Written by C Hues
December 27, 2021
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Hawkeye.
Hawkeye is a show that concentrates on the themes of responsibility, prejudgment, redemption, and empathy. The show gives the perspectives of myriad characters to connect the viewers to characters that they would not traditionally care about. The audience experiences tragic events from antagonists and protagonists alike, allowing the viewer to better understand the complexity of situations and examine circumstances from every angle. Hawkeye allows us to empathize with characters, while also understanding the choices they have made and how it influences their arc throughout the show.
In the final episode of Hawkeye, Kate makes a difficult decision about whether she should oppose her own mother due to the latter’s association with Kingpin and organized crime. The conversation follows,
Clint: You know you don’t have to do this. It is part of the job. It’s always inconvenient. It’s lonely. You will get hurt. Heroes have to make some tough decisions. So, if you’re gonna do this, I just wanna know you’re ready.
Kate: When I was younger, aliens invaded. And I was alone. And I was terrified. But then I saw you, fighting aliens with a stick and a string. I saw you jump from that building even though you can’t fly, even though you don’t have superpowers. And I thought, if he could do that, then I didn’t have to be scared. You showed me that being a hero isn’t just for people who can fly or shoot lasers out of their hands, it’s for anyone—who’s brave enough to do what’s right, no matter the cost.[1]
The main message that Clint conveys to Kate is that the life of a hero is one of responsibility, and that oftentimes they must sacrifice happiness and comfort in favor of doing the morally right thing. As Clint suggests to Kate that she simply stay out of the situation, Kate shows her belief that staying idle and doing nothing is equally as wrong as doing evil. The idea that anyone can be a hero is corroborated when we see the LARPers (Live Action Role Players) and Jack come together to help Clint and Kate save New York City. The LARPers and Jack are just regular people who have no superpowers, but they risk their lives regardless to help protect innocent people who are caught in the crossfire of Kingpin and the Tracksuit Mafia.[2] However, just as anyone can be a hero, anyone can also be a villain. The villains in Hawkeye are not superpowered enemies who have extraordinary abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, energy projection, magic powers, or superspeed. The Tracksuit Mafia are regular people (with an extremely limited vocabulary and unremitting usage of the word “bro”)[3] who chose a life of crime. Kingpin, for example, has no powers (although he virtually has superhuman levels of strength, which is shown as he rips open car doors, survives the full force of a speeding car, and endures an explosion from several trick arrows).[4] He is a non-superpowered person who chose a life of crime. Similarly, Kate’s father made the decision to ally himself with Kingpin and to ask for a loan from him, despite knowing that Fisk was a murderer and mob boss that ran virtually all the crime in New York City. Kate’s mother, Eleanor, inherited her husband’s tragic situation and was coerced into paying off his debt, but she still made her choice to be a villain when she murdered Armand III and ordered a hit on Clint Barton. The audience can sympathize with Eleanor’s situation (in that her circumstances were initially thrust upon her by her careless spouse), but her actions are not excused because she still made the choice to execute Armand and to try to assassinate the only person who inspired her daughter to be a hero. Kate’s choice to turn her mother in to the police is foreshadowed in Episode 1 when she destroys an old bell / clock tower at her school. Notice the name on the bell and clock tower: Obadiah Stane. Stane was the main antagonist of Iron Man and pretended to be a friend and mentor figure to Tony Stark.[5] [6]However, this was a ruse which successfully beguiled Stark, Pepper, Rhodey, and nearly everyone else. Stane was also very wealthy and obsessed with securing his fortune, even at the cost of attempting to murder his protégé. In Hawkeye, Kate’s destruction of Stane Tower symbolizes early on that she will make the choice to reject a life of privilege and comfort in favor of the harder, more tragic life of a hero. Stane also functions as a stand-in for Eleanor; both are precarious and shifty individuals who hide their true intentions, both are wealthy, and both have obtained their riches through bloodshed and violence (Eleanor through organized crime and Stane through incessant and meaningless warfare).[7]
Hawkeye substantiates the adage that appearances can often be deceiving; people are not always as they appear. Many characters who appear to be good are evil, and several characters who appear evil are either revealed as good or shown to be ignorant of the plots formed by the main villains. Jack and his uncle, Armand III, for example, are implied to be villainous, but are merely entitled and spoiled. In the comics, Jack is the Swordsman, who is a villain that initially trains a young Clint Barton in sword fighting, and briefly becomes a mentor to Clint.[8] Fans who understand his comic origin may be fooled into thinking that the MCU will repeat this same plotline. Eleanor appears to be a hopeless romantic who is being conned by Jack, but she is the one who ends up conning Jack by framing him for the murder of Armand.[9] Kate’s father appears to be an affluent and responsible businessman, but his riches came from his affiliation with the Kingpin and he was in substantial debt to the crime lord.[10] Kate’s house is almost entirely white from the inside, and white is a symbol of purity and innocence.[11] However, as we eventually learn that Derek was in debt to the Kingpin, the color of the house takes on a new meaning. The whiteness of the house is connected to the Kingpin, a character who usually wears a white suit. The whiteness is also ironic because it subverts audience expectations, as we associate certain colors with meanings, we are subliminally led to believe in the innocence and purity of the Bishop family. Kate, although having known wealth her entire life, discards her wealth and has Eleanor arrested.
