Hawkeye has finally arrived on Disney+, and we love it thus far! It’s nice to see Clint Barton get his spotlight. He’s not reduced to a third wheel. Moreover, it’s refreshing. There is so much to cover in our breakdown of the first two episodes of the series.
Parents Are Difficult
Hawkeye brings the parent dynamic into the story fairly early. Kate Bishop’s relationship with her parents Eleanor and Derek is seen as complicated. She is closer to her dad than her mum, but this changes during the Battle of New York.
Derek is (supposedly) killed as the battle shakes the Bishop home, causing the building to crumble. However, there is no corpse. Anyone who knows anything about comic book storylines or any form of storytelling, if there’s no corpse, then the deceased person might not be dead. It’s a simple fact. Meanwhile, Kate’s relationship with Eleanor as an adult is touch and go.
Kate doesn’t approve of her mother’s relationship with Jack Duquesne. Even Jack’s uncle, Armand III (yes, there is more than one), has his reservations. But, his issue lies with Eleanor, not his nephew. Anyway, the elder Armand is murdered with a sword, and the audience is led to think Jack is the killer.
These dynamics give Kate an edge when it comes to familial relationships. She doesn’t hate her mother, but there’s tension between them. Ultimately, this is different to Clint and his kids.
Clint Continues To Mourn Nat
What Clint has always excelled at is handing out the dad jokes, even if the situation doesn’t call for it. The first two episodes of Hawkeye highlight what he’s like a father to his three children, sons Cooper and Nathaniel and daughter Lila. While his wife Laura is present, she’s back on the Barton farm while he gets time with the kids with just the four of them, he shows how in sync he is around them. It’s clear that he’s close to the three of them and since they were snapped, their visit to New York was his way of catching up on lost time.
While he doesn’t get to spend too much time interacting with Cooper, he does get a bit of screentime with Lila and Nate. Clint takes the kids to see Rogers: The Musical, which is awkward for him as it depicts the Battle of New York, which he was present for. However, his angst of seeing an actress dressed as Natasha makes itself known incredibly quickly. Also, a little girl sitting a few seats away is dressed like Nat.
Lila notices her father’s angst and joins him outside the theatre, understanding why he had to leave. She was close to Nat too, as evident when she was younger in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Meanwhile, this was the same film in which Laura was pregnant with Nate. Also, Nat teased her when she was forced to confess that the baby was a boy.
Clint also uses Nat’s combat tactics, which Laura recognises when her husband mentions them. Could doing this be his way of honouring his late best friend? Though, could it attract Yelena in her quest to hunt him down?
Clint And His Hearing Loss
What was surprising was that Clint’s hearing loss from the comics was addressed in the show. It’s explained via flashbacks that due to the number of explosions he was close to out in the field, it cost him parts of his hearing in one ear. This was evident given the hearing aid he’s seen wearing at various points and the comment Lila makes in the first episode.
Also, Nate tells his father he loves him in Sign Language. This is before he joins Lila and Cooper on the trip home to their mother. Clint is also seen being able to sign, though it’s unknown how much he knows. He may end up having to use it if he and Kate meet Maya Lopez.
Lucky The Pizza Dog
One of the MVP’s of Hawkeye is Lucky the Pizza Dog. While he doesn’t yet have a name, the MCU Fandom has labelled him as “Lucky”. At the moment, Kate is calling him Pizza Dog because she gave him pizza as he was hungry when she rescued him from being beaten up.
Kate and Clint, at separate times, take a shine to him. Clint promises the good boy that he’ll come back in the morning. The one-eyed pup (who is not one-eyed IRL) is incredibly loyal and saw that Kate needed help and jumped in to help. He also wanted a home and is a good judge of character, which is why he chose Kate. We cannot wait to see how much Lucky more factors into the story.
Having Lucky play a part in Clint’s ongoing story shows him in a light that is gentle towards non-humans. It also shows what a kind soul Kate is for adopting him, despite his one-eye. The CGI used to cover over his right eye is pretty good, though it might’ve been more cost-effective if they’d given him an eyepatch as he does in some comic and video game iterations.
Stane (Bell And Clock) Tower
A call back to the first Iron Man is present the first time we see Kate as an adult. The bell and clock tower at Kate’s university is called the Stane Tower after Obadiah Stane, the villain of that film. According to the Iron Monger page on the MCU Fandom, Stane’s death was covered up by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson.
Kate’s accidental destruction of the tower isn’t technically a bad thing. Given Stane’s actions, the damage shows what happens when a hero clashes with a villain.
This might imply there’s more to Eleanor Bishop given her disdain of having to order repairs to the building.
Introducing Echo
Finally, we wanted to address the introduction of Maya Lopez/Echo. She’s the second deaf character in the MCU behind Makkari in Eternals, and she’s the first Native-American character. While we were only acquainted with her at the end of the second episode, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of her. She appears to be a higher-up of the Tracksuit Mafia alongside Kazi/Clown. Her abilities are somewhat reminiscent of Taskmaster as she can copy or “echo” other people’s movements.
Disney+ Day issued the official announcement that Echo would be getting her own self-titled spinoff. The rumour had been floating around a while before this. A theory has been floating around that Maya might’ve been a member of the Black Widow Program and received training similar to Antonia Dreykov.
