Could Hawkeye be setting up the passing of the Avenger’s bow and arrows?

Hawkeye is Marvel’s newest show on Disney+ and the final one for this year after Wandavision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Loki. The show stars the titular character, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), otherwise known as the avenger Hawkeye. The show also features a new character named Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), a woman who is inspired by Hawkeye but has gotten herself in over her head in the world of crime. The series will be six episodes long, starting with two episodes released this week.      

The first episode begins by showing Kate Bishop as a child, eavesdropping on an argument between her parents, her comfortable home life is cut short when the Chitauri invade New York where she lives. The havoc wreaked during the events of The Avengers spreads to her home and damages it, she is nearly killed but is saved by Hawkeye. After the fighting is over, at her father’s funeral, who died in the battle, she resolves her self to become strong like the hero who saved her. Over the course of her life until the present day, she trains in many martial arts and weapons style, but primarily she uses a bow and arrow.      

In the present, it’s Christmas time and Hawkeye and his family are attending Rogers, a musical about the life of Steve Rogers aka Captain America, and when the musical reaches the act about the events of The Avengers and the Battle of New York, Hawkeye becomes disturbed when seeing the Black Widow character on the stage, as he clearly still suffering from the weight of her loss in Avengers: Endgame, and this causes him and his family to leave the show early. 

Kate’s night is not going well either, as she accidentally damages a bell tower on her campus while trying to pull off a bow and arrow stunt for her friends. This leads to her mother, Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) being upset with her as she must pay for the damages. Their family is wealthy so it’s not much of an obstacle for Eleanor as she heads off for a Gala with Kate and her new romantic partner Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton).      

At the gala, Kate learns from an associate of her mother’s that she and Jack are engaged, a detail she was unaware of and finds rather sudden. After confronting her mother she storms off and stumbles upon a backroom auction being held at the gala. Many rich socialites are in attendance, including her soon to be stepfather Jack. The items being sold are familiar to MCU fans, those being the sword and costume of Ronin, Clint Barton’s persona he took up to take revenge on the criminal underworld following the loss of his family via Thanos’ snap.

The items were recovered from the wreckage of the Avengers facility after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Jack takes an interest in the sword being auctioned, but his bid is interrupted by a gang of criminals that blast into the auction searching for another item.      

In the commotion, Kate acquires the Ronin Costume and puts it on in order to hide her identity while she tries to save the people from the gang. Her first outing as a hero does not go too well, as while she is skilled, she is outnumbered and outgunned, causing her to move to escape after defeating some of the gang. Before running off, Jack steals the Ronin sword to add to a collection he has at home.      

Arriving at his hotel, Hawkeye sees the news talk about the attack at the gala, along with the sighting of Ronin and gets concerned as someone is walking around using his vigilante identity. This ultimately comes back to bite Kate as a gang that believes she is the Ronin that gave them trouble before finds Kate and attacks her. She tries to fight them off but is saved by Hawkeye, who makes quick work of them. The episode ends with Hawkeye unmasking Kate and Kate being excited to meet her hero.    

The second episode deals with more of the fallout from the post-credits scene in Black Widow. If you haven’t watched that, it would probably be a good idea to see it before watching Hawkeye. Ditto for Falcon and the Winter Soldier. (And if you aren’t caught up on the Avengers films yet, why are you even here?)

Hawkeye will have four more episodes airing each Wednesday on Disney+, and first impressions makes it seem like this will be a fun show with good action and it could mark the passing of the torch for Clint Barton to find a new wielder for the role of Hawkeye.