He’s both a foil and a tether; an anchor. I was interested in the two of them having a blood-is-thicker-than-water relationship. The last time they had seen each other Barney was threatening to murder him and Clint had stolen all of his money from him. Barney’s been a super villain and a killer and a real monster, and not just to Clint — so I wanted to show that when Barney was really down on his luck and needed somebody to help him, the one person who couldn’t say no to him was his baby brother Clint.

I suspect there’s lots of ways to interpret their relationship. [Laughs] And I’d much rather let readers interpret than give them my interpretation. I don’t know if there’s a right or a wrong answer. It was this or Clint talking to a sock puppet for five issues.