Matt Hawk/Clint is one of those niche dynamics in comics that's really easy to miss because it's so blink and you miss in the 60-ish years that Matt Hawk and Clint Barton have both existed... but there is a LOT to unpack with their dynamic and it's a criminally underrated relationship.
From West Coast Avengers Vol 2 18.
[ID: Two-Gun Kid and Hawkeye embracing as they reunite, Hawkeye saying "Hey, we're pards, TG! Time'n'distance doesn't affect that!" End ID]
On a Marvel blog, I imagine Clint Barton/Hawkeye needs no introduction. Here's the cliff's notes on Matt: Debuting in 1962, he was a fixture of Marvel's Western comics for roughly the next five years they existed. I could write essays about him, but suffice to say that he's a staunchly principled time-travelling Jewish cowboy defense lawyer from 1873.
That time travel bit, however, doesn't kick in until he meets Clint during the first Avengers battle against Kang. Clint was thrown back in time to 1873 in Tombstone, Texas*, where he sought out the Two-Gun Kid for help (remembering the stories he used to read about Two-Gun growing up in the orphanage [Avengers Forever issue 4] ). Until Thor and the other Avengers arrive, Matt and Clint co-lead the resistance against Kang. [Avengers 142]. After the Avengers defeat Kang, Clint and Matt have taken such a shine to each other that Clint quits the Avengers and Matt leaves 1873 purely to hang out with each other and "have adventures" in the present day. [Avengers 144].
Matt and Clint spend a not insigificant amount of time just hanging out in the western United States, though not a lot of it is shown on panel- there's only maybe three issues where Matt and Clint's adventures are shown and they're not even the stars in one of them. They fight the Purple Man [Marvel Tales Vol 1 100.] and Clint apparently teaches Matt how to shoot a bow, [Two-Gun Kid: The Sunset Riders 1 1]
There is one notable instance though, from Ghost Rider Vol 2 27. In this issue, we find Matt and Clint both having a great time just hanging out near a ranch and Matt expresses no interest in going home. A chance encounter with Johnny Blaze exposes Matt to motorcycles, and he gets some lessons from Blaze. Afterward, Matt rambles excitedly about possibly buying "one of them machines" and "getting out on the road like Johnny." Clint's reaction to this is Extremely Normal:
From Ghost Rider Vol 2 27.
[ID: A textbox reads, "--Alone in his room, a troubled Ex-Avengers also ponders-" Clint, suiting up in his Hawkeye uniform, thinks to himself, "Hmm! Haven't had this outfit on for a long while! It feels good! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Two-Gun isn't going to stick around much longer-- and it wouldn't be much fun clowning around here by myself! It's been a gas, but I guess I knew it would wear thin after a while! The party's over! I wonder if the Avengers would take back a slightly rusty bow-slinger! Aw, what am I moping for? It isn't like the world's about to end or anything!" End ID]
Again, Matt's having a great time and expresses no interest in going home in this issue or in any of the other issues where he and Clint are hanging out. When Matt is finally sent home, it's almost a footnote in a larger ongoing Avengers event in which Matt literally only cameos in a few panels.
A few years later, Matt and Clint are reunited when more time travel bullshit drops Clint and his team of West Coast Avengers (including Clint's wife Bobbi) back in 1876 near Tombstone. Clint realizes they've returned to Matt's time when he recognizes a distant battle-cry ringing through the hills. It doesn't specify that he recognizes Matt's voice specifically, but given he spent the most time with Matt it's a fair assumption. This exchange follows:
From West Coast Avengers Vol 2 18.
[ID: Matt and Clint, both riding Thunder. Matt says, "Well, I wasn't very happy in your time, Clint- there was just too much strangeness for a simple fella like me- but now that I've seen the future, 1876 seems a little flat!"
Clint asks Matt, "Are you thinkin' you might wanna try us out a second time?"
Matt responds, "I don't know, Pard... I just don't know...!" End ID]
Then, later in this issue, they learn that Hawkeye and his West Coast Avengers are trapped in 1876. It's Matt's turn to have an Extremely Normal Reaction, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the exchange above:
From West Coast Avengers Vol 2 18.
[ID: Matt, addressing Clint, says, "Hawkeye- I know this seems like terrible news, but you've lived here before! If you have to stay, I'll do everything I can to make you and your team happy!" Clint replies, "Thanks, Two-Gun... you're a good friend! But we won't stop tryin' yet!" End ID]
In the process of attempting to get back home, Clint goes further back in time to Ancient Egypt, but his wife Bobbi is kidnapped and kept in 1876 against her will** and Matt goes to help her. Fast forward to West Coast Avengers Vol 2 21. Clint dies while in Ancient Egypt, (don't worry, he gets better) and the narrative makes it clear that Bobbi feels Clint's death through space-time, leading to this exchange:
From West Coast Avengers Vol 2 21.
