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

Ronin

The driving plot for the first season of Hawkeye appears to involve both the Ronin costume and Ronin’s retractable katana. Of course, those who watched Avengers: Endgame know that Clint adopted this identity during the five years in which is family was snapped out of existence by Thanos, turning his rage and grief on organized crime throughout the world. Once again, Clint’s reasoning for adopting the Ronin persona in the comics is quite different. And in order to understand why he adopted this identity, one needs to understand a little event called “Avengers: Disassembled.”

During said event, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch went insane, using her Chaos Magic to summon the Kree to invade Earth. During said invasion, Hawkeye sacrificed himself to destroy the Kree’s main warship. Being that this was comics, he didn’t stay dead long as Wanda brought him back to life during the Avengers/X-Men crossover event, House of M. But instead of going back to his teammates, Clint travelled the world to rediscover himself, and decided not to reclaim his mantle as Hawkeye. When he finally returned, he decided to adopt the guise of Ronin, a persona that fans later learned was worn by previous wearers, including one Maya Lopez, a.k.a. Echo.

Moreover, Ronin isn’t the only costumed persona that Clint would don during his long career with the Avengers. In Avengers Vol. 1 #63, Clint’s bow ends up being destroyed, and after hearing Black Widow had been captured, he decides to take some of Hank Pym’s Pym Particles to make himself giant-sized. Thus for the next thirty-five issues, Clint goes by the moniker of Goliath, which also happened to be one of Hank Pym’s earlier personas, too. Later, Clint would briefly resume his Goliath identity during his stint on the West Coast Avengers.

There was also another costumed identity that Clint adopted: Captain America. Shortly after Steve Rogers’ death, Nick Fury gave the mantle to Clint, as he was one of the few people who could effectively throw Cap’s shield. His stint as Cap only lasted for a single one-shot issue, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3, as he was later convinced by Elijah Bradley/Patriot and Kate Bishop that being the new Cap so soon after Steve’s death would be a sign of disrespect. You can imagine then that when Bucky Barnes would later become the new Cap that Clint wasn’t his biggest fan.

Incidentally, Kate Bishop never wore the Ronin suit in the comics. It was, however, briefly adopted by both the Red Guardian and Blade. Ronin’s katana wasn’t retractable, either (and how exactly is that supposed to work, anyway?).

That may be a question for another time, and very soon, too. Because, thanks to the premiere of Hawkeye being a two-parter, we have another episode to cover. So don’t go too far away from your computers, laptops, and touch screens because we have more Easter Eggs, I mean Christmas Presents, to find.

Spot any other clues in Hawkeye, episode 1 that we might have missed? Let us know down in the comments section.