In a heavily corrupted alternate world within the Marvel multiverse lies a version of Hawkeye sporting the worst costume he or any of his variants have ever worn, one which takes his codename way too far. The ever-changing landscape of Marvel’s multiverse allows for infinite stories with the existence of infinite worlds. In one of those worlds, the Avengers become the Revengers and work on behalf of elder gods, free from death though slaves to their new hellish lives. While this alternate universe seems pretty heavy tonally speaking, it has proven to be one of the most outlandish out there, made clear with Hawkeye’s costume alone.
On Earth-10011, which became known as the Cancerverse, the heroes of Earth gathered together and killed the one entity truly responsible for the fatalities of everyone they have ever known: Death herself. They were successful, though they could not have foreseen the repercussions of their cosmically unbalancing decision. Upon the death of Death, beings known as the Many-Angled Ones were free to enter their universe and took control. Under their rule, every life form in the Cancerverse was corrupted and turned to the servitude of the Many-Angled Ones.
After the elder beings took control of that Marvel universe, the Avengers became the Revengers, and other teams took on similar yet obviously corrupted names reminiscent of their original ones. Along with the team names, the costumes of the once heroes changed as well to better fit the likings of their eldritch gods, including the Avenger Hawkeye. The costume these sick beings dress Hawkeye in is an absolute eyesore, giving Clint a purple hood equipped with a beak and a little tail that trails down the back of his head. Plus, to amp things up a bit, Hawkeye also gets a machine gun crossbow, going against his original weapon and the timeless skill with which he takes down the villains while using the bow and arrow.
Fans get a clear view of this gorgeous mess of a costume in the pages of The Thanos Imperative written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with art by Miguel Sepulveda, specifically issues 4 and 5. In the series, the corrupted heroes of the Cancerverse are trying to spread their corruption across the multiverse, traveling to 616 to do so. An elite Marvel space team, including the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thanos, are sent to the rift in space-time where the Cancerverse is trying to break through, and stop it. Before they can close the rift, some of the Revengers burst through, including Hawkeye in all of his terrible-costumed glory.
The main problem with Hawkeye’s Cancerverse costume is that it gives off the wrong impression of Hawkeye’s abilities by having him look like a bird. Granted, his name is Hawkeye so, yeah, hawk, but the costume basically gives him a bird mask that makes one think that he has bird-related powers like flight or really sharp talons. Plus, the costume just looks bad and deserves to be in a universe where everything is hellish without even death as an escape. Simply put, Hawkeye’s worst costume just takes his codename too far.