SPOILERS: "Hawkeye" is great, even if you don't know what's happening in the MCU.
A mischievous bow-wielding 20-something has brought Clint Barton out of retirement.
I think the last MCU film I saw was 2018’s Black Panther. Nine movies, if you count the new Spiderman that’s about to come out, have been released since then. I also missed Civil War and a few others along the way, so I gather that some people have died or been transferred to alternate dimensions or something like that in the 10-plus films I haven’t yet watched.
But my lack of familiarity with the latest developments in the MCU hasn’t stopped me from thoroughly enjoying both Loki, which was released this June, and Hawkeye, which debuted with two episodes on Nov. 24th. The latest entry from Disney+ is now through five of its six episodes, with the series finale set to drop next Wednesday, December 22nd, just in time for Christmas.
It’s pretty easy to convince me to watch Tom Hiddleston do just about anything (have you seen The Night Manager?), and adding Owen Wilson to the mix was a stroke of brilliance. But Hawkeye is even more directly involved in the Avenging™️ business than the god of mischief—and at least I’ve watched all the Thor movies because they rock—so I wasn’t entirely confident that I would have as much success with Hawkeye’s solo show as I did with Loki’s.
But I’m glad I gave it a chance, because so far it has been well worth my time.
Hailee Steinfeld stars as Kate Bishop, the 22 year old daughter of a New York socialite who happens to have a passion for archery and martial arts. Since Kate’s father died—I think in some event from an Avengers movie—her mother Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) has gotten engaged to another member of New York high society, one Jack Duquesne.
Fans of Better Call Saul (or HBO’s Sr. Ávila) will recognize Tony Dalton, who plays the suspicious Duquesne, from his turn as the terrific villain Lalo Salamanca. Dalton brings Lalo’s same venomous charm to the character of Jack, which is why Kate can’t help but grow increasingly suspicious each time they meet.
Through a series of accidents that shouldn’t be spoiled quite yet, Kate comes across Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The Avenger, also known by his real name, Clint Barton, is married with children. He isn’t interested in fighting anymore, but he worries that it’s all he’s good at. His wife, Laura (Linda Cardellini), is supremely supportive and seems to understand his dilemma as well as anyone not directly experiencing it could, but it doesn’t make things any easier for her husband.
What’s worse for Clint is that Kate is a huge fan of Hawkeye. Given that, I guess, some of his Avenger friends and SHIELD folks died along the way to saving the universe a few times, he doesn’t have the fondest memory of his time as Hawkeye. So, he has a hard time dealing with the fact that someone thinks of him as a role model because he thinks he’s a bad person, and he definitely doesn’t want someone new to get close to him at the risk that they will end up as yet another casualty of war.
In the course of their joint investigation, Kate and Clint encounter Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), the badass leader of a criminal organization pursuing its own investigation that runs into our protagonists and their own queries. Florence Pugh reprises (apparently) her role from Black Widow as highly trained spy assassin Yelena Belova, who has apparently been recruited by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and hired to kill Hawkeye after Scarlett Johansson dies, or something.
Anyways, Lopez and Belova both have great scenes, Pugh’s Russian accent is hilarious, and some good old non-super-powered fights are exactly what I want from my superheroes.
That’s part of why I took a chance on Hawkeye in the first place. While new spells and superpowers always outdoing each other can get tiresome, the mix of serious and playful hand to hand combat that we get from basically every character in the show is fantastic. The world is never in danger of ending in Hawkeye, but the more limited stakes are perhaps even more compelling.
Here’s hoping that Kate Bishop gets another appearance after the series ends, as Loki is the only Marvel “miniseries” to be renewed by Disney+ to date.