a timeline of 616 hawkeye’s deafness
because the average person is thrown off by constant retconning
1964 - 1983:
he was not deaf upon his introduction
1984 - 1996:
clint was deafened in hawkeye (vol. 1) #4 which came out in december 1983. this was an act of sacrifice, as he and mockingbird were being mind-controlled to fight each other to the death (comics!) by a sound frequency, and so he used his own sonic arrowhead on himself:
the extent of his deafness would vary due to inconsistencies in handbooks and writing, but usually people went with this:
his deafness (by its mention or the use or appearance of hearing aids) would be referenced in about 10-12 issues over those 12 years
1996 - 1998:
along with the other avengers, clint was killed during “onslaught” and showed up in another (grittier! 90s!) iteration, so it’s a little iffy on whether these characters are considered the same as their 616 counterparts (they’re technically them but in franklin richards’ pocket dimension so…). but here’s how he showed up in a panel:
1998 - early 2014:
upon his revival, clint was no longer deaf, and this was the explanation:
it was still acknowledged that he had been deaf previously, and jennifer walters even mentions that clint knows sign language:
2014 - present
clint was again deafened in hawkeye (vol. 4) #15
and though it’s been established that clint experienced abuse at the hands of his father, the series retconned that as a result of this abuse, clint experienced bouts of hearing loss in his childhood, and that he learned sign language at this time
currently, clint wears hearing aids in the comics, though sometimes it’s a wash whether they’re “stark-tech” and not really visible or not (very series dependent)