How old was Hawkeye when he joined the circus? Looks inconsistent
it is inconsistent! handbook entries generally say he was 13 or 14...
the first time his backstory comes up is in avengers #19 (clint doesn't even have a given name at this point). in this version, clint is established as an orphan that "never knew [his] parents," and no age is given for when he "joined" the circus. he just says he hung around circuses and carnivals (as a street kid? as an orphanage runaway? who knows!), so for all we know he lived in the outskirts of a troupe but wasn't an actual performer, until swordsman let him join.
the second version doesn't pop up until avengers #65, where clint finally has an actual name and the existence of his brother barney is established. again, no actual age is given; swordsman refers to clint as "a boy" (and sonny, little punk, and pup), and the events were said to take place "a few years ago."
clint and barney look to be teens (though ngl many comics didn't really excel in the "drawing children" department for a minute), and i personally estimate clint started in the avengers around 19-20, so him being a teenager "a few years ago" would be consistent with this.
in hawkeye v1 #1 (1983), clint says he was 13 when he ran away from an orphanage and joined the circus:
this age is used again in solo avengers #2 (1987):
jump to 1993, and in avengers west coast #96, bobbi guesses clint was around 8 years old when he became a carny:
i don't think this is meant to insinuate that bobbi's not well-versed on her husband's background; rather, there is a conceptualization now of clint having been a young child working in a circus.
hawkeye v3 #1 has clint looking about 11-12 while training to join the carnival's show (though he could be a late blooming 13):
hawkeye: blindspot #1 also doesn't have a stated numerical age, but barney says they've been in the orphanage for 6 years, and physicality-wise things look consistent with clint running away at age 13-14 as with prior portrayals, especially compared to how much smaller he's portrayed when orphaned (where he looks to be 7-8)
in hawkeye v4 #3, clint says he was a "kid" in the circus, and he also associates an evocation of his time in the circus with being 9 years old:
all-new hawkeye has clint and barney running away from a foster home instead of an orphanage, and both of them look to be pre-teens. if we presume barney's older than clint by at least 2 years, i would wager clint is about 9-10 here (clint also refers to himself as "a little kid").
all-new hawkeye was doing it's own thing with everyone's backgrounds, however, so if we all disregarded it (despite a certain show etching one of its retcons in cinematic stone) i think we'll all be fine.
ANYWAY we've exhausted our joining-circus-flashbacks. in sum, the most consistently used age is 13, and the ages of either 13 or 14 are usually used in marvel handbook entries. however, clint often refers to "growing up in the circus" throughout many a comic, and one usually associates "growing up" with happening prior to the teenage years (but maybe that's my own connotation?) and recent portrayals have shown clint in the circus at a slightly younger age. SO one could basically pick any age between 9-13 for clint becoming a carny and it would have a decent foundation. so the timeline would be: clint gets orphaned at 8 -> clint and barney go to a catholic orphanage -> clint and barney run away to the circus after anywhere between 1-5 years in the orphanage.
