In this feature, I spotlight five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics).

Today we look at five times that Hawkeye quit the Avengers...

Enjoy!

First up we have Avengers #109...

Next, Avengers #144...

Next, we have Avengers West Coast #45....

This next one is tricky.

Okay, in Avengers West Coast #100, Hawkeye's wife (who he had just recently reconciled with), Mockingbird, is killed.

Clearly, the intent is for this to cause him to leave the Avengers (as he was not going to be a member of Force Works). However, the very next issue is a crossover, and Hawkeye is involved in the crossover (and acts like his normal self - not grief-stricken or anything).

Here is his last appearance as an Avenger...

Then the next issue of Avengers West Coast (the final issue), we see Hawkeye is gone...

And in Hawkeye's mini-series from that same time, he reveals that yeah, he left the Avengers...

In fact, he did not even know that the Avengers West Coast had been disbanded until Marvel Comics Presents #161 (which makes no sense, since he hung out with War Machine later in the mini-series and War Machine states outright to Hawkeye, "You're not going to convince me to rejoin the Avengers, are you?" Hawkeye apparently did not pry into what War Machine meant by that).

So yeah, this is a weird one, but he clearly DID quit the Avengers (he repeats as much throughout the mini-series), we just don't have it on panel. Weird.

Finally, we have his departure in the third volume of the Avengers, issue #9 to be precise...

If you have suggestions for future installments, e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!