So many debates about this *grins*. Personally I like the idea of there being an age gap between them with Clint being older by 10-13 years, because of a lot of chatter I've had in meta posts. To quote my own meta - um, I am lazy like woah today:

Partly because of the actor’s ages and workerbee73 said because Clint’s a hardened hired gun type which works well for him being a little older, and Natasha is a very old soul to being with – she’s seen way more in her life than most people could ever imagine. And so in my mind Clint needs to be older than se is just to have a world-weary experience that could possibly hope to relate to hers. We know Natasha has seen a lot. She is, after all, a spy and started at a young age. In the comics Natasha seems to be a lot older than she actually looks, due comics voodoo (see: Steve Rodgers on ice, genetic manipulation, the brainteaser that is comics timelines). For me Clint seems to have the experienced solider thing going on and if there’s no comics voodoo over Natasha’s age then Natasha being made and remade over and over, kind of forever and always beginning again, fits with Natasha being constantly young in some ways whilst Clint is the hurry up and wait soldier. Natasha being constantly remade then could, arguably, be the film version of the comics voodoo in a more ‘realistic’ manner: she would, in a way, be forever young.

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If we're going with comics, there's no canon in those anyway, and Natasha has odd never-aging because of comics voodoo going on. Renner is 41 and Johnasson is 27 if you want to go by the actor and actress. There's no consensus anywhere that I know of. I see Clint as about 35-40 in the Avengers as well *shrugs*. If you want to play with the comics Marvel wiki on Hawkeye is probably a good place to start, but I love reading all the different interpretations and ideas we're getting - we don't know much about him or Natasha really from the films, so we get to play :D

I am in agreement with you and workbee73 when it comes to age gap - Natasha may be young in years, but everything else about her just screams old soul, and it makes sense, considering everything she's been through. You don't go through hell like that unscratched. So there's an age gap, but not a real life experience gap between them. if that makes sense.

Thank you! It looks like I can, basically, run with the plot and backstory that makes most sense to me. I kind of love that, hehe :D

It looks like I can, basically, run with the plot and backstory that makes most sense to me. That's the fun part of not having much to go off from the films :D