BARNEY BARTON
Real Name: Charles Bernard "Barney" Barton
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Racketeer
Group Membership: His own racketeering gang; former member of an unidentified traveling carnival
Affiliations: The Avengers (Black Panther (T'Challa), Goliath (Clint Barton), Vision, Wasp, Yellowjacket (Hank Pym)), Black Widow (Natalia Romanova), Edwin Jarvis
Enemies: Egghead, the Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne), Trickshot
Known Relatives: Brett Barton (ancestor, deceased), Clinton Francis Barton (Hawkeye/Goliath, brother), Edith Barton (mother, deceased), Harold Barton (father, deceased)
Aliases: "Creep," "Crumb," "Rat" (insulting nicknames given to him by Goliath/Clint Barton)
Base of Operations: New York City, New York
First Appearance: Avengers I#64 (May, 1969)
Powers/Abilities: Barney Barton had no superhuman powers but was a skilled racketeer with numerous criminal ties.
History: (Hawkeye III#6 (fb) - BTS) - Charles Bernard Barton was born on August 4th to Harold and Edith Barton.
(Hawkeye I#1 (fb)/Solo Avengers#2 (fb)) - As a child, Barney and his brother Clint worked in their father's butcher shop cleaning up. Their father was an alcoholic who sometimes beat Barney, who always said that one day he would be bigger than his father and then he would show him. Soon after, their father's alcoholism cost him his own life and that of his wife, Edith, leaving Clint and Barney as orphans. Barney and Clint were soon sent to an orphanage where they remained until Clint turned 13 and the two brothers ran away. Their hunger eventually brought them to a travelling carnival. Taking odd jobs at the carnival, Barney and Clint were immediately impressed at the skill of one of the show's stars, the Swordsman. The Swordsman soon asked the boys to participate in the act and while Barney declined the offer, Clint jumped at the chance. After Clint aided the Swordsman in numerous shows, the carnival's archer Trickshot began to train Clint in archery as Barney accused Clint of being used by Swordsman.
(Hawkeye III#1 (fb)) - Not long after, Barney commented
on how Clint's archery had improved. When Clint announced that he wanted
to be a part of the carnival, Barney admitted that he wanted to get his GED,
having gotten a 1350 on his SATs. He then told Clint that it wouldn't hurt
for him to pick up a book but Clint angrily exclaimed that he didn't want
to leave the carnival, as it was the closest thing they had ever had to a
family. As Clint walked away, Barney reminded him that he had choices in
life.
(Hawkeye III#2 (fb)) - A few short years later at the carnival, Barney
overheard the carnival archer Trickshot telling Clint about how he was scamming
people out of money. After Trickshot told Clint they could scam a few bars
later that night, Barney confronted Clint and explained that he wanted Clint
to know right from wrong.
(Hawkeye III#3 (fb)) - When Clint discovered that the Swordsman had robbed the carnival and broke his leg trying to escape the Swordsman's anger, Barney came running into the tent asking what had happened. Trickshot explained that Clint was going to squeal on Swordsman and that people shouldn't rat on their family.
(Avengers I#65 (fb)) - Barney immediately ran to Clint to hear his side of the story. From Clint, Barney learned of the Swordsman's robbery and his offer to split the money with Clint. Taking Clint to get medical attention, an angry Barney commented about how both he and Clint could have been on easy street if Clint had not turned down the Swordsman's offer to split the robbery cash.
(Hawkeye III#4 (fb)) - As Clint recovered from his broken leg, Barney announced to Clint that he was leaving the carnival. He explained that he had been thinking about maybe joining the Army so that he could go to college after his tenure. He asked Clint to leave with him but Clint said he needed to get the life he had back on track before starting a new one. Barney then told Clint that his bus left at 9 and the next morning, Barney caught a bus. As the bus drove off, Barney never noticed that Clint had arrived at the station to go with him.
(Solo Avengers#2 (fb)/Hawkeye III#5 (fb)) - Some time later, as Clint and Trickshot were robbing a mobster named Marko, Clint fired an arrow into one of the guards present and was shocked to discover that he had shot an arrow into Barney. Clint immediately went against Trickshot's orders and took Barney to a hospital where Barney recovered.
(Hawkeye III#5 (fb)) - Clint visited Barney in the hospital and asked Barney what had happened to joining the Army and starting a new life. A drugged-up Barney managed to say that he was what he was.
(Avengers I#64 (fb)) - When Egghead created a space station from which he would threaten America, he met with Barney Barton, who was at that time the head of half of New York's rackets. He offered Barton and his men a place on the space station if Barton would help finance it. Barton declined the offer, claiming that he didn't build up his rackets only to give the money to a nutcase. As Barton and his men left the scene, a robot with Egghead's voice attacked them and killed both of Barton's bodyguards while Barton himself hid from harm.
(Avengers I#64) - After laying low and trying to think of what to do with the information about Egghead's space station, Barney finally decided to visit his brother Clint, who was at the time the hero Goliath of the Avengers. He then told the Avengers the location of Egghead's space station and accompanied them into space to confront him. Inside the space station, Barney Barton, much to everyone's surprise, held his own against Egghead's robotic guards until Egghead used a paralysis ray to down the Avengers. The only person still standing, Barney sacrificed his life to destroy Egghead's ray-projector. As Barney died, he told Goliath that he made sure not to reveal his secret but when Yellowjacket questioned why Barney had called Goliath by his real name, Goliath revealed to his teammates that Barney was his brother.
(Hawkeye III#6 (fb)) - After Barney died on September 13th, Clint and a few of his Avengers friends went to Barney's funeral where Clint admitted that he thought he would be the one who would make a lifetime of bad choices instead of Barney.
Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and George Klein.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Barney Barton has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Avengers I#64, p17-18, splash page (Barney Barton, fullbody)
p19, pan2 (Barney Barton, headshot)
Other Appearances:
Avengers I#64 (May, 1969) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gene Colan (artist), George Klein (inker)
Avengers I#65 (June, 1969) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gene Colan (artist), Sam Grainger (inker)
Hawkeye I#1 (September, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (writer/penciler), Brett Breeding (inker), Dennis O'Neil (editor)
Solo Avengers#2 (January, 1988) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Mark Bright (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (finisher)
Hawkeye III#1 (December, 2003) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist)
Hawkeye III#2 (January, 2004) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist)
Hawkeye III#3 (February, 2004) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist)
Hawkeye III#4 (March, 2004) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist)
Hawkeye III#5 (May, 2004) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker)
Hawkeye III#6 (May, 2004) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist)
Last updated: 04/15/07
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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