Clint undergoes an entire arc of redemption, in which the audience is led to believe that he will die in the finale of the show. However, instead of being killed or sacrificing himself, Clint lives and returns to his family. He also arrives home in time for Christmas. Typically, in media where the audience examines a relationship between a mentor figure or father figure and a mentee, the mentor is killed off or dies in the movie. For example, Iron Man becomes a mentor to Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War[12] and Spider-Man: Homecoming[13], but Stark sacrifices his life to resurrect Parker (along with everyone else who was blipped out of existence) in Avengers: Endgame[14]. In the movie Logan, Wolverine sacrifices himself to save his daughter X-23 and several other young mutants. Also, Professor X, who acted as a mentor to Wolverine, is killed in front of Logan.[15] In Spider-Man 2, Doctor Octopus, who was a mentor to Peter Parker, sacrifices himself to save Parker and the rest of New York.[16] In other film genres aside from superhero films, father figures and mentors are regularly killed to make room for the mentee, or to pass the baton to the new generation. In the film Shane, the titular character sacrifices himself to save young Joey (who admired Shane) and his family, and Shane is implied to have died as he rides off into the night.[17] In Saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller, who mentored James Ryan, is killed in battle, and demands that James Ryan earn the sacrifice that his squad made so that Ryan could live.[18] In Platoon, Sergeant Elias (who was a mentor to main protagonist Chris Taylor) is killed.[19] However, the biggest hint that death would not be Clint Barton’s fate comes from a reference to the movie Forrest Gump[20] in Hawkeye episode 4. Jack misconstrues a line from the movie.[21] In the film Forrest Gump, Forrest enlists in the US Army and finds a reluctant, grumpy mentor figure in Lieutenant Dan. Instead of dying in war like all his ancestors before him, Lieutenant Dan has his legs blown off and is subsequently rescued by Forrest. Dan struggles but must learn (with Gump’s assistance) to live without the use of his legs (until the end, when he gets an artificial one). Similarly, in Hawkeye, Kate saves Clint from death several times, and helps him communicate with his youngest son when he loses his hearing aid. She is one of the few people who can truly understand him even when he cannot hear what she is saying. This is further proven by their exchanges on the subway train in episode 3, in which Clint cannot hear Kate, yet during their conversation, he still says virtually the exact same things that she says.[22] Their mentor-mentee relationship develops and evolves, and Clint comes to see Kate as less of a spoiled, immature child, and more of a partner.[23] Clint, like Lieutenant Dan, is a reluctant and cantankerous mentor figure, who is saved from death by his apprentice or mentee. Both Clint and Lieutenant Dan have some form of “disability” but learn to live with their respective hearing loss and loss of limbs. They avoid death thanks to the influence of their mentees, who teach them how valuable they are, and that redemption comes from confronting one’s problems and one’s past, not from death.
