Hawkeye: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 1
By Mike McNulty
As Disney + kicks off its two-part premiere of Hawkeye, we once again take a closer look at some of the Marvel related clues hidden throughout the series.
Hawkeye is a bit of an odd duck as far as Marvel superheroes go. Even though he’s one of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, he doesn’t have any superpowers. He doesn’t even have Batman’s millions or analytical mind to make up for it. What he can do is shoot a bow and arrow really, really well. And he’s got trick arrows. Other than that, Hawkeye, real name Clint Barton, is just an ordinary guy thrust into very unordinary situations on a regular basis. That’s what makes him so appealing.
Now Disney Plus has given the most overlooked Avenger his own series, inspired by the award-winning comic book series from Matt Fraction and David Aja. In turn, the series also acts as an introduction to the other Hawkeye and future Young Avenger, Kate Bishop. And it takes place during the Christmas season, just like Batman Returns (1992), Die Hard (1988), and Gremlins (1984). And when there’s Christmas, there’s Christmas presents – because that’s what we call Easter Eggs this time of year.
Yes, once again, we’re going to be looking through another Marvel Studios series to analyze all the clues, bells, and whistles the creators hid throughout the series, and do some compare and contrast between what occurs in the series with what occurs in the comics. But to kick off our deep dive into the first episode of Hawkeye, entitled “Never Meet Your Heroes,” we have to clear up a few misconceptions about…
Clint Barton
I think it’s pretty much a given that there are more than a few differences between the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and the one we know from the comics. In the first place, he didn’t start off as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics but as a circus performer turned professional thief, regularly going toe-to-toe with Iron Man. Second, he’s a bit of a would-be Casanova. He wasn’t just partners with Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, he was head-over-heels in love with her. While Clint would later marry fellow Avenger Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird, the two would later divorce. The concept of Clint being a family man actually comes from the Ultimate Comics imprint, and even there, his family ends up being murdered… by Black Widow!
Fans, however, didn’t complain about any of this. So long as Hawkeye had skill with a bow and could shoot trick arrows, that was good enough. Yet there was one aspect about the character that they did complain about: his hearing loss, or rather lack thereof. Thus it seemed like a massive oversight on the part of Marvel Studios that Hawkeye wasn’t actually deaf in the MCU.
Well, ten years after his cinematic debut in Thor (2011), Clint Barton’s deafness has now become MCU canon too, thanks to the reveal that he now sports a hearing aid in his left ear. This appears to be an early indication that, perhaps, Hawkeye the television series will be incorporating more aspects about Clint’s character from the comics into his portrayal in the MCU. It sure would be nice for the series to also explore a bit more of his backstory that the movies never got around to doing, as well.