Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye is quite often the butt of the joke when it comes to MCU characters. He even pokes fun at himself in Avengers: Age of Ultron when he says “The city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow, none of this makes sense”. Hawkeye’s skills however, are far from a joke. He is deadly with (and without) his weapon of choice.
Does Hawkeye have powers?
Yes. Hawkeye does have powers. His power is super accuracy. It may not be quite as obvious as Thor’s super strength or Quicksilver’s super speed, but he definitely has powers.
In the comics Hawkeye has the ability to bounce his arrows off of walls before hitting an enemy. He is also able nail people to the wall by their clothing using his arrows from a considerable distance. Even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’ve seen him perform some super human feats. In the first Avengers movie he manages to down a fast-moving Chitauri spaceship without even looking. There comes a point where no matter how much training he received, it simply wouldn’t be possible to be this accurate without some kind of super human ability.
His accuracy revolves around his ability to perform massive calculations in real time. Think about it. To hit a moving spaceship hundreds of meters away he would have to calculate how fast they were moving, what angle they were traveling at and how fast to fire his arrow. So I guess, in a way, he also has a form of super intelligence along with super vision. Oh and also he wasn’t even looking when he did it.
Why does Hawkeye use a bow?
Hawkeye uses a bow and arrow because this was the weapon of choice that he trained with from an early age.
Clint Barton became an orphan from a very young age. Soon after this he joined the circus and became an apprentice to the Swordsman, real name Jacquesne Duquesne. When Clint discovered his mentor was stealing from the circus the two fought with Clint being left for dead.
When Barton recovered he began training with a new mentor, Trickshot. Real name Buck Chisolm, Trickshot was a performing archer in the circus. He trained Clint as an expert marksman who eventually decided to leave the circus to become Hawkeye and join the Avengers.
Deadly with more than just a bow and arrow
Hawkeye is a highly skilled assassin. Aside from his love of specialized arrows, like his explosive arrows, he is also deadly accurate with anything. In the MCU when talking with Tony Stark about a recent game of Golf Clint says “Well, I played 18, I shot 18. Just can’t seem to miss.” This proves his super accuracy ability goes beyond just a bow and arrow. He is also an expert in Hand to Hand combat and in the comics regularly trains with Captain America to sharpen his fighting skills.
So there you have it. Do you have a new found respect for Hawkeye after reading this? or maybe you’ve always had a high level of respect for the world’s greatest marksman. Let us know over on our social media accounts @GeeksGonnaGeek. As always, thanks for reading.
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