Hawkeye: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 4

The LARPers

Just when we thought we’ve seen the last of these would-be slayers of orcs, dragons, and other monsters, the LARPers make a surprise return in episode four. Moreover, Clint calls them his friends, so he really did have a great time playing “Vikings vs Samurai” in the park.

Now during our deep dive of episode two, we discussed that one of the LARPers, Grills (Clayton English) is named after a supporting character and neighbor of Clint’s during Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on the Hawkeye comic. As it turns out, Grills isn’t the only LARPer named after a character from the original Marvel Comics. Even more interesting is that two of the LARPers share the same names as two supervillains.

We learn that one of the “Vikings,” the same one who made the sword-clashing sound-effects during Clint and Grills’ “fight” in episode two, is named Orville (Robert Walker-Branchaud), and there’s quite a couple of Orvilles in the comics. One of them is an Orville Smythe, a con artist and thief who hired Luke Cage to unknowingly steal an experimental space suit from Tony Stark. The other Orville is Orville Bock, the real name of the second person to wear the mantle of Oddball. He doesn’t have any superpowers to speak of, but he is an expert marksman and juggler. Moreover, he belongs to an entire group of villainous super-jugglers called the Death-Throws.

Another member of the Death-Throws is Bombshell, the moniker for one Wendy Conrad. Wendy Conrad (Adetinpo Thomas) is also one the LARPers we meet in this episode, too. As an added Easter Egg, she even has “Bombshell” embroidered on her gym bag courtesy of her wife. Of course, the Wendy Conrad from the comics isn’t a married police officer, but a mercenary. Furthermore, she was taught by the first Oddball how to juggle. As the name implies, the comic book version of Bombshell is also a demolitions expert, with her weapon of choice being hand grenades. Moreover, she’s had frequent run-ins with Hawkeye, as she was one of the mercs hired by Crossfire – the same Crossfire who captured Clint and Mockingbird which, in turn, lead to Clint’s hearing loss. Bombshell was also part of another group of mercenaries hired by Crossfire to get rid of Clint’s shooting arm, and also joined an all-female group of villains calling themselves the “Femizons.”

As for the other Death-Throws, they include Nick Grossman, a.k.a. Knickknack, who favors juggling swords, knives, clubs, and axes; Alvin Healey, a.k.a. Tenpin, who arms himself with bowling pins; Throwdown, the newest member of the group who dresses like Uncle Sam; and Charles Last, a.k.a. Ringleader, the leader of the group who favors metal rings. They also recruited a new member calling herself Throwdown. If, save Grills, the LARPers are the MCU version of the Death-Throws, then it’s very probable that Missy (Adelle Drahos) is the MCU equivalent of one of these four.

Also, I do find it quite amusing that the LARPers may end up being the ones who will make Clint’s classic Hawkeye costume. Though they could always borrow the one from the their fellow LARPer who dressed like the comic book Hawkeye if they really wanted to be lazy.