Weeping Naiad's River

A Friendly Open Letter to the Hawkeye Haters

ralkana:

shadowen:

Dear Hawkeye Hater,

You may not remember me. I think we met around the time the Avengers movie came out, and you took the time to explain to me why having Hawkeye on the team was a stupid decision and why I was wrong for liking him. I may have argued or just stared at you dumbly, but you wouldn’t have noticed.

The thing is, now that the Hawkeye comic has been nominated for five Eisner awards, I wanted to take a moment to return the favor. That is, I’d like to use a little bit of my precious time and energy to explain why you are wrong.

There is one thing, my dear hater, about which you are absolutely right: Hawkeye shouldn’t be an Avenger. With no powers, no formal training, and no special gifts or enhancements, Clint Barton has no business being any kind of hero, super or otherwise. He wasn’t given great power and became a hero by accepting the accompanying great responsibility. He wasn’t transformed by tragedy into a force for justice. He’s not a soldier or a scientist, and, let’s face it, he’s a fucking terrible spy. Tear-jerking backstory is one thing, but we’re talking about a guy who started at zero and then it kept getting worse. The only thing extraordinary about Clint is how much his life, historically, sucks. There is absolutely no earthly reason for this asshole to have wound up on the roster of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

And yet.

Do you know how Hawkeye became a hero? It’s a funny story, actually. So he’s just this guy with the circus, right? World’s Greatest Marksman - you’ve heard the schtick. Then, one day, he sees Iron Man save some people from, like, a runaway ferris wheel or some shit, and he just goes, “I can do that. I can be a superhero.”

And then he fucking does it.

Does he start off by hilariously falling flat onto his gorgeous farm boy face? Yup. Then he gets up and keeps trying and keeps going and keeps fighting, and that is why Hawkeye is a fucking Avenger.

There was no gift or event or circumstance that spurred Clint Barton to become Hawkeye, the Avenging Archer; he made himself into a hero, for no other reason than that he fucking wanted to, and he keeps trying and keeps going and keeps fighting and keeps pace with people who have every advantage he doesn’t, whose status as Avengers pass unquestioned.

I’m gonna take a shot in the dark here, hater, and guess that you probably don’t have super powers. I mean, I don’t. As far as I know, none of my friends do (unless you count being awesome). I try to avoid broad generalizations, but I would estimate that the average comic book reader is probably pretty lacking in the powers department. A lot of us probably had crappy childhoods, but Tragic Backstories are, thankfully, a little harder to find. Those of us who are geniuses and scientists probably don’t have an inherited fortune to back us up or a life-altering lab accident to look forward to. Those of us who are soldiers are unlikely to be helped by super serums or experimental procedures. Some of us are starting from nothing. Some of us are starting from less Some of us have physical and psychological disabilities and other disadvantages that make every single day a challenge.

And yet so many of us still find ways to be heroes.

There are a lot of pretty great lessons you can take away from Hawkeye, as a character and as a symbol, but the one that really resonates with me is that, with a little bit of skill and a whole lot of follow-through, a person can make themselves extraordinary. We might not be fighting aliens or saving the world, but we can choose to be heroes.

And that, dear hater, is why Hawkeye is fucking awesome.

Sincerely,
shadowen

PS: You may now exit directly to the left.

Beautifully said.

Tagged: Clint BartonHawkeyeAvengersWhy Clint Barton is awesome

Source: shadowen