Hawkeye: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 1

Kate Bishop

One of the hardest things to do in fiction and the movies is introducing a main character, especially into an already beloved franchise like Marvel. How Hawkeye’s “Never Meet Your Heroes” introduces us to Kate Bishop is a textbook example of getting this right. In the less than five minutes, the episode establishes how precocious, driven, and curious Kate was as a child. We also see her relationship with her late father compared with her mother, and how her witnessing the Chitauri invasion of New York and seeing Hawkeye in action inspired her to improve herself.  To top it off, the animated opening credits show how Kate progresses into a top athlete in numerous sports, including gymnastics, fencing, karate, judo, and, of course, archery – all done in the style of David Aja’s cover illustrations.

And yet, the Kate Bishop we’re introduced to here is quite the different character than the Kate Bishop from the original comics. Yes, she did grow up in a life of wealth and privilege. Yes, she also has a sassy, rebellious streak to her. Yes, she is a driven over-achiever. And yes, she is very, very good with a bow and arrow, and idolized Hawkeye. But that’s where the similarities between the MCU version and the comic book version end.

For one thing, it’s not her father that’s presumed dead in the comics but her mother. It’s not a security company that her family runs but a major publishing house. Also, Kate isn’t an only child, but has an older sister named Susan, and a stepmother after her father remarried. In fact, this second marriage is one of the reasons why Kate doesn’t get along with her dad. That and she also found out he was involved with some shady business dealings. Those shady dealings were, in part, why Kate was also kidnapped as a child by a minor Daredevil villain known as El Matador. That’s also when she developed her admiration and emulation for Hawkeye as it was he, and his fellow Avengers, who rescued her.

Within the context of the MCU, it makes all the sense in the world for Kate to have witnessed Clint Barton during the Avengers’ “Battle of New York.” Yet, why have it so that her father is presumed dead instead of her mother like in the comics? Then again, you don’t cast someone like Vera Farmiga for a walk-on role. If the series does borrow from the original comics in having one of Kate’s parents be a quasi-villain, then it’s very likely that Kate’s mom, Eleanor, is the real villain of the series.