Hawkeye The Marksman Day!

"Dashing" Don Heck was born on this day in 1929. Heck was a key artist in Marvel's early days, and he co-created many of their stars including the focus of today's Dojo celebration -- Hawkeye the Marksman. 

When I first tumbled onto the Avengers there were only three members, Goliath, the Wasp and the outstanding Hawkeye the Marksman. Hawkeye is the ultimate no-powers hero, hanging and banging with the big boys against mighty menaces armed with only his arrows, his savage wit, and his unblinking courage. Hawkeye was created by Larry Lieber and artist Don Heck in the pages of Tales of Suspense. 

He was at first meant to be an antagonist for Shellhead, led astray by the comely Black Widow. But he comes to his senses and his inducted into the Avengers where he serves off and on for decades, even going on to spearhead the West Coast branch of that operation. 

Hawkeye, revealed to be a man named Clint Barton after I started reading about him, could be an asshole for certain. He was difficult to manage as a part of the team when the fighting was not on, but fiercely loyal when that loyalty had been earned. I even liked the period of time when he wasn't Hawkeye but became Goliath. He eventually returned to his best self, but always he was Clint Barton.

It's too bad they gave much of his tempestuous but witty personality to Tony Stark when they made the movies, because think how popular he'd be if he could be himself on the big screen.

It's actually the second time Hawkeye's fiery nature was ripped off, the first was when DC updated their own bowman Green Arrow long ago.

Clint had identity problems for a while. Becoming Goliath for a while helped him feel he mattered but then he returned to his archer roots. Don Heck is the only artist who made this outfit look good. But soon he'd be back in his vintage togs. 

It took Hawkeye years and years to get his own series and to become what I always knew was his first best mission, the leader of the Avengers. When he married Mockingbird, he became even more of a favorite.  I've always liked Hawkeye, or should I say I've always liked the rambunctious Clint Barton. 

Special Note: Look for many more of these one-day celebrations as 2025 tumbles along. 

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Favorite Heroes Countdown #9 - Hawkeye!

When I first tumbled onto the Avengers there were only three members, Goliath, the Wasp and the outstanding Hawkeye the Marksman. Hawkeye is the ultimate no-powers hero, hanging and banging with the big boys against mighty menaces armed with only his arrows, his savage wit, and his unblinking courage.

Hawkeye, revealed to be a man named Clint Barton after I started reading about him, could be an asshole for certain. He was difficult to manage as a part of the team when the fighting was not on, but fiercely loyal when that loyalty had been earned. I even liked the period of time when he wasn't Hawkeye but became Goliath. He eventually returned to his best self, but always he was Clint Barton.

It's too bad they gave much of his tempestuous but witty personality to Tony Stark when they made the movies, because think how popular he'd be if he could be himself on the big screen.

It's actually the second time Hawkeye's fiery nature was ripped off, the first was when DC updated their own bowman Green Arrow long ago.

It took Hawkeye years and years to get his own series and to become what I always knew was his first best mission, the leader of the Avengers. When he married Mockingbird, he became even more of a favorite.  I've always liked Hawkeye.

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Measure Of A Man!

That's a pretty dang good splash page by Don Heck and Frank McLaughlin.

For many years Hawkeye was my favorite Avenger, and arguably my favorite superhero. It was for two reasons really, his entertainingly abrasive personality and the fact that he was in fact decidedly not a "super" hero. Hawkeye was a man among gods having to wade into battle against the likes of Kang the Conqueror, the Collector, Ultron, and Doctor Doom minus the advantages of Thor, the Vision, Giant-Man, or even Captain America. Hawkeye was a guy who had his guts and his wits and his skills. Pretty admirable stuff, but sadly Clint Barton never seemed to think so as he was always trying to redefine himself. One of those periods of redefinition put him into the infamous costume above.

He didn't wear it long though as it turned out.

Hawkeye began as a baddie, admittedly not a very devoted one. He fell in love with the Black Widow and she led him astray. He quickly recovered and became one of Cap's "Kooky Quartet".

But he always seemed to feel he lived in the shadow of his fellow Avengers, so he decided to cast a larger shadow himself. To that end he adopted the role of "Goliath" which at the time had been dropped by Hank Pym in favor of the roguish Yellowjacket persona.

Clint was Goliath for several years until during the infamous Kree-Skrull War he found himself alone and his strength failing. He returned to his old ways, and rediscovered his skills as the best bowman in the world.

He returned to the Avengers with the old bravado but some decidedly weird looking rags. The costume seemed decidedly minimal as rendered by Barry Smith.

Rich Buckler seemed to do better with it, but it was a lost cause and as we saw above, by the time Hawkeye again left the Assemblage, he was back in his classic costume.

But that basic look never was a sleek and handsome as when Don Heck drew it in a few issues of the run. Heck's rendition even rated a cover in this French version of the comic. Not bad looking at all here.

But I still like the classic Hawkeye, and I'm glad to see that in the upcoming movie they have made him look a little bit more like the vintage hero.

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Hawkeye!

