Hawkeye: Kate Bishop: Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Kate Bishop

First Appearance: Young Avengers #1 (April, 2005)

Powers: Skilled archer. A competent swordswan, martial artist, boxer, and many other forms of combat. 

Affiliation: Young Avengers

Did You Know? Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang joined the Young Avengers at the same time

A Little History

Kate Bishop first appeared in Young Avengers #1 in 2005. She is the creation of Jim Cheung and Allan Heinberg.

Kate Bishop is the daughter of publishing Baron, Derek Bishop. Due to this, she was born into a life many can only dream of. By all accounts, Kate could’ve lived out her life on the family fortune but chose not to. Instead, she chose to take after her mother who had spent her life contributing to various charitable causes. 

Kate’s path to Hawkeye started the night that she was attacked in Central Park. Although the details of the attack aren’t precisely known, it’s believed that this instance caused Kate to learn various forms of combat. That is, instead of allowing the attack to cause paranoia, Kate looked at it in a positive light and gave herself a reason to better herself. Along with all the combat training, Kate also learned archery, fencing, and sword fighting. Due to the immense amount of training, she became extremely proficient in most types of weapons. This includes, but was not limited to bow and arrows and swords.

Fast forward a couple of months and Kate finds herself at her sister’s wedding. The evening looked to have been going off without a problem…but as the night drew close to its end, the wedding was attacked. Hearing of the attack, the Young Avengers show up only to find themselves taken hostage by the attackers. With her extensive training, Kate is able to stop the attackers and free the Young Avengers. 

Sometime after this, Kate was sought out by Cassie Lang and the two took it upon themselves to seek out and “join” the Young Avengers.

Shortly after “joining”, Kang the Conqueror showed up at the Avengers Mansion and had his way with the young team. As the only one without superpowers, Kate adorned herself in Mockingbird’s mask, Black Widow’s belt, Hawkeye’s bow, and Swordman’s sword. This was the first time she appeared in any sort of costume. 

Worried about how young the team was, both Iron Man and Captain America demanded that they stop their superhero-ing. The team, wanting to keep the two heroes happy, agreed while at the same time disagreed. Using her family’s wealth, Kate bought each member their own uniform and purchased a new base of operations. 

For a short while, the team successfully stopped crimes and began gaining notoriety. Of course, this wouldn’t last. Patriot, one of the original members, was found to be taking mutant growth hormone as a way of simulating the Super Soldier Serum. While the team lost some respect for their co-leader, they weren’t ready to cut him loose. After a battle that saw Patriot badly hurt, Kate was approached by Captain America who once again asked that they stop. Kate responded by telling her that they wouldn’t stop because being heroes is what they were meant to do. More than that, she explained that he is partly to blame because it was he who refused to train them. Impressed by her conviction and willingness to stand up to him, Kate is then given Hawkeye’s original bow and arrows.