I think so. I haven’t read the book personally, at least I don’t think, but according to Wikipedia he had a 250-pound draw on his bow. The citation to go with this was typically, for comics, cryptic:
Gruenwald, Mark; Layton, Bob (1983). Till Death Do Us Part. Hawkeye 1 (4).
That ought to give you a start in looking. I’m no expert but as I understand it, 250lb draw on a bow is rifuckingdiculous.
A lot has been made of the fact that Clint, especially in the film, has really terrible form, but I think that’s pretty accurate — he learned from a carnie, for god’s sake. Imagine how good he’d be if he’d had proper training. 😀
Wasn’t it a plot point at one comic where some villain picked it up and was like ow ow ow fuck ow i can’t make this thing move ow
Yeah, it was the last bit in the last issue of the first Hawkeye four-part miniseries, the one where he meets Mockingbird. He’s used the sonic arrowhead to break them out of the villain’s deathtrap, and the villain is all like “never mind without your bow you’re still just a guy coz I am so villainous I shall kill you with your own weap-OW OW OW” – I think that’s also the bit wehre he mentions the poundage of the draw.
So I’m no expert (The draw on my bow is a pathetic 25lbs for the moment) but the experts at a panel I attended had a lot to say on the subject of draw strength. Apparently there were all of these historical references to English archers being able to fire longbows over a mile and the calculated draw strength necessary for that kind of distance was well over 100lbs, so most historians took it with a grain of salt and a health appreciation for the fact that the French had a reputation to uphold and it looked a lot better on them if they got their asses handed to them by guys who were just too damned far away to stick with a spear okay, geez!
It WAS, however, pretty well documented that it was required by law for all Englishmen to spend at least an hour a day practicing with their bow so you’ve got to imagine that there were some pretty epic arms on those dudes.
Well apparently they found a sunken English ship that just so happened to have a bunch of longbows packed into barrels so tightly that they were completely preserved from the salt water. A bunch of experts restrung a few with period accurate materials and tested the draw strength. I think the average was 130 something pounds (it’s been a year since I was at the panel) but the highest draw was over 200lbs and when they shot it, the arrow landed over a mile away. Thus it was proven that the English Longbowmen were badasses with biceps the size of watermelon and the French weren’t exaggerating for effect (This time at least, I can’t vouch for the rest of history.)
Anyway, bottom line is that a 200lb draw is WAY beyond the capabilities of the modern archer but not impossible, and given Clint’s dedication to his art and the fact that he’s been an archer since he was a child (About the age young English boys would start to learn, I imagine) and practiced religiously… He’d have to make his own bows, or have them specially made, but given his history as a fletcher it is hardly out of the realm of possibility that he would have such a high draw.
… And that is my two cents and half-assed history lesson for the day.
Tag: awesome
tips on how to realistically write deaf clint barton
hello, fanfiction writers! i’m making this post because i’ve seen some deaf clint barton stories going around, and there are a lot of misconceptions about hearing loss and hearing aids and all that jazz, so since i’m hard of hearing, i thought i’d bring up a few common misconceptions.
- clint just reads everyone’s lips and understands exactly what people are saying. this is basically impossible. only 30% of spoken english can be lipread. for me, if i can hear your vowels and read your lips at the same time, i can typically get what you’re saying, but that’s not a guarantee. clint also wouldn’t be able to pick up lipreading overnight. that’s an acquired skill.
- hearing aids! there are many different types of hearing aids, so make sure you do your research on those. there are BTE (behind the ear) hearing aids, which are the most common. then there are the RITE (receiver in the ear), CIC (completely in canal), ITC (in the canal), ITE (in the ear) hearing aids. even if you’re going to have tony stark whip up some cool state of the art hearing aids for clint, it’s helpful for you to know which style tony would be modeling these after. keep in mind that some hearing aids don’t have an off switch—the only ways to turn those hearing aids off are to take the batteries out, which you need to do every night while the hearing aids themselves chill in a dehumidifier overnight.
- american sign language is just like spoken english. not true. american sign language is a complex language with its own grammar and syntax. make sure you research american sign language. watch videos, read books, learn as much as you can. you don’t have to learn the language, but familiarize yourself with it. you also can’t learn ASL overnight, so clint can’t just read a book on it and then be an expert the next day.
- hearing aids fix everything and make his hearing normal. hearing aids do NOT fix everything. they HELP, they do not FIX. so even if clint wears hearing aids, his hearing will not be 100% perfect. he’ll still miss pieces of the conversation. he’ll still have to ask people to repeat themselves. not all the time, but it’ll still happen. he won’t magically become hearing because he’s wearing hearing aids. remember: they’re called hearing AIDS not hearing FIXES.
