#rip to y'all if i didn't answer the question i got sidetracked

[bobbimorses]

what’s your opinion on the impact fraction’s hawkeye run appears to have had on the more recent perception & characterization of clint? based off of the older comics i’ve read featuring clint, i sort of get the impression that part of the reason fraction’s run is so phenomenal is that his more depressed & defeated version of clint is so radically different from how clint has been portrayed in the past, yet given all that’s happened to him it’s reasonable of him to have reacted in this way. and since writers & readers are using fraction’s run as a kind of starting point for the character, then they miss how it was a progression and how his personality was very different in the past. but that’s just the impression i get. i would be very interested in hearing your thoughts!

i think i've given long rambling answers to the tune of this question before, but basically my thoughts align--when other writers/readers use it as a starting point, it ends up devoid of the context that made it so impactful as a story, and draws away from the fact that it's really a story of clint's depression.

a lot of the events and storylines experienced by clint one after the other for 8 years (which is like, just shy of 2 years comic time) were incredibly traumatizing. first, he dies in a ball of flames in disassembled, then he gets revived only to learn he's not the real deal and that his best friend killed him in house of m, gets killed again when he's taken apart piece by piece into nothingness, then he gets revived only to learn the avengers, his only family, are done for, then cap's killed, then he thinks bobbi's revived only to see her killed only for that to be a skrull--yeah. there was a lot going on. but the event directly before hawkeye v4, an issue of avx also written by fraction, has clint getting set on fire and burnt to nearly a crisp, with the avengers leaving him thinking he's dead.

so, like you said, given everything that happened, it's reasonable to see him finally reacting to all that mess, that trauma, by becoming depressed. but if someone's using that as their starting point, they might not really understand the depths of his depression if they don't know clint's usual behavior. he's snarky, overly confident even if still a bit insecure, was a self-assured team leader telling everybody to charge right through no matter what, he likes to joke and grill for his friends--

and what's happening in fraction's run? you see him snarking a little and concocting plans in the first issues, if a little muted, but he starts to feel completely unsure of himself, becomes more ambivalent on what to do, then apathetic about making any decisions, he attends rooftop grill sessions but isn't actively cooking and says he only really eats when others have set one up, and is pushing away his friends most of the time. eventually, he realizes he has to rally everyone together as a leader and ask for help from his friends.

but, again, when writers write him the same way as in fraction's run but devoid of context, they also remove the ramifications of the decisions and mistakes he made, whether or not he could help it, while depressed. indecisiveness and apathy lead to the problem getting worse, he gets hurt, people get hurt, he lashes out at his friends--there’s pain and heartbreak. if you remove that aspect but have clint acting the same way for a few pages in some other comic, he’s kind of just bumbling around, and if they just exaggerate the mess without the initial spill or subsequent slip, he just becomes a punchline.

also, this one probably speaks for itself, but fraction and aja’s run was very much a more grounded, street-level book. it’s a normal thing in comics where heroes are in their street-level solo fighting mobs and then they’re in a team book fighting gargantuan threats, and everyone accepts that, but for some reason (i guess since he’s a non-powered archer?) some people went a little too far in finding clint incapable of taking on big threats (despite his decades of avengers tenure). idk if it’s bc they only know him as taking on the tracksuits, or if that’s more of a fanon problem, or that’s just run-off from the memetic nature of people going “haha why’s there a bow & arrow guy in this movie.” like, the man is not incompetent and has taken on cosmic threats before. having recent storyline after storyline where clint has to justify his place in the avengers (a team he’s not even currently on right now! that’s how many times we’ve done this!) when he’s done so more times over than, frankly, a bunch of big names who are actually new additions compared to mr. recruit #2/member #7, is getting a tad old when it’s simultaneously having him question himself to an extensive degree. idk, it depends.

i really like how freefall reigned in clint dealing with even more subsequent traumatic events in a short time by having him utilize his high-level combat skills and planning capabilities to try to fight a problem dirty and alone. he’s back to his snarky self, which helps convince others none the wiser that nothing’s going on (ok they totally suspect there is but he secretly beat them up to go “no, really”), but there’s some dark grumblings. once again, he doesn’t seek help from his friends, but this time it’s because he’s convinced that he has to go around the system/social structure he and his friends have been operating in so he can effectively dismantle the hood’s operations and make changes etc. ...and he faces the consequences.

ah shit i rambled again.