'Hawkeye' Trolls Original Comic Costume in Episode 3
The following story contains light spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 3.
It's no secret that outside of Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) Clint Barton is probably not anyone's favorite Avenger. And most people don't have the experience that Kate does, of seeing Hawkeye himself jump down the side of a building, shooting aliens with a bow and arrow, and smashing through a skyscraper window. But while it's hard for just a regular guy—one susceptible to very human consequences—to match up to a billionaire tech genius like Tony Stark, a super soldier like Steve Rogers, or a literal god in Thor, Kate Bishop has made the case in the early episodes of Hawkeye that his lack of popularity can be chalked up to one key issue—he's got a branding problem.
And so, in Episode 3, "Echoes," after a huge chunk of the episode is taken up with an extravagant fight scene that led to a perhaps even more extravagant chase scene (and it's all good stuff; the episode as a whole was a huge improvement on the already pretty solid two-part premiere), Kate shares a plan with Clint for how to fix that branding problem: a new costume.
She shows Clint some concept art for a costume she's thought up, and picture it all in purple: an H on his forehead (for Hawkeye), Hawk Wing Goggles around his eyes, and, hell, maybe a cape. Why not.
Clint is not interested. Kate tries to divert into talking about the identity of the Ronin, but Clint is, again, not interested, instead opting to explain why he would never wear such as silly costume. "There are several reasons why I never wore a flashy costume," he says. "My job is to be, number one, a ghost. Number two, my wife would divorce me if I put something like this on. And number three, I'm not a role model. I'm sorry, Kate, I'm not a role model to anyone—never have been."
Hawkeye's speech there is one of the most important and interesting parts of the episode, because not only does it have a hilarious in-joke about his wife divorcing him, but the Charles Barkley-esque 'Role Model' comment is a reference to his actions in Avengers: Endgame as Ronin. He may be an Avenger, but he's right—he's not a role model. He went full John Wick vigilante on organized crime, and it's clear that neither he himself nor the show is going to let him off the hook easily. It's a good bit of culpability from the MCU overall.
Let's also talk quickly about the fact that the design that Kate drew up...is exactly Clint's original Hawkeye comic costume, in purple to boot. The MCU has been good with keeping comic costumes accurate, for the most part (unlike the FOX X-Men films, which never gave Wolverine a mask and largely put the heroes in black jumpsuits), but Clint's lack of Hawkeye garb has been one notable exception. We'll see what kind of outfit he sports by the time the series concludes, but for now this was a tongue-in-cheek moment that actually managed to also hit pretty hard, too. Nice job, Hawkeye.
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