Real Name: Clint Barton

Class: Weapons specialist

Occupation: former carnival performer, former security guard, adventurer

Affiliations: member of Avengersand Defenders ; leader of the Thunderbolts , former associate to the Great Lakes Avengers

Scale of Operations: Buton Canyon, Colorado ; nationwide, worldwide

Powers: As Hawkeye, Barton possesses no real superhuman powers, but has above average reflexes and hand-eye-coordination allowing him to become the most proficient archer ever known-- proficient with trick shots and bullseye targetting. He often uses trick arrows for various effects, including flares, explosives, putty, sonic blasts, buzz saws, electrical discharge, suction cups, and more. (At one, brief, point, Hawkeye wore a type of armored suit, offering him protection against most conventional attacks.)

As Goliath, Barton used gases designed by Hank Pym to grow to great heights, with appropriate increases in strength and toughness. (He could also use them to shrink to miniscule size.)

History: The orphan Clint Barton was going to follow his big brother, Barney, into a life of petty crime, but quickly decided not to, finally finding himself running away to the circus. There, his natural archery abilities were honed by fellow carnival employee, Trickshot, and later, additional training was given by the once and future mercenary known as the Swordsman. It was here that Barton created the costume and persona of "Hawkeye." Ultimately, when Barton discovered Trickshot performing criminal activities, Barton promptly deserted his circus career.

Hawkeye's first attempts at being a costumed crime fighter were misinterpreted, and he was branded a criminal. He soon wound up in a romantic relationship with the Russian agent, the Black Widow, who duped Hawkeye into breaking into Stark International and fighting Iron Man on a number of occaisons. Finally realizing that the Black Widow was really a criminal, too, Hawkeye left her to join Iron Man’s super hero team, the Avengers. Hawkeye stayed with the Avengers for a long time, leaving only briefly when his temper and ego led him to believe he wasn’t wanted, but later returning, after joining the "non-team" Defenders in the meantime.

At one point, Hawkeye was passed over joining his team in the intergalactic Kree-Skrull war, due to his lack of superhuman abilities. Instead, Hawkeye took on the identity of Goliath with the use of Hank Pym’s size-altering particles. With the war over, Goliath eventually returned to his former identity and made his way back to the Avengers.

Another leave of absence was forced upon him, when, due to a type of "affirmative action," he was replaced by the Falcon due to the Avengers’ government sanction. During this time, he eventually found employment as a night security guard for Cross Technologies. Never gone from his team for long, he soon rejoined the fold, only to embark on a solo adventure defeating his boss, the villain known as Crossfire, with the help of the ex-secret agent, Mockingbird. The two heroes promptly married, and Hawkeye was offered chairmanship of a west coast branch of Avengers.

Hawkeye led the team through several adventures, growing into a competent leader, as well as later embarking on a series of solo adventures himself. During an adventure where the team became lost in the past, his wife was involved with the death of the Old West hero, the Phantom Rider, and the situation caused the couple to split up. Shortly after, the government forced the membership of USAgent on the team, and Hawkeye quit. Both he and Mockingbird wound up investigating and leading the heroes known as the Great Lakes Avengers (now, Lightning Rods.) Eventually, however, Hawkeye left the Midwest to rejoin the Avengers West Coast, although never really leading the team again.

Hawkeye continued to adventure with the team, even alongside his separated wife, and was present with them when Mockingbird was killed in a demonic dimension. Distraught, Hawkeye left the team and took a cross-country walkabout, which eventually led him back to the Avengers’ fold. Hawkeye was present with the team when they apparently died, sacrificing themselves to absorb the energies of the villain Onslaught. Eventually, Hawkeye and the other heroes were restored, and Hawkeye quickly rejoined the reforming Avengers.

However, Hawkeye quickly grew disatisfied as his previous experience as a team leader left him feeling too anxious as a regular member. Hawkeye turned his attention instead to the team of reforming villains, the Thunderbolts. Sympathetic because of his own outlaw past, and eager for new challenges, Hawkeye offered to serve as the Thunderbolts' new leader if they would continue fighting crime and remain reformed. The Thunderbolts accepted, partly because Hawkeye told them the CSA (Commission on Superhuman Activities) had endorsed his plan and offered to pardon the group if they performed acceptably; in actuality, the CSA had rejected Hawkeye's plan, and he defied them by contacting the Thunderbolts anyway.

During his stint as their leader, he became a friend and mentor to the group, honing their skills and greatly enhancing their reputations. He and his teammate Moonstone had even began developing romantic inclinations. The Thunderbolts soon became trusted allies of the Avengers, though Hawkeye formally resigned his membership in the latter group since he didn't want any perceived criminal association with the Thunderbolts to negatively impact the Avengers.

Unfortunately, CSA agent and former Avengers government liaison Henry Peter Gyrich targeted the Thunderbolts for assassination as part of a larger scheme to eradicate superhumans. Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts exposed and thwarted Gyrich's conspiracy, freeing Gyrich himself from the mind-controlling technology Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker had used to make Gyrich act out his anti-superhuman fantasies. Hawkeye agreed to keep the entire affair a secret in exchange for a full federal pardon for the other Thunderbolts, but a bitterly furious Gyrich refused to go along with concealing the incident unless Hawkeye went to prison for operating as an illegal vigilante with the Thunderbolts. Hawkeye agreed and was remanded to federal custody.

While in Seagate Federal Penitentiary, Barton was contacted telepathically by Mentallo, who was being held in a stasis field in the same prison. Mentallo was still capable of using his powers, and he used them to help save Barton's life from attacks from fellow prisoners in exchange for Barton's help to escape. Mentallo then organized for Hawkeye and three others (one of which was a Mentallo-possessed Headlok) to join a rotation of transferring prisoners to Ryker's prison. The rotation occurred during an attack on Earth by the powerful villain Graviton, whose attempts to reshape the world allowed the prison transfer do become derailed, and Hawkeye, remotely "chained" to his inmates, escaped with the so-called Chain Gang.

The Chain Gang reluctantly agreed to work together to search for a way to survive, deactivate their security manacles, and to search for a weapon of great power left behind by the death of the criminal industrialist Justin Hammer. The weapon had come to the attention of Mentallo by Hammer himself before he died, as Hammer awakened Mentallo's powers while he was in the stasis field. Unknown to his associates, Barton was actually working undercover on behalf of the espionage agency SHIELD, who hoped to use Barton as a mole to track Mentallo's criminal activities.