The new MCU Disney+ show Hawkeye recently continued filming in New York City, sparking discussion and anticipation around Marvel’s favourite archer. Although part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2011’s Thor, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) has never had a solo project. He is also rarely called “Hawkeye,” the moniker being used on a handful of occasions like quickly during the battle of The Avengers or offhand by his wife in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Instead of an independent superhero, Clint is introduced as a specialized S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent guarding Thor’s hammer Mjolnir when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) tries, and fails, to retrieve it. This was only a minor introductory cameo – Renner was only cast during reshoots – that teased Hawkeye’s bow and arrow, but didn’t give him a chance to use it. Clint was once again on guard duty in The Avengers watching over the Tesseract, making scientist Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) to comment “the Hawk? Up in his nest as usual.” Although soon afterwards Loki (Tom Hiddleston) teleports into the base and steals the Tesseract, mind-controlling both Selvig and Clint with his Spectre (later revealed to be the Mind Stone) in the process.
Clint’s first full appearance therefore has him working against the newly formed Avengers as Loki’s second-in-command. This brainwashing does enable Clint to demonstrate his deadly skillset and impressive marksmanship, including accurately hitting the side of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying Helicarrier with an explosive arrow. The Avengers would also show how Clint electronically cycles through his “trick arrows” with a specialized quiver. Plus, Clint’s personal S.H.I.E.L.D. experience gave Loki intel of the Avengers Initiative, and especially Black Widow, who Clint had originally recruited for S.H.I.E.L.D. On the Helicarrier, he and Natasha fight and she manages to override Loki’s mind-control with a “cognitive recalibration,” aka hitting him hard on the head. Both of them joined the other Avengers to stop Loki and the invading army in New York.
Despite his help in saving the world, in the aftermath of The Avengers’ enormous success Hawkeye was often made the butt of jokes. SNL made an entire sketch about how “useless” and underpowered Hawkeye was. Plus, his time being mind-controlled meant Hawkeye was not present for the Avengers’ bickering and bonding. Renner himself felt Hawkeye was underutilized, and even compared to the other non-superpowered S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, Black Widow, Clint seemed somewhat inessential to the Avengers.
This was course-corrected in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Not only did Hawkeye explicitly refuse to be mind-controlled again – blockading Wanda Maximoff’s attempts while saying he’d “done the whole mind-control thing. Not a fan” – but his “ordinariness” is highlighted as a key asset. After Ultron’s first attack, the Avengers retreat to Hawkeye’s homestead, where he lives with his children and (pregnant) wife Laura off-the-record.
While recuperating, Laura assures Clint that the other Avengers, these Gods and Monsters, “need him” in order to ground them and keep them together. Later, Hawkeye himself would pass down this advice to a reformed Wanda. While she is overwhelmed by Ultron’s forces, Hawkeye tells her how “the city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense.” But Clint tells Wanda how you have to accept the actions and responsibilities of the present. Although Clint does also promise his wife that after this mission, he would retire.
However, Hawkeye isn’t able to stay out of the game for long. In Captain America: Civil War, the Sokovia Accords, and Captain America’s returned war-buddy-turned-assassin Bucky “The Winter Soldier” Barnes, divide the Avengers. Clint is officially “retired” at first and stays neutral on this topic, but later assists Captain America by rescuing/recruiting Wanda from her house-arrest, sarcastically saying he was “disappointing [his] kids.” Hawkeye’s reasoning is not given much screen-time, but he does say he “owe[s] a debt” to Wanda, especially after seeing her twin brother Pietro die in Age of Ultron. Like most of Cap’s allies he gets apprehended after the airport battle, and imprisoned in the Raft.
Civil War does end with Cap freeing them all from the Raft, but both Hawkeye and Ant-Man decline to re-join Cap’s “Secret Avengers” and instead make an FBI deal that places them on house-arrest probation instead. Therefore, neither of them are part of the action in Avengers: Infinity War, meaning Clint is taken completely by surprise when his entire family suddenly disappear due to Thanos’ Snap, shown during Avengers: Endgame’s cold open.
Clint is devastated by this loss, so much that he dons a new moniker of “Ronin” to track down and murder criminal gangs who survived the Snap. Black Widow manages to retrieve him for the surviving Avengers’ plan to time-travel and steal back the Infinity Stones, although many are concerned Clint is too far gone. He and Black Widow are sent to retrieve the Soul Stone on the planet Morag, only to discover a human sacrifice is required. Both Clint and Natasha fight to sacrifice themselves before the other one, although Black Widow eventually “succeeds” in throwing herself off the cliff.
With the Soul Stone and other Infinity Stones returned, the Avengers were able to resurrect everyone vanished in the Snap, including Hawkeye’s family. Yet Endgame also addresses that since Black Widow’s death was instrumental to gaining the Soul Stone, her death cannot be reversed. So, alongside the death of Iron Man, Hawkeye and Wanda share a separate moment where they mourn the sacrifice of Natasha and Vision.
The Disney+ Hawkeye series will reportedly expand upon Clint’s time during Endgame as Ronin. But although Black Widow makes more references to her shadowy past, Hawkeye’s own backstory as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent is largely unknown. The series also draws heavy inspiration from Matt Fraction and David Aja’s acclaimed Eisner-winning 2012-2015 run of the character, from the title-logo stylization to the appearance of Lucky the Pizza Dog.
Fraction and Aja’s series itself was slightly influenced by Renner’s first Avengers appearance, as comics Hawkeye traded in his flamboyant purple costume with a stripped-down purple-arrowhead T-Shirt. Mostly the comic series was a stylized and sharply comedic showcase of Clint fighting “street-level” crime. The first issue revolves around Hawkeye trying to save a dog, and the major arc is defending his tenement building from the “tracksuit mafia,” all the while building up his relationship with “the other Hawkeye” Kate Bishop (who will be played by Hailee Steinfeld in Hawkeye).
Hawkeye will likely show Clint passing the mantle onto Bishop, although in the comics she actually took it up herself when Hawkeye was dead (he got better). Indeed there are many differences between the MCU’s Hawkeye and the original comics, Renner’s version being closer to the Ultimate Marvel incarnation. In the main comics, Hawkeye was never a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent but an orphaned circus performer who became a petty criminal with (the supervillain) Black Widow before joining the Avengers. Hawkeye was also far more contentious, clashing with Captain America for leadership of the team.
He also does not have a family. In the MCU he has a slight mentorship role with Wanda, but in the comics, there is a minor romantic tension between the two (complicated by the fact Wanda is the one who killed and resurrected him). He did marry S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Mockingbird (played in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Adrianne Palicki), although the two later divorced. The Hawkeye show will likely feature how the MCU’s “family man” can handle his own spotlight, particularly after the complicated grief of Endgame. But his high skillset and long experience should let Clint fare fine on his own, even if he is yet again being pulled out of retirement.
Hawkeye will be available for streaming on Disney+ in 2021.
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