The Avengers are one of the greatest comic book teams ever created. Originally debuting in 1963 as a superhero team consisting of Ant-Man, Thor, Wasp, Hulk and Iron Man, The Avengers have gone on to have a huge rotating roster over the years, consisting of aliens, mutants, gods, super soldiers, robots and supernatural beings. With Avengers popularity at an all time high, I've chosen to discuss who I personally think is the best Avenger of all time.
Hawkeye
(Bio)Clint Barton was born in Waverly, Iowa and lost his parents at a young age. After spending 7 years at an orphanage, Clint ran away to the carnival where he became a master archer. After seeing Iron Man in action, Clint was inspired to become a superhero, but a misunderstanding on his first outing forced him to go on the run as a falsely accused thief. Clint then met the Soviet spy, The Black Widow who persuades Clint to steal technology from Iron Man. After the mission proves unsuccessful, Hawkeye decides to stay solo, but is later convinced to become an Avenger after Iron Man sponsors him, believing Clint is serious about becoming a hero.
Some people are sceptical that compared to the likes of Iron Man and Thor, Hawkeye is going to look weak when appearing next to his teammates when The Avengers is released in 2012. What makes Hawkeye such a relatable and engaging character is that he is just a normal man, standing amongst gods and super soldiers. Many people have compared to him to Han Solo in the sense that, he isn't afraid to get in other people's faces. Hawkeye's backbone is his dynamic with the other Avengers. He often clashes with Iron Man over authority issues, which can also lead to conflicts with other Avengers such as Captain America.
One of the best examples of how Hawkeye should be portrayed is in the recent animated show The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The show depicts Clint as a former S.H.I.E.L.D agent who has a large attitude, which keeps him on the outskirts of the Avenger's team. Despite only been a fringe member of the team, Hawkeye has some great standout action moments in the series.
I'm not the biggest fan of Mark Millar's Ultimate Hawkeye interpretation. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the black-ops aspect of the character, I found Ultimate Clint to be slightly generic, and his character was too similar to The Punisher (although there was some standout moments in The Ultimates 2 for Clint).
We've seen a glimpse of how Hawkeye will be portrayed next year from Jeremy Renner's brief cameo in Thor. So far it looks like a reasonably fresh concept for the archer avenger, but there are definitely elements drawn from The Ultimate series. The recent concept art for Hawkeye's costume for The Avengers movie more or less confirms this.
So there you have it. My favourite Avenger is not a god, or a man in a weapons suit. It's simply a guy who uses a bow and arrow. Hawkeye hasn't had the best treatment in mainstream Marvel comics recently, but hopefully come next year when everyone see's what a great character he is that will all change.
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