HAWKEYE TESTED CAPTAIN AMERICA'S SHIELD — THEN HANDED IT BACK
Weeks after Steve Rogers was assassinated, a back-from-the-dead Clint Barton confronted Tony Stark in the ruins of Avengers Mansion — and got knocked cold for his trouble, waking aboard a helicarrier while his identity was verified.
Stark then produced the real shield and invited the archer to try it. Where earlier candidates had been maimed attempting the same throws, Clint caught, spun and returned it flawlessly, because aim turned out to be aim whatever the weapon.
He even wore the uniform for one rooftop outing, where Kate Bishop — who had taken up his old name to honor his memory — shamed him for stepping into a dead man's place. Clint quit on the spot, left the shield behind, and promised to mail the suit back.
WHY IT'S OBSCURE
Fallen Son organized its five issues around the stages of grief, and Clint's installment is the bargaining one: a grieving friend offered a dead friend's job as though it were a cure for guilt.
He said so to Stark's face before walking away: a replacement Captain America would soothe the conscience of the man who had led the pro-registration side, not heal a mourning country.
With Clint's refusal on record, the mantle stayed unfilled until another of Rogers' closest wartime allies eventually carried it into the role for real.
GALLERY
BULLPEN BULLETINS — SOURCES
- Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America Vol. 1 #3 (2007), Marvel Comics — "Bargaining," by Jeph Loeb and John Romita Jr.
- Marvel Database — Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America Vol. 1 #3
- CBR — Hawkeye Was Almost Captain America
- Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.