Hawkingbird

Hawkingbird is the het ship between Clint Barton and Bobbi Morse from the Marvel fandom.

Earth-616
Bobbi Morse was a SHIELD agent who had gone undercover to expose corruption in the agency. In the process of turning over the evidence to Nick Fury, she was injured. After recovering, she was offered a promotion in SHIELD, but she turned it down and decided to work freelance.

Clint Barton was an Avenger who wanted to find an independent identity. He took a security job at Cross Technological Enterprises, where, unbeknownst to him, the villain Crossfire was working on a mind-control device to get rid of all superheroes. Bobbi had heard about Crossfire's plan, so she broke into CTE to investigate, and Clint, as the head of security, caught her breaking in. They teamed up to find out what was going on, and after a successful mission, they decided to elope.

Soon afterwards, they moved out to California to start the West Coast Avengers. The team was a more casual version of the original branch, with close bonds between all the members, especially the married couple at the head of it. However, eventually, something happened that rocked both the marriage and the team: The WCA got sent into the Old West, and then Bobbi was separated from the rest of the team. A former ally called the Phantom Rider gave Bobbi a brainwashing love potion. After Bobbi regained her senses, she confronted the Phantom Rider, and they got into a physical fight, which ended up with him hanging off the edge of a cliff. He commanded her to pull him up, but after what he'd done to her, she couldn't bring herself to save his life. The Phantom Rider fell off the cliff and died.

When the team reunited and returned to the present, Bobbi didn't tell anyone what had happened, because Avengers had a rule against killing, and she was afraid of what would happen if Clint found out. Eventually, the Phantom Rider's ghost told Clint the truth, and he got angry and kicked Bobbi off the team, so she responded by saying she wanted out of the marriage as well. Half of the West Coast Avengers went with Bobbi to start a splinter team.

The splinter team was eventually reabsorbed into the main team, and Bobbi and Clint made several attempts at fixing their marriage. During a fight with Ultron, Clint realized he loved Bobbi and didn't want to lose her, and they reconciled. Sadly, she died a few missions later. The grief of losing his wife made Clint leave the Avengers and spend months in the Canadian wilderness.

Years later, it was revealed that during the fight with Ultron, Bobbi had been kidnapped by Skrulls and replaced with an imposter. This had two big implications on their relationship: firstly and most obviously, Bobbi wasn't dead. Secondly, from her perspective, they had never fully reconciled. After the trauma of her abduction and years off-planet, Bobbi wasn't sure she was able to handle another attempt at a relationship, but Clint convinced her, and they started dating again. However, the combined PTSD that the two of them had (Bobbi from her abduction, and Clint from his recent deaths and resurrections at the hands of Wanda Maximoff) led them both to make risky decisions, and they decided it was safer if they took a break.

Since then, Clint and Bobbi have remained close. They've both dated other people, but not for extended periods of time, and they continue to rely on each other on occasion, both emotionally and in battle.

Hawkeye (1983)

 * When Hawkeye and Mockingbird first meet, they're adversaries (since he's working for CTE and she's against them), and then he blames her for exposing the lies that make up his job (and current romantic relationship, as it turns out that his girlfriend, Sheila, was hired by Crossfire to date him in order to distract him from Crossfire's plans). Over the course of the series, they slowly start to trust each other and then even to like each other.

Secret Avengers (2013)
ISSUE #3


 * Clint and Bobbi are on the same team, despite having broken up. When Bobbi uses SHIELD technology to play a prank on him and fellow teammate Natasha Romanoff by disguising herself as Natasha while waiting for a briefing meeting, Clint starts telling Bobbi-as-Natasha all about how he and Bobbi are mature enough work together despite being exes. The jig is up when the Natasha arrives at the meeting.

ISSUES #7-16


 * Due to a time-crunch emergency, Maria Hill makes the choice mid-mission to erase all of Bobbi's memories of the mission and modifying the rest of the team's memories to make them think Bobbi wasn't there. This leaves Bobbi stranded in enemy territory with a weakened mind and gaps in her memories. When the team comes back a few days later to rescue her, Clint is distraught at her condition, and he later quits the Secret Avengers in protest. Unfortunately, Hill wipes his mind again of the entire incident, and he still doesn't remember any of it.

Secret Empire

 * A year after Clint killed Bruce Banner and the US was taken over by Hydra, Clint and Bobbi (among others) are leaders in a hidden resistance. When Hydra sends a temporarily-resurrected Hulk to attack the resistance, Clint is overcome by guilt and offers himself up as a sacrifice. Bobbi reminds him that being a hero is about saving others and that all of the people they're hiding are relying on them, which makes him stand up and take charge again.

Children
Unborn Child

Bobbi became pregnant with Clint's child, but ended up having a miscarriage.



Francis Barton is the son of Clint and Bobbi in the Next Avengers timeline.

Quotes
"I’m talking about the rest of your life, and the difference having me around is going to make in it. Maybe eloping was my idea, but I’m going to see to it that for the rest of your life, you believe that it was the best idea you didn’t quite hear."

- Hawkeye (1983) #4

"Clint may be a lot of things, but a Boy Scout’s not one of them. He’s hard-headed, stubborn, reckless. We both are. That’s what brings us back every time. That...and the fact that despite it all, we love each other. Even if it kills us."

- Hawkeye & Mockingbird #2

"If anything, I’m pushing her further down, and I’m falling with her. But Bobbi...she’s spiraling and I can’t save her. We want to be together, but we can’t. We’ve tried, and every time, someone gets hurt...or worse."

- Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6

Behind the Scenes
Jim McCann (the writer of the Hawkeye & Mockingbird book where the couple most recently broke up) has said that he intended to eventually finish the arc with them reconciling and getting remarried, but the book didn't go for long enough to reach that point.

Fanon
Hawkingbird is generally a well-liked ship for comic fans of the characters. Although MCU fans tend to prefer shipping Clint with characters from the movies and Bobbi with characters from Agents of SHIELD. Comic fans who are fond of the ship, are not fans of the MCU depictions of the characters or their relationship. Fans also enjoy any moments where the two reunite in the comics, or appear together in other adaptations. It is considered the rival ship to Clintasha.

On AO3, Hawkingbird is the second most written ship for Bobbi.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TWITTER

Trivia

 * In the Next Avengers movie, Clint and Bobbi have a son named Francis who goes by Hawkeye, uses a bow, and wears a costume reminiscent of Bobbi's Mockingbird outfit.
 * Kate Bishop was nicknamed Hawkingbird by her friends when she was first starting out, because she used Hawkeye's bow and Mockingbird's battle staves and mask.

Variations

 * Spy Quartet refers to the ship between Clint, Bobbi, Bucky, and Natasha Romanoff
 * WinterHawkingBird refers to the ship between Clint, Bobbi, and Bucky Barnes