This is a handsome poster ad for the original Hawkeye limited. Back then it seemed almost every other Marvel character was getting a limited, but Hawkeye was well deserving of one, and adding Mockingbird to the mix was inspired. The ending with them getting married was a real surprise and added real heft to one of Marvel's most interesting heroes.

His outfit never looked quite like this one in the comics, but I love this particular design by Mark Gruenwald and it looks very slick under Brett Breeding's inks.

By now it's probably not a spoiler that Hawkeye shows up briefly in the Thor movie, but I was totally unaware of it, and frankly was very pleased. We got very little of him, and I'm eager to see more next summer.

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Pose For The Artist!

This is a great poster-shot cover of the original Red Guardian. This image by John Buscema is staged to maximize the drama and personal power of this new villain. It's too bad he had to die the very next issue.


Here's the original of that great cover.


Here's a cover by Buscema from just a few years later featuring Hawkeye in almost exactly the same pose. Just like the Guardian the pose sends the message that the individual is not to be trifled with.


And it's a good think that Hawkeye went back to his classic look in this issue, because as good as Don Heck and Frank McLaughlin make the costume above look on this splash from Avengers #109, I doubt Hawkeye's pose on the cover would've been as effective in these circus togs.

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Hawkeye Reads Comics!

I adore this single page by the incomparable John Buscema and George Klein. These two blended their talents all too briefly on the Assemblers, but they created some exciting pages between them in that tiny period of time.


For one thing I like comic book pages where characters read comics, especially recognizable comics. It's fun, and suits the personality of Hawkeye (not yet revealed to be Clint Barton yet) perfectly.


And for another thing, his page is a clever multiverse-bending ending to a story from Not Brand Echh #12. The whole story can be found here at the Diversions of the Groovy Kind Blog.

The story by Roy Thomas and Tom Sutton is pretty funny and involves these "Resemblers"...er..."Revengers" at a very particular time in their history when they were arguably at their weakest. The team consisted of Goliath, the Wasp, Hawkeye, the Black Panther and brand new member the largely untried Vision.


In fact this story had to happen in between issues #58 and #59 of the Avengers run since that is the only possible time that the assembled team pictured so elegantly by Buscema and Klein ever existed. The Vision became an Avenger in issue #58 and the erratic Hank Pym doffed his Goliath duds to become Yellowjacket in issue #59.


So it is in the pages of Not Brand Echh of all places, in this weird fusion of the of the Marvel and Marble universes where we find this Avengers team assembled for the one and only time really.


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Have Arrow Will Travel!

I love the character Hawkeye.


When you say "Hawkeye" some folks of a literary bent think of Natty Bumppo from Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic "Leatherstocking Tales".


Perhaps others with a keener interest in pop culture might remember Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce from the fabled MASH television show.


But I always think of Clint Barton, Marvel's gadfly archer.

He's long been my favorite Avenger and when for whatever reason, the team stumbled along without the quixotic bowman they were lesser for it.


He debuted in Tales of Suspense #57 battling Iron Man.



Then swiftly he became a bit of an anti-hero alongside the Black Widow. He was then drafted into the Avengers and has been a stalwart for the team right to this day, despite his apparent death.

Below is a gallery of great Hawkeye covers tracing his career through the decades.


For a relatively short time Clint Barton became the second Goliath, adding power and not so much skill to the team.


But during the Kree-Skrull War he got separated from his allies and had to revert to his old habits. He returned from space with a new costume and a new attitude to return to his archer role.


He left the team soon after and traveled across the Marvel Universe getting mixed up in adventures with Daredevil, the Hulk, and others. He even spent time with a time lost Two-Gun Kid traveling the west.


But Hawkeye always returned to the Avengers.


And then in his first limited series he met his wife Bobbi, known as Mockingbird.


Hawkeye was then given the reins of the West Coast franchise of the Avengers and headed up things out there for quite a few years.


For a short time he had his own series giving us more detail on his origin among other things.


As the years passed and with the death of his wife Hawkeye became more detached and more violent.


But when he decided to become head honcho on the villains-turned-heroes bunch known as the Thunderbolts, he really came into his own.


Marvel has tried to make him into a peripatetic anti-hero a few times, an "Easy Rider" type but more deadly.


They even killed him off once. He blowed up good.


And then they tried to replace him with a lovely young girl.


But he came back from the gave (doesn't everyone), sometimes not even looking like himself or using his name.


There's even an Ultimate version of Hawkeye, a family man to the core and one of the very few characters in that universe who seems to have some grounding.


But the recent resurrection of his wife Bobbi (I told you no one stays dead) has seemed get the bowman back to his roots.

I don't follow Hawkeye anymore, new Marvel books generally give me a pain. (I think even they've had the villain Bullseye pretending to be Hawkeye for some months.) But he has had quite the journey over the decades, a hero true, but more importantly the one many in the Marvel Universe who seems real.

And since I'm on the subject of Hawkeye, here's something that cracked me up.


I well remember this iconic cover.



But it never occurred to me that Ant-Man might become a permanent part of Hawkeye's arsenal. The folks though who make the Marvel Legends toys were not so short-sighted it seems.


Sheesh.

Here's a link for a closer look.

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