Hawkeye: Hits the Target or Complete Miss? Spoiler Free Review
- Denis Phan
- Dec 23, 2021
- 3 min read
Having come into Hawkeye with little to no expectation, I was interested to see what Disney Plus would deliver for arguably the most understated Avenger, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and the introduction into the MCU of his protégé Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfield).
The story starts back in 2012 as we’re introduced to a young Kate Bishop and her well-to-do family living in Manhattan just before the Chitauri invasion kicks off the Battle of New York. Seeing the chaos ensue from the viewpoint of the New York residents is a nice little touch and that’s where we see Kate get her first sight of the eponymous Hawkeye as he unknowingly saves her life and battles the Chitauri. This chance encounter has a profound effect on the young Kate Bishop and when we catch up with her in 2024 when the series is set, we see that she has dedicated her life to becoming just like her unwitting saviour.
Clint, in New York with his family to take in a show (Rodgers the Musical) and Christmas shopping is shocked when someone wearing the Ronin costume suddenly appears in New York and makes the news, spurring everybody to assume the vigilante is back and active. Sending his family home, Clint stays behind to track down the mysterious person impersonating Ronin and recover the suit. When he finally catches up with them, it’s none other than Kate Bishop and in the short time she’s been wearing the suit has attracted the attention of local mobsters, the Tracksuit Mafia and their mysterious leader Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) who has her own history with Ronin.
The series then follows our heroes as they try to protect themselves and get drawn deeper into a mystery around the Tracksuit Mafia, who they work for, and connections that are getting too close to home for Kate.
The show reintroduces a couple of welcome faces from the wider MCU that fans were hoping to see more of, and no doubt will be returning in future shows and movies which I for one will be excited for.
This series feels smaller and more intimate than most of the Disney Plus offerings before it, and for me, it’s all the better for it. You see Clint struggling with the fallout of Avengers: Endgame and particularly the loss of his close friend Natasha Romanoff, but also the ghost of his dark past as Ronin after the devastation of The Blip. His begrudging yet tender relationship with Kate Bishop is enjoyable to watch develop and it feels like they’re setting Kate Bishop (and Hailee Steinfield) up to be a major part of the Young Avengers.
Originally meant to be a Hawkeye movie before Kevin Feige decided to redevelop it as a Disney Plus series, I feel the change of format has probably done it a favour as we’re given more time to spend with these very human characters dealing with the very human fallout of the Avengers films.
Whilst there are set pieces and action aplenty, because there are no truly superpowered players in Hawkeye, it feels a lot more grounded and real with a lot less reliance on CGI to do the heavy lifting, with the wintery New York city setting evoking classic Christmas movies of the past. The finale delivers some very personal battles both physically and figuratively that touch on the main themes of the series, loss, family and responsibility.
Overall, I would say this is the most balanced of all the Disney Plus MCU content put out thus far, it’s a tight, personal look at a character who has always been in the shadow of the mightier Avengers, and whilst it doesn’t create a multiverse or an alternate reality, it does introduce some new interesting characters to the MCU which I’ll be excited to see in future films and shows. If Spider-Man: No Way Home finally told us ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, Hawkeye reminds us that you don’t need to have great power to take great responsibility, and it’s all the more powerful for it.
Did you enjoy Hawkeye? Which future MCU Disney Plus exclusive are you looking forward to see in 2022? Let us know in the comments!
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