50 Greatest Super Heroes In Comic Book History

25. Hawkeye

(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)

You have to have a pretty large set of grapefruits to take on the kind of threats the Avengers encounter on a regular basis armed with nothing more than a bow and arrow. What Hawkeye lacks in raw power, he makes up in skill and chutzpah, and his enduring loyalty to the Avengers in all their many incarnations have more than earned him the right to call himself one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes — and one of our 50 Greatest as well.

For starters, Hawkeye is much more than an archer, able to turn just about anything into a weapon, even under extreme duress. He’s an expert hand-to-hand combatant as well, which the world found out during the time he went full ninja as Ronin (a role that was supposed to go to Daredevil, which would have made a little more sense) with the New Avengers. If leadership counts as a super power, he’s got that too, serving as the head of the West Coast Avengers for a lengthy period of time.

Perhaps more importantly, Hawkeye has a sense of right and wrong that is as fully formed as any you’ll find. You can count on him to do what’s right regardless of what other people think or what the personal cost might be for him. That’s gotten him into trouble, occasionally of the serious variety, but he always manages to emerge from those situations more or less unscathed.

Does Clint Barton have some issues? He’d be the first to tell you he does, including problems with relationships (particularly of the romantic variety). Is he prone to moments where he lapses into self-doubt, wondering if he really is just “a guy with a bow” fighting with and against beings with incredible power? His stint as Goliath tells you that’s true too.

Regardless, you know that Hawkeye is going to take aim at whatever lies in front of him and he’s going to figure out a way to hit the target more often than not. Hopefully Marvel lets Jeremy Renner show off Clint’s talent for quips as well, something fans who only know him from the movies have yet to see so far.

Next: No. 24: Every list of super heroes needs a super spy