[ID: Bobbi, shivering, says, "I- I don't know! All of sudden, I felt a chill- as if everything I loved in the world has died-!" End ID]
But Bobbi isn't the only one who feels that chill.
From West Coast Avengers Vol 2 21.
[ID: Matt, thinking to himself, "Even if the same chill she talked about has just shot through me, as well...!" End ID]
I don't know how exactly we're supposed to take that in a straight way, (I felt you die through centuries with the cosmos between us but also no homo lmao) but, moving on! Clint gets better, Bobbi is freed from her captor and she cleans house, then the West Coast Avengers return to their time.
After this, we don't hear much from Matt again*** until Dan Slott's 2005 She-Hulk run. She-Hulk comes across Matt in TVA custody on grounds of Time Travel Crimes. Horrified to see an Avenger in their cells****, Jen works out a deal where she'll take custody of Matt in the present day. At this point, Hawkeye is Dead For Real but he left all of his friends video messages- including one for Matt.
[ID: Textbox reading out Hawkeye's message, saying, "So I made some for everybody. Even my late wife Bobbi. 'Cause in this crazy world- anything can happen! Which brings me to you, Matt. If somehow you wind up in this time again, and you're listening to this... thre's a place I'd like you to go. My storage locker downtown. I've left something there for you. I think you'll like it… Cause it handles just like a horse." Matt and Jen, investigate a storage locker, then cut to Matt and Jen riding Hawkeye's flying motorcycle. End ID]
So, just to recap: Clint arranged for someone to pay for that unit in perpetuity after his death just for the off chance that Matt ended up in the future again.
Also of note: when Clint become re-alived, he shows up on Matt's doorstep pretty shortly after. The timeline is wonky but the issue Hawkeye appears in confirms that Clint goes to see Matt before his return becomes common knowledge. She-Hulk had no idea Clint was alive until Matt tells her he showed up "A few weeks ago" and there's this exchange between Clint and Matt:
[ID: Matt and Clint, sitting in a living room. Clin says, "It got me thinking- maybe I should leave some messages behind. You know, in case I kicked it. That way I could let people know-" Matt cuts in, "How ya felt about 'em? Yeah, pard, I already got mine. And, gosh, you sure know a lotta purty words." Clint says, "Yeah, yeah, rub it in." End ID]
That issue from 2007 is the last time Clint and Matt appear together on panel, and it's one of the last times Matt Hawk showed up, even though canonically he's still alive and running around in present day Marvel 616.
So. Looking back on all of this. I think it's pretty damn clear that there's definitely something Not Straight going on there and that there's a lot of untapped potential. Matt giving up so much just to be close to Clint and then losing, quite literally, everything as a result*****, only for them to not even talk... is this a case of "oh they totally have poker nights on Wednesdays" or this this a case of "we had a big fight off screen because we're both kinda codependent but also opinionated" or is this a case of "I'm avoiding you because I feel bad that your situation is somewhat my fault because I said there wouldn't be a problem if you came to the future but also my love life is a mess and I can't handle any more complication?" Does Matt regret his choices?
It's been TWENTY YEARS marvel BLEASE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THEM??
Anyway vote matt/clint if only because poor Rawhide had to put up with so much of Matt's jabbering about Clint and the Avengers during the West Coast run even though he was Literally There when the Avengers came to the past the first time.
[ID: the "shut up about the sun" meme, edited so it's the Rawhide Kid saying "Shut up about the Avengers! Shut up about Hawkeye!" End ID]
*Some accounts say Texas, some say Arizona, I tend to go with Texas since it's the closest to the original Two-Gun comics and it puts him in closer proximity to Rawhide's stomping grounds
**I'm trying not to oversimplify or completely remove Bobbi's role from this, what happened to her was traumatizing, especially with later retcons and revelations but it's the usual Englehart timetravel/cosmic messy bs so bear with me.
***Mostly in two miniseries unconnected to mainline 616: Nicieza's Two-Gun Kid: Sunset Riders and Ostrander's Blaze of Glory, both of which are pretty good in their own right.
****No, Matt was never officially an Avenger. just roll with it lmao.
*****Yeah so apparently the TVA decided that Matt can't even permanently stay in the future?? Once he hits old age he has to go back to the past except that literally all his friends in the past are dead and he has literally no one and nothing to go back to?? So all he can do is.... wait out and see the dawn of the Golden Age of Heroes??? Like when I say this man sacrificed everything for future man dick I MEAN IT LITERALLY. [Marvels Project 1 1]
Like I don't even need them to be an item purely because I legit feel like them actually working out in a stable way is an extremely long shot but I at least want to know what's going on with them?? At the very least I want to know if the future man dick Matt sacrificed his entire future for was worth it and I want a front row seat to the toxic breakup if there was one
From Marvel Tales Vol 1 100.
[ID: Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid, silhouetted, riding into the sunset. Hawkeye says, "Don't worry about it, Two-Gun! We're up here alive~ riding into the sunset! Can't you tell a happy ending when you see one?" End ID]