- two days later, clint is back to shooting arrows perfectly. this isn’t true. when the inner ear suffers severe trauma, it freaks out. as a result of the traumatic way clint loses his hearing, he would have acute unilateral vestibulopathy. symptoms of this include: severe dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, everything moving around so his eyes would be darting about trying to make his vision be still, and possibly neck pain. his balance would be thrown way off whack, and he wouldn’t be able to walk very well after two days, let alone try to shoot a bow and arrow. typically, these symptoms last anywhere from a few weeks to a month, depending on the type of injury. but make sure you research this yourself, so you know more specific details! my really awesome friend gave me the information on this, so shoutout to her!
ok! i think i covered the most common misconceptions. if you have any further questions, and you feel comfortable asking me, go ahead! i am more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my abilities. i think it’s awesome that marvel is now incorporating a superhero that isn’t fully abled. it’s about time the rest of us got some representation. go forth, and write well!
This was really instructive and helpful. Thank you very much for enlightening us! 🙂
research is always good. Thanks for the info
Attention oral stimmers! (Or oral stimming-curious people)
I was recently sent some products by Chewigem for my video review, three out them I tests out very literally…by chewing the heck out of them. These three products however, I chose to review based on their thickness, size, tactility etc (i.e. I did not chew them up…) so that I would be able to share them out! They were shipped to me new and I have handled them, then washed them and put them back in their packaging.
So this is a giveaway! The products are listed above and the rules are listed below!
- I will randomly select three winners in a weeks time (14th of August). First selected will get first choice (and so on) so be aware of that, though some people might be willing to exchange their prize for yours, I can’t guarantee that though!
- You don’t need to be following this blog or anything like that
- Liking the post counts as much as reblogging it (as I’m aware some people don’t want to out themselves as stimmers)
- Please only like or reblog once! I won’t be able to strictly enforce this but please be respect this rule!
- This blog is aimed at Autistics but the giveaway is open to any Neurodiverse stimmers/chewers (and self-diagnosis friendly).
- I’m based in the UK but will ship anywhere
- I’ve probably forgotten something so ask if you need clarification or extra info.
What were your inspirations, especially since [Tauriel] is a completely created character; what brought you to bring that power because there were a lot of ways you could have played that role that would have been along the lines of what we usually see for a girl in an action movie where she’s not in the adventure, she’s the prize…?
SNIKT! (x)
Hawkeye 19 link and ASL translation!
One upon a time, I had a deaf friend that I learned basic ASL to be able to communicate with. Hawkeye 19 is right up my ally, so I figured I’d post this for people that want to know what’s being said in this issue.
Here’s a download link to the comic via my Dropbox.
PLEASE READ THE ISSUE WITHOUT THE TRANSLATION FIRST! Matt Fraction stated that he wanted readers to feel the sense of confusion and loss along with Clint, so read it as it is first, then go back with the translation. ASL translation is under the cut.
As a queer person of color, I have been told all my life that I will never play the romantic lead, and that’s fucked up. When they say that, what they’re actually telling you is that your love story doesn’t exist.
Dylan Marron, SDCC 2014 (via ivory-spirals)
HAWKEYE #19
MATT FRACTION
• DAVID AJA (A/C)
“Rio Bravo” – PART 4
• The sense-shattering fallout of the Clint vs. the Clown — Clint Barton has been deafened!
• With the Barton Brothers this battered and bloodied, surely they’ll make easy pickins for the Bros, right? Bro? Seriously?
• If we do our jobs right THIS time, this issue will be the Dog Issue of Sign Language issues
This is so important. This is so damn important.
Not only is Fraction undoing the retcon of other writers who took away Clint’s disability, but he’s taking that disability back to his childhood before it originally started in classic canon.
This is so important because Fraction is refusing to let Clint’s disability be overwritten anymore so long as he has hold of the tenure.
YES THIS.
I have been upset that they ~magically fixed~ Clint’s hearing since I found out he was ever deaf, and the idea that he’s been hard of hearing since a childhood “accident” (aka – you know it was his dad, I am sure it was his dad) that was unable to heal fully because y’know HIS EARDRUMS WERE DAMAGED is just. Yes good. Especially since Fraction said he’s been writing Clint as if he’s been hard of hearing since he was a kid, and getting “fixed” only took him back to the level he was at before the sonic arrow incident.
This is so important to me for reasons I can’t even entirely express and basically this is the best thing and I’m going to cry while I read it.
This explanation that he’s been hard of hearing all along would also make me feel better about the “Spanish-sounding stuff” that turns out to be Russian (probably), as if Clint Barton wouldn’t recognize Spanish (living in BedStuy? Please.) or Russian (working closely with a Russian ex-pat and also an intelligence agency employee).
Fraction has explicitly said that’s what was intended by those captions/speech bubbles/whatever you want to call them. I wish it’d been more explicit in the comics themselves, but that was what he was going for.
Do you even read Deadpool comics?
No.
knitting in the dark 