When you make a pro trick shot with Varus

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cant tell if i should up vote or down vote. so conflicted.

I can tell you're not a fan of conspiracy jokes?

Plus lore wise, Hawk Eye was able to beat the Worlds Greatest Sniper with his bow, so he has that awesome factor.

He could throw knives and still be effective within 10 feet.

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Well, so many reasons to choose a bow over a gun...

1. Bows effective ranges are roughly equivalent to anything other than a high caliber rifle, but rifles fired from those ranges typically need a two man team to work effectively (shooter and sighter). So range is less of a factor than most people would argue.

Lol, God no. I can accurately shoot up (hit a deer, roughly the size of a person) to at least 250 yards with a 243, that's pretty much the limit of archery. By no means am I a master sniper, and by no means is a 243 a large round. Someone who actually practiced a reasonable amount with the right equipment could probably double that range with ease.

2. Depending on the type of arrow, bows can present a much wider variety of options (lethal and non-lethal) much more easily than a gun can. Add into that the wide variety of trick arrows available to Hawkeye... Variety is the spice of life and all that jazz.

There are all sorts of ammo. Incendiary, Armor Piercing, and for the purpose of a comic, as many as that you could come with it.

3. An arrow would pierce most modern body armor in a single shot, bullets don't unless you are a lot closer with that high caliber rifle than you'd ever actually want to be firing from. This is because while an arrow can represent less total force than a bullet, the higher weight allows them to pierce the thin armor that is capable of stopping a bullet.

There are ways around body armor. Like head shots.

4. Trick shots. Arrows are more significantly effected by wind and gravity. 'Bending' a bullet is impossible, but 'bending' an arrow to hit a target is a realistic possibility.

Arrows are more effected by wind and gravity because they travel slower. So that .3 seconds it takes for a bullet to hit a target at 300 yards, it would take an arrow several seconds. Oh your target stopped to tie their shoes? You missed and now they know you're there.

5. Have you been hit by a modern composite bow? Seriously, have you? The thing is made out of a high strength polymer or metal hybrid that means it has the potential to break a person's bones. Restringing it is a hassle, but those strings are made to hold up under a lot of pressure (pun intended) and if someone is cutting your bowstrings that's a whole other kind of issues. (Remember when he fought Black Widow using his bow as a club? There is a reason she was dodging around. The bow would have hit a lot like a somewhat bendy baseball bat.)

To be honest, there are a lot of other weapons I'd rather have at short range. Like pretty much anything.

6. Its unique. Basically anyone who is concerned with being assassinated is going to know how to deal with bullets, but who the hell knows how to deal with arrows? Even at the height of bows as a form of combat, the best body armor would get pierced by a bodkin arrow, which means that the available armors to counter arrows were pretty f*cking terrible. Not much has changed on that front because all modern armor is designed to stop low weight, high speed projectiles NOT high weight, low speed projectiles.

Snipers can be accurate enough that they can just go for headshots. Nobody wears armor on their head. None that can stop a bullet at least.

But you're right. There are ABSOLUTELY no reasons to choose a bow over a gun. Its not like the bow and arrow was an effective form of combat for the better part of ~2.5 thousand years. The biggest drawbacks of a bow and arrow are reload speed and training required to use it effectively. Both of those aren't even a big detriment to an assassin because if he finishes his job in a single shot, you don't need to reload, and if he is going to train to use a single shot weapon ALONE, something other than a sniper rifle suddenly becomes a very appealing option. Not to mention that arrows are hypothetically recoverable (bullets aren't), and the bow itself is a useful, easily compact weapon.

Magneto can bend bullets.