Skip to main content

marvel - In Avengers, how plausible is Hawkeye's archery proficiency?


In the Avengers, (my specifics below are from the film) Hawkeye is a mortal man who is extremely proficient with a bow and arrow. He frequently in the film



hits targets without looking, makes perfect shots after correctly calculating for wind, and is able to reload his arrows with extreme speed.



How far off is this from actual professional archers? Can expert archers do anything relative to what Hawkeye is capable of? Or is even the normal human in the Avengers himself superhuman at something?




Answer



Hawkeye would be considered an exceptional archer even in the eyes of the world's best where a hit at a range of 150+ meters would be considered excellent shooting.


Most bow hunters shoot at targets averaging 35 to 75 meters away. Target archers can shoot at ranges of 100 -200 meters. (But targets don't move.) Was Clint Barton superhuman in his ability? Most of his shots made against targets within the interiors of buildings or onboard the helicarrier, were not extraordinary or outside of the realm of possibility.



The farthest accurate shot in archery under FITA conditions was 200 m (656 ft 2 in) by Peter Terry (Australia) at the Kalamunda Governor Stirling Archery Club, Perth, Western Australia, Australia on 15 December 2005. He hit 2 ouf of 6 on a FITA 122cm target. He used a 'compound bow'. --Guinness Book of Records



Where Hawkeye was at his most awesome was during his shots above the city. Were these shots impossible? No. But after a 150-200 meters, shooting targets moving in excess of fifty miles per hour, he starts becoming superhuman in his ability.


But if we consider the Marvel comics' history of the character Hawkeye, he has been training since he was six years old at a circus. He would learn to shoot from the most difficult angles and from the most difficult conditions, including shooting from the back of a bicycle, riding on a horse, shooting at tiny targets, shooting at moving targets. He was trained by both Trickshot, who was arguably one of the only archers better than Hawkeye and the Swordsman, another martial artist whose skills were legendary on Marvel Earth #616.


If we consider Hawkeye is about 20-30 in the Avenger's movie, he has been shooting daily for fifteen to twenty years. He practices everyday with weighted arrows (to familiarize himself with his arrow payloads) uses the finest bow technology money can buy, arrows balanced and made with the highest quality precision crafting.


Then consider he is a super-assassin who was likely given even MORE training, more discipline, military tactics, strategy and we can assume a highly trained individual who has used his weapon of choice on a battlefield against men with GUNS. His sense of the battlefield was excellent and was able to assist Iron Man by sharing the information about the limitations of the Chitauri vehicles.



In addition to all of his other skills he is a trained observer, so it would not be unreasonable to assume a certain level of what would appear to be superhuman proficiency. Although when he was making shots and not looking, I would just call that showing off.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF