.
After the world thought that Hawkeye perished at the hands of the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #502, he eventually returned to life and ended up taking on a new superhero role as Ronin.
Instead of using his bow and arrows, as Ronin, Clint used a sword and superior martial arts abilities to fight in close quarters.
In New Avengers #3, Iron Fist himself gave Clint respect for his proficiency as a martial artist.
HE’S AN EXPERT AT SIGN LANGUAGE
Over the years, Clint Barton became a special agent for agencies like S.H.I.E.L.D., and when it comes to working as a covert operative, it helps to be able to communicate in other languages.
While Clint is not a master of numerous languages like someone like Black Widow, he is still trilingual. He speaks English and Italian, and as Hawkeye Vol. 4 #19 showed, he is also fluent in American Sign Language.
This was something that Clint had to learn the hard way, as he almost completely lost his hearing at one point and needed to use both a hearing aid as well as the sign language in order to communicate effectively with others around him.
As for Italian, this was shown in Infinity #1 in an offhanded manner so there is no telling how many other languages he also knows.
HE IS AN OLYMPIC-LEVEL ATHLETE
When it comes to his strength level, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe reveals that Hawkeye has trained his body to reach the level of an Olympic-level athlete.
Clint can lift up to 315 pounds, can fight for extended periods of time without losing his endurance, and has the agility, acrobatic skills, and fighting abilities of a top-tier athlete.
Captain America has trained Clint Barton in his fighting and conditioning aspects and he has received further training and skill’s training as a member of both The Avengers and as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
As a result of this athleticism as well as his skills as a marksman, Nick Fury said that Hawkeye is a “power level 4” in Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury #1, despite having no superhuman powers.
GOLIATH COULD LIFT 50 TONS
There was one point in Clint’s career when his bow broke in the middle of a fight and he was unable to help his Avengers teammates, causing him to have serious doubts about his worth as a superhero.
As a result, Clint decided that he needed superpowers instead of relying on his marksmanship skills.
He used the Pym Particles and became the new superhero known as Goliath – an offshoot of the former Hank Pym character.
This also increased Clint’s already impressive strength levels. Where he could lift up to 315 pounds as a peak-level athlete, as Goliath, his strength levels rose to massive levels.
When standing 10-feet tall, Goliath could lift up to 1,000 pounds, and at 100-feet tall, he could lift up to 50 tons.
GOLIATH STRUGGLED TO STAND AT OVER 25 FEET
While working as Goliath, Clint had massively increased strength levels. Clint could lift up to 50 tons at 100-feet tall and could lift up to 10 tons when he was standing as tall as 25 feet.
However, when Clint reached the 25-foot level, there were also weaknesses that sapped him of some of this increased power.
According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, while Clint could lift 10 tons when he was standing 25-feet tall, there was also one caveat to this statement.
Once Clint hit the 25-foot level and began to grow even taller, he had to use more and more of his strength just to support his enormous mass.
As a result, he could lift more, but was less sturdy and had to expend massive amounts of energy just to remain upright and steady.
HE HAS ENHANCED VISION
Moving over to the Ultimate Marvel Universe, major changes were made to Hawkeye. Instead of a circus performer who became a superhero after seeing Iron Man in action, the Clint Barton in the Ultimates was a former Olympic archer who was freed from prison when he agreed to become a U.S. Intelligent agent.
He became a close friend and colleague of Nick Fury and one of the key members of the S.H.I.E.L.D. black ops division.
Through the U.S. government, Ultimate-Human #3 revealed that he received enhanced vision from the American Super-Soldier initiatives in The Program.
They inserted “cones” and “rods” in his eyes which increased the rod cells in his eyes to over 400 million.
This also forced him to see in black and white, which allowed him to see things that others couldn’t and increased the focal length of his vision.
HE’S AN ULTIMATE MILITARY CAPTAIN
Steve Rogers isn’t the only captain when it comes to the Ultimate Marvel Universe. When Clint was freed from prison to become a military operative, he worked his way up the ranks and proved himself.
As revealed in Ultimate Comics Ultimates #11, Clint Barton reached the official military rank of captain before all was said and done.
Clint rose through the ranks even before he started working with Nick Fury and became a member of the black ops.
Due to his military ranking and his role as a black ops agent, he and Natasha Romanov had their backgrounds completely changed to make them more accessible to the general public.
However, his all changed when the Ultimates and Avengers separated and Clint was on the opposite side of the U.S. government.
HE IS MENTALLY UNBALANCED
The biggest problem with Clint Barton in the world of the Ultimate Marvel Universe was the fact that he lost all will to live due to a betrayal by one of his closest allies.
Clint and Natasha Romanov became partners and joined the Ultimates. This is similar to their stories in the Avengers movies as well. A
nother similarity is that Clint was a family man in both, with a wife and three kids, and his family was kept hidden.
In Ultimates #7, Clint was at home with his wife and kids when he was attacked. His entire family fell before his eyes.
It turned out that Natasha was a double-agent and ordered the hits. After Hawkeye gained vengeance, he became reckless and risked his life numerous times.
One wonders if Thanos’ snap wiped out his family as well, which is what will bring Clint back in Avengers 4.
KATE BISHOP IS SKILLED AT JIU-JITSU
When the world thought that Hawkeye was gone, a new hero rose up in Kate Bishop. As a child, Kate watched her father abuse her mother and then personally experienced an assault as a teenager.
This forced her to learn how to defend herself.
She then decided to learn combat fighting, including swordplay, martial arts, and archery.
As a young heroine, Kate took on the moniker of Hawkeye and joined the Young Avengers after she saved them using her accuracy with throwing stars when they failed to save her at a wedding.
While it took a while for the Young Avengers to convince the elder Avengers that they were worthy heroes, Kate’s proficiency with archery and her mastery of martial arts skills in jiu-jitsu convinced Clint Barton that she deserved the chance to work as Hawkeye.
HE CAN EVEN USE HIS FINGERNAILS AS A WEAPON
Hawkeye can use just about anything as a weapon. While he rarely used melee weapons in battle, he proved during his time as Ronin that he was more than able to hold his own using swords and other handheld weapons to great effect.
However, his most impressive moment had to come in Ultimates 2 #10.
Clint was taken as a prisoner after his family was eliminated and he was being grilled for information.
While bound to a chair, Clint dug out the tips of his fingernails one-by-one and then launched them with precision accuracy into the throats of his enemies, taking them all out with the most unlikely of weapons.
He is very similar to Bullseye in this aspect.
Similarly, he also used a joy buzzer once to get the advantage on Bucky Barnes in Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1.
PEAK LEVEL CONDITIONING
According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Hawkeye’s body functions at the rank as a peak level athlete.
He has exceptional endurance, strength, stamina, and speed. This means that he can fight for long periods of time without tiring and can withstand immense pain and still be able to fight on.
This peak level conditioning has been proven in the movies, as Hawkeye was able to keep going at full-strength during the entire battle with the Chitauri alongside superpowered heroes.
In the Ultimate Universe, this is also shown in great detail, as Hawkeye was able to escape captivity and battle to the end in Ultimates 2 against the Liberators, the Ultron robots, and eventually Loki, despite suffering serious injuries along the way.
HE NEEDED HEARING AIDS
Through a number of tragic events, Hawkeye almost completely lost his hearing at two different points during his history in Marvel Comics.
In the miniseries Hawkeye in 1984, Hawkeye and Mockingbird went into battle with the villain Crossfire.
However, while captured, Crossfire used a high-frequency sound to force the two to fight and Hawkeye ended up using a sonic weapon of his own, which destroyed 80-percent of his hearing, rendering him almost deaf.
Hawkeye had to use a hearing aid from that point on.
During a company-wide Marvel retcon, Hawkeye got his hearing back but then lost most of it again in Hawkeye Vol. 4 #15 when The Clown jammed arrows into both of his ears.
Clint finally got new hearing aids, and this time they were specially designed by Tony Stark.
HE CAN MASTER ANY WEAPON
Hawkeye is a master of just about any weapon, although he specializes in the bow and arrow. He has also mastered the use of variations of this weapon - including longbows, crossbows, and compound bows.
He can also use swords, katanas, blades, boomerangs, knives, nunchucks, and staffs as well.
However, the most impressive weapons that Hawkeye has mastered is Captain America’s shield.
After it looked like Captain America had fallen after the Civil War storyline, Tony Stark sought out Clint and offered him the role of Captain America.
Hawkeye proved to be one of the only people who could master Cap’s shield at this time, but he decided to turn down Stark’s offer and ended up taking on the role of Ronin instead.
HE HAS FLAWLESS EYESIGHT
While Hawkeye had vision enhancement in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, he didn’t need that in the mainstream Marvel continuity.
Instead, Clint Barton has natural extraordinary eyesight.
In Secret Avengers Vol. 3 #14, Hawkeye revealed that his eyesight is better than most normal humans, which helps him a lot when it comes to aiming arrows.
As a matter of fact, Hawkeye has such amazing eyesight and memory that Thunderbolts Vol. 2 showed that he can look at targets and then immediately hit them perfectly without looking back at them again.
This gives him a natural talent in the mainstream timeline, which also makes him a more exceptional superhero than his Ultimates counterpart who needed the enhancements to reach the same level.
HE ALMOST WENT BLIND
The Hawkeye storyline Hawkeye: Blind Spot from 2011 almost saw the end of the archer’s superhero career completely.
Since his talents lie in his accuracy and impeccable eyesight, Hawkeye faced a danger worse than any supervillain - he started to lose his eyesight.
After suffering a head injury in the Widowmaker storyline, Clint started to go blind and his teammates in The Avengers couldn’t do anything to help him.
While Hawkeye was going blind, his brother returned as the new Trickshot and attacked.
The two were taken to Baron Zemo, who ordered them to fight to the end. Hawkeye won the fight but refused to finish his brother.
As a result, his brother was arrested and agreed to a bone marrow transplant that saved Hawkeye’s eyesight so that they could battle again in the future on even terms.
HE’S THE WORLD’S MOST ACCURATE ARCHER
There is one thing that makes Hawkeye the great superhero that he became over the years. With no superpowers and only long hours spent in training, Hawkeye is a valuable member of The Avengers because he is a master marksman, and possibly the world’s most accurate archer.
In Avengers: Roll Call #1, it is revealed that Clint spends two hours every day - at the minimum - practicing in order to remain the best at what he does.
He can shoot multiple arrows in seconds and hit all of his targets, he can perfectly hit even the smallest of targets no matter how far away they happen to be, and he can hit moving targets and do it without even looking at them when he launches the arrows.
Despite having no superhuman skills, Hawkeye only needs his own natural talent and skills to remain one of the best Avengers of all-time.
Do you know of any other crazy facts about Hawkeye’s body? Sound off in the comments!
