HEADCANON / RANT : MC.U VS. 616 CLINT

clint u. absolute buffoon. u difficult boy. u total garbage man. listen i wont go in too long of a rant ( edit: oops nvm ) but one thing that just. really really upsets me about the mc.u’s treatment of clint is. how much they just completely nerfed his personality. in the movies he’s??? complacent and quiet and follow’s orders and brooding and is just. A Good Soldier, and so bLAND when that’s litERALLY THE Opposite of him. 

he’s witty and he doesn’t shut up and he’s so sardonic, and jaded, and exhausted!! he’s morally grey!! he’s terrible at following authority!! he respect’s steve but literally gets in fights with him aLL THE TIME. he naturally wants to lead, like look at west-coast avengers! and sure as he develops he’ll try more but he caaaan’t follow orders well. and the mc.u literally took anyway any of the?? wonderfully human, depth-granting flaws that he had. 

what’s his flaw in the movies?????? they shoe-horned moral ambiguity into like five minutes of the final movie and that was it? whenever someone asks me my favorite avenger / super hero i . always always say hawkeye and people 99% of the time give me a look and go ‘why?? he’s so boring??’ and im like i knOW MC.U HIM IS BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAnd asdfasdf and if the MC.U is all you know I don’t blame you at all this isn’t?? me attacking people for not knowing comics it’s me screaming at the movies for taking this wonderful, relatable, absolute mess of a character who tries to be good anyway despite all his flaws and just going. ‘uh we need a sixth avenger but we cant have it be spiderman yet so lets??? use this hawkguye person but not actually read anything about his character lmfao’

I remember when I first started reading hawkeye comics what. really made me fall inlove w/ m.att frac.tion is that in an interview he refered to clint as something like “the human embodiment of an on fire garbage can with a heart of gold” and that has always stuck with me!! because he’s not just. some quiet serious soldier like the MC.U portrays him as and that’s why he’s a hero, no! he actively chooses to try and be good now, and it’s a struggle he has to continue with all the time! yes he has a soft heart and it’s one of gold but he comes from a difficult, abusive, dangerous childhood and so he’s been punished and hurt so many times and he could just turn totally rogue and angry and destructive ( which he. has. a few times ) he’s made so many mistakes but he keeps on trying.

and that’s just !! the bad parts!! what about the good??  like he sees a hurt dog in the street and literally just throws money at a hospital until they promise to save him and is. so so distressed about it. how he literally can’t turn away someone in need of help, how he tries so hard to pull himself together just to be a good enough mentor to kate even tho he’s... such a mess. how he defeats mafia in his neighborhood literally just so that the people living in his building can have a moer peaceful life 

anyway this all started bc i was. looking through the tags of some of his ?? Romantic interests ( b.obbi, n.at, jes.sica ) and i was. screaming inside bc I want to ship them and I do but he’s such a mess lmao that he’s just. screwed some of these up so bad. like him and jess had a lot of potential but he’s . just so bad at commitment. him and b.obbi have had. sO MUCH HAPPEN TO THEM that at this point is it like?? can they even trust again?? 

and dont get me started him and n.at have gone through so much and done so much and it hasn’t all been good but for like just a minute some of it has been?? so so lovely and even through the bad they just?? some comics always manage to make me feel like they’re absolutely meant for each other ( others are like. they’re not gonna work romantically. and i respect that. comic multi-verse is so large it’s intimidating but also so ?? good for exploring so many topics and relationships ) but also it makes me soft bc I’m?? a super multi-ship person and i also just?? adore them together platonically because they make such incredible friends?? they really understand certain parts of each other in a way no one else can because they just know each other so well and?? I love that even if they don’t work out in a romantic relationship they’ll always be so close and !! clint will always love her platonically because they’re. just. such good friends. 

( go check out!! this panel!! yes they kiss a moment later and it’s a romantic thing sort of, it’s a mess but it’s so important that at the core of whatever they are they’re still frIENDS )

and don’t even get me sTARTED PART 2. on the friendship between kate and clint, they mean the absolute world to me and it’s really like he lost his way and is spiraling but she makes him want to be a better person bc in a way she’s looking up to him and depending on him ( though he. really depends on her so much more even though he’s the mentor ) and he tries, and makes mistakes, and tries again and they fight but they forgive each other and they work together and!!