Hawkeye
𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞 – 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐞𝐲𝐞
𝐍𝐨. 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬 – 𝟔
𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 – 𝟑𝟖 – 𝟓𝟕 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐬
𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 – 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐲 + 𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫
The first time Clint Barton ‘s character got some much needed development was in Avengers Age of Ultron, a much less favorably viewed sequel. In all of the rest of the MCU, Barton was always the forgotten avenger, or the avenger not much focused on, part of the ensemble but never entirely the lead.
The thing about the MCU, currently in its Phase 4, is its efforts to highlight it’s secondary characters via limited series or subplots in movies. Barton’s turn as Ronin, a vigilante assassin was only hinted at in Avengers Endgame, but in the 6 episode series Hawkeye, creator Jonathan Igla is very much focused on exploring that plot thread of Endgame and closing it.
The 6 episode series heavily borrows from Matt Fraction and David Aja’s seminal 2012 run on Hawkeye comic. The show, like the MCU does, manages to remix these elements with Canon already established, either by plot convenience, or by cleverly supplanting the differences and focusing on those differences as plot points. One of the key points by which the show manages to impress is showcase how different this version of Barton is from the comics, and how the show’s version interacts with Kate Bishop, a protégé who shared many of the similar interactions with Bishop of the comics but also with minute differences.
The Hawkeye series manages to stand out because of the interactions of reluctant mentor Hawkeye and capable but naive protégé Hawkeye. Those are the moments when the show becomes substantially far more than a very low stakes show it is advertised to be.
The show having low stakes isn’t really an issue here, but low stakes in respect to the world ending shattering events doesn’t mean less amounts of seriousness. Hawkeye is lighthearted and fun show which manages to pass the torch from Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye to Haile Steinfeld’s Hawkeye without making it seem forced, while also managing to interweave plot threads from Black Widow as well as other MCU adjacent properties. While all of these story machinations manages to raise the anticipation of a weekly watch along, in the end Hawkeye is simply an average but fun offering from the MCU, with some good to fantastic action bits and one or two important character interactions, which finally manages to close out Jeremy Renner’s arc of the character.
Disclaimer: The above review solely illustrates the views of the writer.