Why the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Hawkeye deserves more attention

Why the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Hawkeye deserves more attention

When most people talk about the latest Marvel films, very rarely is Hawkeye listed as a favorite or even mentioned at all. Iron man, Thor, the Hulk, and Captain America are the highlights, with extras such as the most recent Black Panther added to them. A large group of “supporters for woman rights” will also discuss Black Widow and why they think she is misused and should receive her own stand-alone film.

Whatever the case, the greatest Marvel hero among them remains in the background, in people’s imagination and quite literally.

One thing must be remembered or it won’t matter: regardless of religion or beliefs, everyone knows that when trouble comes, it is not the best fighter or the flashiest that makes a hero. Marvel itself states that when they make Captain America a sick kid from a very large city—quite frankly a small nobody.

Here’s where they forget that knowledge: Captain America must go through radical alterations with serum before he can become a hero. Hawkeye is as plain as any ‘normal’ person and he still goes out into the insanity of the Marvel World to defend the innocents.

Perhaps the largest difference is that while most of the superheroes focus on the physical side of the battle itself, somehow it seems that it is Hawkeye who takes at least some time for the individual, who stands by the outcast, and convinces them to help defend. He himself says in Age of Ultron, “Perhaps they’re [the rest of the Avengers] my mess,” meaning that he is their moral pillar.

In fact, long before the movies begin, it is mentioned throughout the first Avengers that while Black Widow worked quite skillfully for the KGB, it was Hawkeye who was given the mission to eliminate her. Instead he took the time to rescue her from herself, convince her to switch sides for a more noble cause.

In the second Avengers, he is the one to help Wanda Maxamoff (A.K.A. the Scarlet Witch) through her horror of the destruction. Then, in Captain America, Civil War, he again helps her to action, unfortunately against a fake threat.

Also, out of committed love of his own family, no matter how long he’s away, and how secret he remains about them, he always puts them first and, very importantly, remains faithful to his wife.

Hawkeyes’ not perfect by any means, particularly not in the areas of his use of language, but in Hawkeye, Marvel did at least one thing relatively right. Although I would never suggest a movie titled, Hawkeye, it would be a good thing if more people acknowledged the real hero in Hawkeye, simple, non-super Clint Barton.



Image from celebsleather.com