Introducing my MCU OC- this is something I’ve worked on for over a decade and I’m finally kind of feeling brave enough to actually put her out there. A fic will eventually be coming, but OC fics have a tendency to get weird engagement and it’s a bit nerve-wracking to put out a character that’s got personal feelings put into her like this. I hope I can get at least some of the level of love I’ve gotten for OWL towards Hope and her story :) so now without further adieu:
Clint Barton’s niece, going under the call sign of Mourning Dove based on a pet name her mother gave her as a child.
Her mother died of ovarian cancer when she was 6, giving her a bit of a sense of fatalism.
Her father (Barney) didn’t take the death well and relapsed back into a life of crime, winding up in prison.
Her suit consists of a light grayish brown coverall, with black accents and boots, and her arsenal includes dual handguns, knives, and a pair of electrified grappling hooks attaching to a harness that she uses primarily for combat as a long distance weapon. She has sniper capabilities and has a preference to fight from a distance.
Hope’s scarf was a handmade gift from Lila Barton. She wears it as Lila is her only remaining consistent connection to her family.
Dove- Originally given by her mother as a child after the mourning doves in her backyard that Hope chased after. Clint and Laura occasionally use it, but only they can do so. Barney cannot use that name for Hope.
Elizabeth- Barney uses Hope’s first name. Hope does not care for her first name specifically because of this.
Chickadee- Given by Tony Stark. He heard the “Dove” nickname and chose his own version of it to be unique.
Kid/sweetheart- used interchangeably by Steve and Sam.
Ms. Barton/Barton- Used by Vision and Wanda. Vision doesn’t really understand casual nicknames and Wanda still holds an unspoken grudge against Hope for what happened to Pietro.
Peach/Peachy- given by Bucky Barnes. Peaches are Hope’s favorite fruit.
SHIELD/The Avengers (age: 13)
Introduced to the life of espionage at 10, Clint was apprehensive of Hope being singled out as a potential spearhead of a program designed as a “response” to foreign hostile groups using children in covert works. Nick Fury eventually convinced Clint and Natasha that, with the right guidance and transparency- and their firsthand monitoring- Hope could be a greater agent than either of them. She was immediately assigned to analyses, low-stakes observational missions, and moving information. By the time she’s introduced into the MCU at 13, she’s been reassigned to monitor Tony Stark and Bruce Banner on the helicarrier, to report their findings of the tesseract. Back to Fury.
Though she’s not present for the invasion in New York, she’s able to clock Loki using Clint to hijack the helicarrier beforehand, but is brushed off before the attack happens.
After the battle, Hope returns to her regular shield work, briefly appearing in TWS in Fury’s office, taking information to a different department and giving a snide response about homeschooling when Steve asks if she should be in some class.
Age of Ultron: (age: 16, explicitly on her 16th birthday)
Hope now more or less lives in Stark tower, doing an unofficial internship with Tony after he saw her weapons design potential and intelligence (and he has a tendency to adopt stray kids as protégés like Batman). She works generally as a support player for the team, flying the quinjet in emergency recon missions. When we get to the point where Clint’s nuclear family is revealed, Hope has a conversation with Bruce about how she doesn’t like the house and how she feels othered by her extended family, despite their best efforts to make her feel included (replacing that godawful and sexist Bruce/Natasha romance storyline). She’s older than the biological kids, and doesn’t look as much like them, so she does stick out.
She then tells Bruce about her mother, and talks about how ovarian cancer is hereditary, so she doesn’t feel like there’s much of a point to her own life if her chances of getting cancer are already moderately high. Bruce tells her she should be grateful and that not everyone has the opportunity or family she has, citing that this is something he wants but could never have, but Hope essentially says it’s nice in concept but in practice just feels off, like she’s watching her own life through someone else’s eyes.
Upon meeting Pietro and Wanda halfway, there are little hints at flirting between Hope and Pietro. Before the final battle, Hope is given a birthday card by Natasha, signed by all the avengers, and Pietro asks how old she is, to which Clint immediately replies with “too young.”
At the end of AoU, Hope goes directly on the ground into the final battle to evacuate citizens against everyone’s wishes, and while she does succeed in getting people out of the way, she also ends up being the one Pietro takes bullets for, irreparably damaging her relationship with Wanda. After this, Steve and Natasha agree that if she’s going to go out and do these things regardless, she should be guided by adults, and they let her join the new team alongside Sam, Wanda and Vision.
