History

[thehawkinhisnest]

Clint was the second child of Harold and Edith Barton on June 18 in Waverly, Iowa. Their father was alcoholic and abusive and continually beat both Clint and his brother, Barney. Clint's hearing was never great growing up, and it's entirely likely his father made it worse, as he considered it a weakness and tended to hit Clint in the head and ears. Edith did little to help the situation, either, as she simply sat back while Harold abused his sons.

Clint spent a lot of time outside and discovered he had a naturally sharp aim, spending time throwing rocks at tin cans. Barney taught Clint how to fight and helped him to further improve that aim.

Eventually, Harold's alcoholism became the cause of death of both himself and Edith, as he wrapped the family car around a tree. Clint and Barney were sent to numerous foster homes. While running from one of them, they ran into a traveling circus that was passing through. They started out working as roustabouts, with Clint eventually having a routine of his own as a sharpshooter.

One night, Clint discovered his mentor, a man known as "the Swordsman", stealing from the circus. He confronted the man, and the Swordsman beat him within an inch of his life and left the circus. After recovering, Clint took over his place as the circus's primary trickshot and actually enjoyed life at the circus.

Barney, on the other hand, didn't, and eventually asked Clint to leave, to go with him to join the army and make their own lives. Clint declined all his brother's offers, and Barney eventually left the circus without him. Clint did follow, but he got to the bus station in time to see the bus leave without him.

Clint spent a few more years with the circus before he eventually began to get bored performing the same tricks every night. When someone came offering him a slightly more exciting - and dangerous - job, he took it, accepting his first job as a sniper-for-hire. He quickly made a name for himself, and he eventually left the circus behind for a more nefarious career.

One day, he accepted a job to kill a businessman. However, while trailing his target, he discovered the man had two young sons - and that he was a good father to them. When it came time for him to take the shot, Clint instead killed his contact. While making his escape, he was interrupted by Phil Coulson, who had come to offer him a job with S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint jumped at the chance and joined the organization, changing sides again.

Some years later, Clint was tasked with the elimination of an assassin known as the Black Widow. Again, he followed his mission - but when it came time to pull the trigger, he found he couldn't do it. He and Natasha ran to one of his safe houses where they laid low for a time to sort things out - and when they reappeared days later, it was with a folder of information to present to Nick Fury in exchange for Natasha joining S.H.I.E.L.D. herself.

A few years after they became partners, Clint was sent to New Mexico when an alien artifact landed in the desert, and here things follow MCU canon up until the Battle of New York.

After Loki and Thor returned to Asgard, Clint and Natasha moved in to Stark Tower with the other Avengers. Clint wasn't comfortable on S.H.I.E.L.D. bases, and he didn't want to make his fellow agents uncomfortable when he had been the one to lead the attack on them. He worked with the Avengers for a time until, one afternoon, he was settling in to catch up on his DVRed shows when JARVIS alerted him to the fact that the vigilante known as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was scaling the Tower's elevator shaft. Instead of attacking, he talked to the man - who JARVIS identified as attorney Matt Murdock of Hell's Kitchen - and found that he was there to investigate whether Tony was involved with Wilson Fisk.

After that, he and Natasha began working with Matt on the side to track Fisk's activities. He also has gone undercover a few times, once to deliver gently used office equipment to the offices of Nelson & Murdock and then to interrupt the attempted kidnapping of Karen Page - and getting a face full of mace for his trouble.

Just before ending up on the Island, he will also have adopted a stray dog and named him Lucky.