Hawkeye
is angry while going through his exercises at Avengers Compound, thinking about
the villain who has come back into his life. He tells Mockingbird the full
story of his life….
He
and his older brother Barney grew up in Waverly, Iowa, children of a butcher.
Their father would be abusive when drunk; Barney would rebel while Clint would
try to be more responsible. Their parents were killed in a car accident and the
boys were sent to an orphanage. They were too old to be good candidates for
adoption so they ran away and joined a passing carnival. When the Swordsman’s
assistant quit, Clint took the role and was soon being trained in handling
weapons to contribute to the act. The hot new act is the archer Trick Shot and
Swordsman asks him to pay off a gambling debt by training Clint in archery….
One
day, Clint discovers that Swordsman had robbed the carnival; he wanted Clint to
join him in a life of crime but Clint refused and ran away from his mentor by
climbing the high wire. Swordsman slashed the wire and Clint fell, breaking
both of his legs; Trick Shot and Barney drove the bad guy off. Trick Shot then
trained Clint to be an expert archer. Soon, Trick Shot enlisted Clint in a
mysterious job that turned out to be a contract to murder a crook named Marko;
Trick Shot killed Marko and his wife while the confused Clint held off his
henchmen. Clint shot a gunman who turned out to be his brother Barney. Clint
refused to go with Trick Shot and the archer pinned him to a tree with arrows, promising
to come back and kill him when he has more of a life to lose…
…and
that day has now come. Trick Shot has sent Hawkeye a one-way ticket to Paris for
their duel to the death….