On a mission to bust old hydra bases in Bucharest, Steve brings Natasha, Wanda, Sam, and Hope alongside him, where an accident involving Brock Rumlow and Wanda losing control of her powers results in a hospital getting demolished. Hope was in the basement of the hospital at the time, having found herself in a trap meant for Steve.
Her apparent death triggers the Sokovia accords, claiming the team needs oversight because not only have they caused immense collateral damage, but now they’ve lost a team member, a minor at that. What’s more (following the original CW plot), several Wakandan citizens were working in the destroyed building and were casualties, meaning King T’Chaka of Wakanda specifically sponsored the accords
At Hope’s funeral, Clint is catatonic and Steve says he doesn’t believe she’s dead, while Natasha warns him that looking for Hope is not gonna be good because it’ll give Clint false hope. Steve disagrees on the accords and wants to look for Hope anyway, and Natasha says she’s going to the UN to sign them, wanting to be there for Clint and his family and wanting to not put extra stress on the team. She speaks with Tony, agreeing on the accords and leaving.
Little do they know, Hope was actually rescued by Bucky Barnes, now living undercover in Bucharest. He sees her as an opportunity to hold as leverage to find Steve and ask him the questions he needs answered without drawing international attention. He nurses her back to health over the course of 6 weeks, and they forge a bond similar to a brother-sister dynamic, culminating in Bucky telling her that she “looks like a Rebecca” when he learns her name. Bucky chooses to disappear for a few days because Hope leaves the apartment at his behest. He has to make noise to draw attention elsewhere, but in the time he’s gone, he gets framed for bombing the UN. Hope doesn’t know where he’s gone for those two days, and can’t confirm or deny any sort of alibi to excuse Bucky.
When he returns, Steve has found Hope, and finds him as well. Hope is taken back to the UN base in Berlin, and on the way, asserts that Steve cannot use her as any sort of testimony. Natasha goes with Hope to an infirmary, where she finally has a breakdown. Clint eventually picks her up and asks her what she wants to do. He says he’s fine taking her home, but he has other things he has to do, and she says she feels obligated to fight against the accords because she was part of why they were introduced, and had they been in place at the time, nobody would’ve been allowed to look for her and she would be dead. Clint knows she would say this, and says that he’s packed her suit and weapons and brought them because he knew she’d want to fight.
After the airport battle, Hope is imprisoned on the raft and later broken out by Steve, where Clint takes her back home to the farm so she can finally recover from her injuries in a safe location.
Japan arc / original arc (age: 18)
(This arc is non-canon and will be revealed in the fic, but it’s essentially delving more into Hope’s relationship with Clint, her family, her father, and a boy named Charlie.)
Infinity War/Endgame/Post-Endgame (age: 19)
Hope, now suffering from depression and an estranged relationship with Clint, has signed the accords and is called in to the infinity war crisis. She’s present for the battle in Wakanda, where she reunites with Bucky with a cheeky “you smell better.” In the battle, she buys Wanda time by electrocuting Thanos in the neck with her grappling hooks, and though he simply bats them away, she successfully buys Wanda a few seconds before ultimately being dusted in Natasha’s arms.
Upon return in Endgame, Hope fights, wins, and speaks to Clint at Tony’s funeral. What Clint did during her solo arc in Tokyo was unforgivable, but she’s grown in that time, and wishes him well otherwise. She makes a comment about college at Columbia, and Clint tells her he knows she’ll do great things regardless of where she chooses to go from there.
After Endgame, she decides to go and study international relations and political science at Columbia, and becomes the official UN representative and delegate for enhanced individuals on earth, scaling back her involvement to diplomatic missions.
Thunderbolts*/Current MCU timeline: (age: 26-27)
In Thunderbolts*, when Bucky has Walker and the remaining team tied up, Yelena asks why Hope can’t intervene with Valentina DeFontaine taking advantage of Bob. Bucky responds by telling her that he already asked, and Hope has the flu and is unable to help. This manifests with a post-credit moment where Bucky goes to Hope’s apartment with flu medicine, peaches, and flowers. Hope answers, disappointed he isn’t her Chipotle order, and clocks that while he’s there to check on her, he’s also there because he wants to watch Lord of the Rings on her TV.
Currently, Hope is in her role as a UN delegate, and has been alerted to an inter-dimensional aircraft being detected in earth’s atmosphere. What this will mean for her will be revealed someday soon.