Colors are present throughout the show and symbolize the emotions and mental state of various characters. As stated earlier, Kingpin’s constant wearing of white clothing symbolizes the ruse of his purity, his hypocrisy, and his treacherous nature. In episode 6, a red shirt can be seen underneath the white suit that Kingpin wears.[24] The shirt being red implies that a life of violence and the spilling of blood has funded Kingpin’s seemingly legitimate organization. Clint, Echo, and Yelena are usually shown wearing black. As black is often seen at funerals and is symbolic of death and mourning, each of these characters undergoes grief in response to the death of a loved one. Clint is still shown to grieve Natasha (Black Widow)’s death, as after he reveals to Kate that he was Ronin, he has flashbacks of Natasha’s self-sacrifice on Vormir.[25] Similarly, Echo is still enraged by her father’s death at Ronin’s hands, and constantly wears black.[26] Yelena is also in mourning of her sister, Natasha. In Black Widow, when Natasha was still alive, Yelena wore a predominantly white suit.[27] However, Yelena discards the white suit in exchange for the black after learning of Natasha’s death. Yelena even wears black when dressing in casual clothing. When confronting Kate in her apartment, Yelena’s coat, dress, pants, and boots are all black. The main topic of the conversation is Natasha’s death and Clint’s role in her demise. In episode 6, when Yelena finally confronts Clint over the circumstances of Natasha’s death, she is wearing all black.[28]
Lastly, one of the show’s main themes is empathy. In episode 1, the audience is shown the battle of New York from Kate’s perspective.[29] She was a terrified little girl who thought that she would be killed by invading aliens, but Clint Barton shot an arrow into the aircraft of an alien attacker and saved her life. By showing events from Kate’s point of view, the viewer better understands why Kate defends Clint so persistently and adamantly. Similarly, although Maya is an antagonist to Clint and Kate throughout the bulk of the show, the viewer can sympathize and possibly empathize with her. In episode 3, the viewer shares experiences with Maya (as she matures, learns to fight, and sees her father murdered).[30] By showing the death of Maya’s father from her perspective (instead of Clint’s), the viewer can feel her pain and see the moments upon which he draws his last breath. Likewise, when Maya and Clint are fighting in episode 4, she knocks his hearing aid out of his ear.[31] The audience’s sound goes out synchronously with the removal of Clint’s hearing aid. This builds a connection to the characters by allowing the audience to not merely watch Clint Barton, but to hear (or not hear) what he hears. In this way, the audience can have a deeper understanding (even if only for a moment) of what Clint’s deafness is like. In episode 5, viewers undersand for the first time what the blip felt like.[32] As Yelena is in the bathroom of a former member of the Red Room, she is abruptly eradicated and subsequently resurrected. For her and the audience, this happens in a matter of seconds. However, for those who were not victims of the blip, five years have passed. As Yelena exits the bathroom (which has changed color), she sees that her friend from the Red Room (who was single) now has a husband and adopted daughter. By going through the blip with Yelena, the audience can understand her indignation towards Clint for his alleged role in Natasha’s demise. Five years of her life were snatched away from her, and in that time, she feels that she may have been able to save her sister.
Ultimately, Hawkeye is a show of subversion. Hawkeye shows that people are not always who they say they are, and questions how much we truly know people. Often, those closest to us may not actually embody the ideals that we think they do, and those who we prejudge may actually be better people than we suspect. Hawkeye validates that not only can regular people be heroes, but they should be. Anyone who can make a stand against evil has a responsibility to make that stand. Hawkeye also subverts expectations by hiring actors of color in roles that were traditionally white in the comics. Two actors of color are the lead female and male roles, Hailee Steinfeld (of partial African American and Filipina descent)[33][34][35][36] and Jeremy Renner (of partial Panamanian descent).[37]
[1] Hawkeye. Episode 6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hawkeye, Episodes 1-6.
[4] Hawkeye. Episode 6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[5] Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[6] Hawkeye. Episode 1. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[7] Rating: PG-13 (Intense Sci-Fi Action/Violence|Brief Suggestive Content). Genre:Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Original Language: English. Director: Jon Favreau. Producer: Avi Arad, Kevin Feige. Writer: Mark Fergus, Hawk
Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway. Release Date (Theaters): May 2, 2008 Wide.Release Date (Streaming): Sep 30, 2008. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/iron_man
[8] Hawkeye # 2. Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist), Matt Hollingsworth (Colorist), and Chris Eiopoulos (letterer).
[9] Hawkeye. Episode 1, 6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[10] Hawkeye. Episode 6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[11] Hawkeye. Episode 1. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[12] Rating: PG-13 (Extended Sequences of Violence|Action and Mayhem). Genre:Adventure, Action, Fantasy. Original Language: English. Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Producer: Kevin Feige. Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely. Release Date (Theaters): May 6, 2016 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): Sep 13, 2016. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_civil_war.
[13] Rating: PG-13 (Sci-Fi Action Violence|Brief Suggestive Comments|Some Language) Genre:Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure, Action. Original Language:English. Director: Jon Watts. Producer: Amy Pascal, Kevin Feige Writer: Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers. Release Date (Theaters): Jul 7, 2017 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): Oct 17, 2017. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spider_man_homecoming
[14] Rating: PG-13 (Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence|Action|Some Language) Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, Action. Original Language: English. Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Producer: Kevin Feige. Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely. Release Date (Theaters): Apr 26, 2019 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): Jul 30, 2019. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avengers_endgame
[15] Rating: R (Language Throughout|Brief Nudity|Strong Brutal Violence). Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action. Original Language: English. Director: James Mangold. Producer: Hutch Parker, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner. Writer: James Mangold, Michael Green, Scott Frank. Release Date (Theaters): Mar 3, 2017 Wide.
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 20, 2017. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/logan_2017
[16] Rating: PG-13 (Violence|Stylized Action). Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy. Original Language: English.
Director: Sam Raimi. Producer: Avi Arad, Laura Ziskin. Writer: Michael Chabon, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 30, 2004 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2004. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spiderman_2
[17] Genre: Western. Original Language: English. Director: George Stevens. Writer: Jack Schaefer, A. B. Guthrie Jr., Jack Sher. Release Date (Streaming): Aug 15, 2000. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shane
[18] Rating: R (Graphic Sequences of War|Graphic Sequences of Violence|Language). Genre: War, History, Drama.
Original Language: English. Director: Steven Spielberg. Producer: Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn, Steven Spielberg. Writer: Robert Rodat. Release Date (Theaters): Jul 24, 1998 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): May 25, 2004. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/saving_private_ryan
[19] Rating: R. Genre: War, Drama. Original Language: English Director: Oliver Stone. Producer: Arnold Kopelson.
Writer: Oliver Stone. Release Date (Streaming): Aug 15, 2000. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/platoon
[20] Forrest Gump. Rating: PG-13. Genre: Comedy, Drama. Original Language: English. Director: Robert Zemeckis
Producer: Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, Steve Tisch. Winston Groom, Eric Roth. Release Date (Theaters) Jul 6, 1994. Wide. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/forrest_gump
[21] Hawkeye. Episode 4. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[22] Hawkeye. Episodes 1-6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[23] Hawkeye. Episodes 1-6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[24] Hawkeye. Episodes 1-6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[25] Hawkeye. Episode 4. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[26] Hawkeye. Episodes 1-6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[27] Rating: PG-13 (Some Language|Intense Violence/Action|Thematic Material). Genre: Adventure, Action
Original Language: English. Director: Cate Shortland. Producer: Kevin Feige. Writer: Eric Pearson. Release Date (Theaters): Jul 9, 2021 Wide. Release Date (Streaming): Oct 6, 2021. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_widow_2021
[28] Hawkeye. Episodes 4-6. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[29] Hawkeye. Episode 1. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[30] Hawkeye. Episode 3. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[31] Hawkeye. Episode 4. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[32] Hawkeye. Episode 4. Creators: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Vera Farmiga, Florence Pugh, Fra Fee. Marvel Studios. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/hawkeye
[33] 15 Mixed-Race Celebrities, From Shay Mitchell to Mariah Carey. JASON PHAM JUL 23, 2018 AT 3:30 PM EDT. https://stylecaster.com/mixed-race-celebrities/
[34][Only IN Hollywood] Hailee Steinfeld on ‘Hawkeye,’ ‘Dickinson,’ and missing her Filipino grandpa
DEC 30, 2020 6:00 PM PHT. RUBEN V. NEPALES . https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/series/hailee-steinfeld-talks-hawkeye-dickinson-missing-filipino-grandpa/
[35] Malcolm, Shawna. September 2016. “Bright Star”. Seventeen. P 112.
[36] Hailee Steinfeld: Actress and Singer. Rita Santos. Chapter 1. Page 5. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hailee_Steinfeld/exCDDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
[37] IMDB. Jeremy Renner. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719637/bio