Hawkeye vs. Cyborg: Who Wins?

credit: Marvel Comics

To many fans, this matchup would likely appear to be one-sided since Cyborg is known to take on enemies that are far more powerful than Hawkeye and give them a great deal of trouble, while Hawkeye has been turned into a joke over the past decade. But there’s a good reason why the MCU archer is far more formidable than people think and why he would be a fair match for Cyborg, despite the power discrepancy. It’s true. Hawkeye can’t fly, he’s not super strong, he doesn’t have the kind of access that Victor Stone does to technology, and he’s not nearly as durable. But where Cyborg is all that and might be thought to be unstoppable when it comes to facing off against Hawkeye, a lot of people don’t take into account the fact that between the two of them, Hawkeye is the trained soldier/assassin that knows how to pick his spots and hit them with the precision and consistency that’s often needed to put people away quickly. Given prep time, both combatants would be able to learn a few things about each other, and the battle would become much harder for Hawkeye since Cyborg is the type of character that has automated defenses and a slew of advantages, such as a weakness that feels kind of ridiculous since it means that he has few others, if any. Seeing as how this is the M.O. of a lot of DC characters, though, it’s easy to work around since Hawkeye has a few tricks that he could use to swing the fight in his direction. 

credit: DC Comics

Cyborg is like a hammer, Hawkeye is like a scalpel. 

People can say whatever they want, but Cyborg has often been used as a blunt instrument when it comes to just about anything since he tends to force his way into a situation so that he can dominate the moment and impose his will within a battle. Hawkeye often gets ridiculed for not doing anything compared to his teammates, but the truth is that he’s a great support to his super-powered companions since not only is he able to blend with the shadows when he needs to, but he can disappear in plain sight if necessary and is able to strike from just about any angle that gives him a line of sight. In an empty battlefield, Cyborg could pick him out without difficulty, but in a crowd, it’s fair to say that Victor might need the few precious seconds that Hawkeye wouldn’t be willing to give him. 

It’s true in a face-to-face match, Cyborg would win. 

There’s no other way to say it. Hawkeye would go down quickly in a hand-to-hand fight with Cyborg since he doesn’t have the strength, durability, or even the speed to contend with Victor. But this is assuming that Hawkeye is dumb enough to try this or even allow himself to be backed into a corner. The boom tubes that Victor can use, and his ability to fly and shoot projectile weapons, Hawkeye has seen and dealt with these types of attacks quite often as an Avenger, and he knows how to move on the battlefield to gain the greatest advantage possible. He’s not a fighter who will stand and trade blows unless it’s against an opponent he knows is his equal or less since doing anything else would be dumb, and it’s already been proven that Hawkeye isn’t lacking in brains. 

credit: Marvel Comics

When it comes to fighting in a low-tech manner, Hawkeye does have the advantage. 

It doesn’t get much more low-tech than a bow and arrow in this fight since the battle would start off with Victor throwing whatever he had at Clint in order to take him down. There’s no guarantee that Hawkeye would last that long, but it’s fair to say that he wouldn’t go down in the first few seconds since, in the comics, he’s a bonafide badass. In the movies, he’s become a bit of a joke, but when the writing is good enough, he’s pure awesome since, between his battle prowess and his deadly aim, Hawkeye would be able to give Victor everything he could handle and more, especially given the rate at which he can fire his arrows. 

Victor’s technology is great, but Hawkeye is a master assassin and tactician. 

This is where having more respect for Hawkeye comes in because, quite honestly, this guy is a regular human being that has taken on some of the greatest villains in the Marvel Universe and come out the other side battered and beaten but still standing. Cyborg has been given a great deal of trouble by a lot of different enemies, and the fact that he doesn’t have as many disadvantages to working with makes it easy to think that his writers might allow the character to be a little too full of himself at times. It’s a tough fight to call, but Hawkeye would make sure that Cyborg felt every attack as much as possible.