We are first introduced to Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton, in 2011’s Thor. Barton’s working with
the intelligence agency SHIELD to investigate Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, which has fallen to
Earth in New Mexico after Thor’s father Odin deemed him unworthy to wield it. Of course,
in that film Thor grows to be worthy and reclaims his mighty hammer, and SHIELD moves on.
The next time we see Hawkeye is in 2012’s The Avengers. Thor’s demigod brother Loki attacks
a SHIELD research base and enslaves Barton to assist him in his plans to take over the Earth.
This prompts SHIELD director Nick Fury to assemble the Avengers, a team-up of Earth’s mightiest
heroes. Part of that team was Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, an old friend of Clint Barton’s.
After a fight between the two, Natasha is able to break the hold that Loki has on Clint’s mind,
freeing him to join the Avengers. We also learn about Clint and Natasha’s history together.
Natasha was formerly a Russian assassin trained and brainwashed in the villainous Black Widow
program that Clint was sent by SHIELD to take down. Instead, he helped Natasha defect from
the villainous organization and join SHIELD. In 2021’s Black Widow movie, we get to see a
flashback of Natasha and Clint’s infamous Budapest mission, which saw Barton assisting Natasha in an
assassination attempt against the villainous head of the Black Widow program. And back to
The Avengers, Hawkeye and the rest of the team are successful in defeating Loki and saving the Earth.
Next up is Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark creates an artificially intelligent global
defense program known as Ultron that becomes sentient and wants to eradicate the human race.
Ultron attacks the Avengers at their headquarters, so the team is forced to
go into hiding at Clint Barton’s family farmhouse. There, we are introduced to Clint’s wife, Laura,
and their kids Cooper and Lila. Eventually, the Avengers are able to regroup and return
to fight Ultorn. They are joined by superpowered twins Wanda and Pietro.
In the fight, Pietro sacrifices himself to save Barton before the Avengers eventually defeat
Ultron. Clint Barton then retires from the Avengers and returns home to his family, where his
wife Laura gives birth to a son, named Nathaniel Pietro Barton, in honor of Natasha and Pietro.
In Captain America: Civil War, following the immense destruction caused by the Avengers
fight with Ultron, and an unfortunate incident caused by Wanda, the US government wants to
force all super powered individuals to sign a document known as the Sokovia Accords,
which would strip all anonymity from the heroes and give the UN control over the team’s actions.
Tony Stark, feeling guilty about his creation of Ultron, supports the Accords. Captain America,
on the other hand, fears what would happen if the government had full control. And so,
the Avengers were fractured and a civil war was started. Amongst the members on team Iron
Man was Clint’s old friend Natasha, feeling like she should atone for her past crimes.
And on Team Cap was Wanda, who was largely being pointed at as too dangerous to not control.
Cap calls Clint out of retirement to help fight the Accords. Clint reluctantly agrees,
feeling indebted to help Wanda after her twin brother Pietro’s sacrifice.
The civil war comes to a head in an epic battle at an abandoned airport
which results in the arrest of most of Captain America’s team. Clint Barton is
eventually released from prison to serve out the remainder of his time under house arrest.
In Avengers: Infinity War, while Clint Barton is still retired and on house arrest, the villainous
Thanos defeats the Avengers and collects all of the infinity stones, which allows him to wipe
out half of the entire universe’s population with the snap of a finger. And in Avengers:
Endgame, we learn that the entirety of Clint’s family was wiped out following Thanos’ snap.
Five years pass, and a grieving, newly tatted up Clint Barton was now acting as a violent vigilante
known as Ronin, taking out criminals still active after the Snap. While on a mission to kill off a
Yakuza faction in Tokyo, Clint is confronted by his old friend Natasha, who tells him that
the Avengers have discovered a way to reverse the Snap. They’d go back in time to moments throughout
MCU history to steal the infinity stones before Thanos could get his hands on them.
And once the Avengers had the stones, they could perform their own Snap that would bring back
everyone that they lost. And so, Clint Barton rejoins the Avengers. The various surviving
Avengers all split up into groups to collect their own infinity stone. Clint and Natasha travel to
Vormir to collect the Soul Stone, but upon their arrival they discover that to retrieve the stone,
a sacrifice had to be made. Neither Clint nor Natasha wanted the other to make the sacrifice,
so the two old friends begin a fight to the death, each wanting to sacrifice themself to
save the other. Ultimately, Natasha wins that fight, and falls to her death. Clint returns to
the present with the Soul Stone and joins it with the other newly collected infinity stones. With a
snap of a finger, everyone who was previously lost in Thanos’ snap returns to life and joins
in on the final fight against Thanos. The Avengers are able to defeat Thanos and save the universe.
Clint Barton once again retired from the Avengers and was able to return
home and reunite with his family.
And that would potentially be happily ever after for Clint Barton, but the post credit
scene of 2021’s Black Widow movie complicates things for good ol’ Hawkeye. Natasha Romanoff’s
long-lost foster sister Yelena is working for the mysterious Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
And Val has a target for the new Black Widow to take out:
Clint Barton. Or, as Val refers to him as, the man responsible for Natasha Romanoff’s death.