Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and ninety-fourth installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

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COMIC LEGEND:

Roy Thomas turned Hawkeye into Goliath because Thomas disliked archer heroes generally and trick arrows specifically

COMIC LEGEND:

Roy Thomas turned Hawkeye into Goliath because covers with Hawkeye on them sold worse than other covers

STATUS:

Both False

A while back, I did a legend about whether Hank Pym stopped being Goliath so that he could become Yellowjacket so that Roy Thomas could free open the Goliath name for Hawkeye. In that instance, Thomas explained that at that point in his career, he was not thinking about long term planning. If a cool idea popped into his head, he would run with it and make it work. This is likely why he worked so well with Neal Adams, who liked to have some input on the story. If it was a good idea, Thomas would use it.

Hawkeye took the Goliath name in Avengers #63, which had a great cover...

He was inspired by his bow string snapping...

This made him feel as though he was a much lesser member of the team than the other, more powerful Avengers. You can imagine how being the archer on a team with major super powers would make him feel.

When his girlfriend, Black Widow, is in trouble and Hakweye is left behind due to being too close to the case, he decides to become Goliath instead...

I love Wasp designing THAT costume for Hank Pym and it is also fun that Hank just leaves his growth serum lying around.

In any event, as soon as the change was made, people have been wondering Roy Thomas' motives for changing Hawkeye into Goliath for years.

Mark H. wrote in a with a couple of reasons that he found. One was that Roy Thomas was not a fan of archers and thought coming up with trick arrows was a pain and the other suggestion was that covers with Hakweye featured on them were doing worse, sales-wise...

I asked Roy Thomas about it, though, and he debunked both of them. He explained, "I didn't dislike archer characters, but felt Clint would be a stronger character as Goliath. I don't recall anything particular about "Hawkeye covers," as he was rarely if ever emphasized on AVENGERS covers back then."

So no, Mark, neither explanation was accurate.

Thanks for the answers, Roy!


Check out my latest TV Legends Revealed - Which episode of The Simpsons did Matt Groening remove his name from?


Also check back later for the final part of this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed!