Great Hawkeye Moments

Hawkeye is, bar none, my favorite Marvel Comics superhero.  Sure, all of the Guardians of the Galaxy are a close second, and I really like Songbird, Iron Fist, and a whole host of other people, but Hawkeye will always top my list.  Sure, he's the target of a lot of jokes, people laughing at the idea of a guy with a bow and arrow hanging out with a god, a guy in an advanced armor suit, a super soldier, and all sorts of other powerhouses, but there are two things about Hawkeye that I absolutely love:

1)  He lives to be an Avenger.  He's always one of the first ones to show up when the call goes out, and he has devoted his life to the idea of "Avengering."  No matter what else he's doing, where else he's active, or what kind of fight he's had with someone, as soon as the call goes out, he grabs his bow and heads out the door.

2)  He realizes how under-powered he is, which is why he always works to make sure to make up for it with skill.  He even mentions this in one of his better appearances where he manages to eke out a victory against the Collector after every other Avenger has been captured.

He's managed some other great moments as well, such as the time he single-handed fought the X-Men villain Deathbird (who, for those not in the know, is an intergalactic menace and sister to the Empress of an entire intergalactic empire, who has also been able to hold her own against any of the X-Men).

Not only did he win, but he decided to rub it in a bit as only he can.

That right there is a baller move.

However, the best moment is when the Avengers were forced to fight against a force of dead villains by the Grandmaster.  You had some of the Avengers biggest powerhouses fighting the "legion of the unliving."  The Grandmaster had managed to capture Death itself, and if the Avengers won, she'd be set free.  If they lost, well, then the universe is pretty much doomed.

I mean, look at that line-up.  Iron Man, Wonder Man, Thor, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel (the female one), and...is that the Silver Surfer back there?  I don't really remember.

But look at the other side.  The other Captain Marvel.  Hyperion.  Drax.  Terrax.  This is no team of pushovers.  But hey, they're the Avengers, right?  Beating the odds is what they do!  So let's see what happened.

So, uh, yeah.  Round two is Hawkeye and Captain America against all the former enemies and their now dead friends and loved ones.

The universe is pretty much doomed.

However, never count out Hawkeye.  He has a plan.  A desperate Hail Mary.

A former carnival worker suckers a cosmic being into a game of chance.  But still, it's a coin flip, right?  A being of unimaginable insight can surely predict which hand the arrow is going to be in, won't he?

Never trust a carnie.

Death, out of gratitude, brings all of the Avengers back to life, and there's a fun moment at the end when the team is playing softball and Cap warns the other players "Watch out for Hawkeye, he cheats!"

But man, conning the ultimate game fan.  That's up there with The Sting for best con ever performed.  No matter what else happens, Hawkeye will always be able to say he outsmarted one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and humiliated him to the point that the Grandmaster has never tried to seek revenge since.

I think this picture sums the whole thing up perfectly: