Issue(s): Avengers #64
Cover Date: May 69
Title: "Like a death ray from the sky!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
George Klein - Inker

Review/plot:
The Evil Alliance storyline continues. At this point both the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master have been defeated in Sub-Mariner #14 and Captain Marvel #14, respectively, leaving Egghead to carry on by himself. He uses a death ray satellite to destroy a small town (after giving a warning so it can be evacuated).

No one knows the coordinates of the satellite but the Avengers are contacted by Barney Barton, a local gang leader who was contacted by Egghead but refused the offer to join him. Barton offers to help the Avengers.

It turns out that Barney is Hawkeye's brother, and that Hawkeye's real name is Clint. The Avengers take the battle to the space station.

Barney of course sacrifices himself to save the Avengers while fighting Egghead's robots.

Amazingly, Barney Barton was resurrected in a 2011 Hawkeye mini-series under the name Trickshot. It turns out he's not actually killed here and he's kept in a healing chamber by Egghead.

Egghead escapes but the Avengers take control of his satellite.

The Black Widow isn't able to participate in the battle because she has to report back to Nick Fury.

I like the ongoing threat of Egghead, the Mad Thinker, and the Puppet Master. None of them are apprehended in this issue.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - Hawkeye's real name revealed, first Barney Barton (later Trickshot)

Chronological Placement Considerations: A scene that was excluded from the Marvel Super Action reprint has Egghead mentioning that the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker have failed to execute their parts of the plan, as seen in the current issues of Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel. The Black Widow recently appeared in Captain Marvel #12 on a mission for Nick Fury and seems to have stopped at Avengers Mansion before reporting back to Fury.

References:

• Pym says Egghead was an old enemy from his days as Ant-Man, like in Tales To Astonish #38 (his first appearance) (The reprint actually tells us to check out the most recent issue of Marvel's Greatest Comics for a look at a classic tale of Hank as the Ant-Man).
  
• The Puppet Master attacked the Sub-Mariner in Sub-Mariner # 14, and Captain Marvel dealt with the Mad Thinker's threat in Captain Marvel #12 and Captain Marve #13-14

Crossover: Evil Alliance

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Super Action #25

Wait, WHAT?? Barney's alive and he's TRICKSHOT? Has he always been Trickshot, going back to the flashbacks where Tricky taught Clint archery? Or is he a "new" Trickshot? What the...?

Man, the "modern" era just gets stupider and stupider. I guess after resurrecting Norman Osborn and freaking Bucky, they decided to resurrect anyone they could, huh? Wake me up when Heinrich Zemo's back in town, I guess. Sheesh.

He's a second Trickshot, taught by the original after he (Barney) is resurrected.

I remember first seeing this referenced in Avengers 230, after Hawkeye killed Egghead. Since I was a kid, I thought Barney had literally saved the Avengers by buying a farm, not knowing the phrase.

I refuse to believe he came back. That's just stupid.

If it helps, Barney's dead again as of 2015.

The Avengers not knowing Hawkeye's real name makes no sense. Hell, Yellowjacket was one of the Avengers who approved Hawkeye as a new member when he was planning to leave (along with the Wasp and Iron Man).

And Captain America wasn't even expected to show up for the ceremony where they did the "changing of the guard." Nor was Thor (who turned up later).

So, really? We're expected to believe they were just going to hand over Avengers Mansion to three ex-criminals (Wanda and Pietro being the others) and they didn't even bother to ascertain Hawkeye's true identity? Wow... clunky, even for Roy.

question for the SuperMegaMind of power....So did I drink too many Tequila shots or is Elihas Starr aka Egghead somehow transformed into the Red Guardian in the Avengers Confidential animated movie? This seemed perplexing at best to me? I thought I might have had a stroke or been cryogenically misplaced? Thank you!

Not sure how Barney died in 2015, but he's alive again in 2017.

Well, as far as the "Clint never told the Avengers his name" bit, remember that later on, not only does the Swordsman serve his entire tenure without telling them *his* name (they only learn it's "Jacques" from a tape he left behind in a Solo Avengers issue, later on), but apparently Swordy's a member from issue 114 until his death in GS 2 and he NEVER TAKES OFF HIS MASK around the others. The Avengers of this era are *really* big on respecting each others' privacy, it seems.

(And this with Swordy being an internationally-wanted criminal, at that. No wonder he's so paranoid that he covers up the extent of the wound he gets in #117 for months and nearly dies of the infection in #123. And no, I don't know why if his name is "Jacques", the alternate Swordsman who hung out with Magdalene was named "Phillippe". I guess that's the timeline divergence? Well, that and Phillippe's lack of a mustache.)

The idea that Hawkeye wouldn't know the Swordsman's name is nuts. Was he called The Swordsman at the circus? Marvel you so crazy.