Among the many characters who have ed Hawkeye stands out for his simplicity. Clint Barton doesn't have superpowers or billions of dollars but instead relies on his sharpshooting with his trusted bow and arrow to get the job done. But, what happens when Hawkeye doesn't have his bow and is desperate? Well, in one comic, he used his fingernails as projectiles and its as gross as it sounds.
Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Ultimates series, where Hawkeye was given a new ability that was extremely effective, but completely disgusting.
In Ultimate #2, Hawkeye finds himself captured in an unknown location. A group of men surrounds him, including captain Dragomir Branislav, who was given a nasty scar by Hawkeye during one of his missions in Croatia. Seeking revenge, Branislav was given permission to "play" with Hawkeye before the group executed him on live television. The bad guys continues to taunt Hawkeye, but suddenly Branislav and his men start to grab their necks in pain. The pans down to Hawkeye's hand, where it's revealed he's detaching his fingernails and using them as projectiles. He threatens the last scientist standing: "Now be smart and get me outta here or this last one goes right between your eyeballs."
The Ultimates version of Hawkeye is a loose cannon, so it's not surprising to see him kill all those men in quick fashion. However, detaching his fingernails to get the job done is absolutely brutal. It's hard to fathom the kind of pain threshold Hawkeye has to remove his fingernails and use them as weapons. Although considering his other option in the situation was to wait and die, it seems he didn't have much of a choice. The book proves that Hawkeye is the ultimate sharpshooter, even without a bow and arrow, as he managed to take down the group of men. Was it gross? Absolutely. Was it cool? It sure was. Sometimes, heroes have to get creative to get out of tough situations. In this case, Hawkeye did so - but it had to hurt.
