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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
For this series I’ll be taking an in depth look at each of the original Avengers by analyzing both their stories before Avengers: Endgame, but also how their respective stories end.
Click here for the full list so far!
Needless to say – SPOILERS follow.
The next Avenger on my list is Clint Barton: AKA Hawkeye/Ronin.
If we were to conduct a popularity contest on the most popular Avenger of the original six, where would Hawkeye land on your list? For most – myself included – we’d find him near the bottom of the list, competing with Natasha for the position of fifth place (only to probably end up losing anyway.) It’s not necessarily his fault, though. While very popular within the annals of comic book lore, his on screen counterpart has never been given the opportunity to really shine in the same way the other characters have. I mean, each of the other Avengers has had, at the very least, seven different appearances in the MCU; and, aside from Black Widow, each has helmed their own film – if not trilogy of films. Not to mention, our first “real” introduction to the character saw him play puppet to Loki for the majority of the film.
It wasn’t until Avengers: Age of Ultron that Clint really got a chance to shine, as a decent portion of the movie is focused on not only his secret family, but also his role as a mentor to newly recruited Avenger, Scarlett Witch. However, these additions – primarily the addition of his secret family – seemed to only make him less popular in the eyes of the audience, with many finding it an arbitrary addition to the film – not unlike the Natasha/Bruce romance – and I have to admit that even I was among that crowd. What point did it serve to give him a family?
Well, Avengers: Endgame finally gave me a worthwhile answer.
Three children and a wife – gone with the snap of a finger. All that remained was a man, lost in his own grief; his moral compass reduced to dust both instantly and (seemingly) irrevocably. It’s enough to send anyone over the edge – Avenger or otherwise. And that’s exactly what it did to Clint as he spent the next five years physically dishing out the pain he was feeling emotionally; burying his sorrow under heaps of dead bodies. It was, without a doubt, the darkest we have ever seen one of our heroes been – but given all that he had lost, it made a lot of sense.
Clint loved his family – so much, in fact, that he decidedly kept them a secret from the other members of the Avengers (except Natasha, who knew prior to their joining the Avengers). Much like superheroes keep their identities a secret from the general public for their own safety, Clint kept his family a secret as well; and with all that’s happened to Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, and Betty Ross as a result of people knowing their respective heroes identities, it makes sense that Clint would want to ensure that his family was kept safe. As Adrian Toomes might say, he played it very “close to the vest,” – even keeping it from his teammates, who, at this point, had essentially become like a family to him.
All of this is to say that, when we first lay eyes on Clint in Avengers: Endgame we can see that he’s a far different man than the one we saw during the films opening scene. And, while, granted they’re all different from who they were, his transformation is the most jarring. All of the Avengers have killed – we’ve seen that it is an unavoidable part of the job – but none have sought out violence in the same way Clint had. In many ways the MCU’s take on Ronin is very similar to that of Frank Castle; a man hellbent on dishing out his own brand of justice after watching his family get murdered. If you slapped a skull on his chest the two would be practically indistinguishable from one another, given all of the carnage that surrounds them each.
However, unlike Frank Castle - who has no way of bringing back his family - Clint is given that opportunity, as Natasha informs him that they have finally found a way to fix what Thanos did. While reluctant to “hope” again, he decides to put his faith in Natasha and the Avengers and rejoins the team, albeit still unconvinced as to whether or not their plan will work. It is not until he travels back himself and hears his daughters voice again that he appears to have returned to the Clint we’ve always known.
Things go smooth for he and Natasha as they travel through the cosmos on their individual search for the Soul Stone until they get to their destination and discover that one of them must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to retrieve the Soul Stone. While I’ve already covered why it made sense that Natasha chose to sacrifice herself, I failed to mention that Clint is just as viable a candidate to have made the sacrifice. Yes, we know that he desperately wants to bring his family back, but its clear to both him and the audience that he’s no longer the man he was before they were taken from him. Yes, he’s regained some of his humanity during the weeks he’s spent dividing a plan with his teammates, but he can’t ignore the fact that, for five years, he committed unspeakable acts.
“What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean the scene that he left... I gotta tell you there's part of me that doesn't even want to find him.”
It makes sense, given all that he’s done over the last few years, that he would be weary about seeing them - that he would rather sacrifice himself as a form of atonement for the sins he has committed. It makes sense and, were it not Natasha who sacrificed herself, it would have made a lot of sense to send Clint hurdling off that cliff to his death. But, I’ll be the first to admit that I feel that it will be much more interesting to see how he’ll cope with his actions when his television show hits Disney+ sometime next year. Avengers: Endgame left us with a very happy ending for the Barton family, but I can’t imagine things will be so simple for them going forward.
All in all, while Avengers: Endgame gave Clint Barton a lot to do, his story is far from over and it will be interesting to see how the events of this movie will have irrevocably changed who he is as both a father, husband, and superhero.
Be sure to leave a comment telling me your thoughts and stay tuned for my next post which will focus on Bruce Banner – The Hulk!
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