Black Widow's Budapest Reveal Makes Hawkeye's MCU Story Worse

What happened in Budapest is finally revealed in Black Widow, but the story only serves to make Hawkeye's MCU journey seem worse. The mystery of Budapest was firmly set up back in 2012’s The Avengers. All it took was a simple exchange between Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), joking that it was “just like Budapest.” How, exactly, it was like Budapest would not be revealed until nearly a decade later, and even then it raised as many questions as it gave answers.

As shown in flashbacks during Black Widow, the Budapest mission was to take out Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the leader of the Red Room. The culmination of the operation was Nat and Clint blowing up a five-story building, ostensibly killing not only Dreykov but also his daughter, Antonia (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). The story as told in the movie makes sense, fitting the narrative and themes of Nat’s long-overdue solo outing, but it doesn’t fit quite-so-neatly with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole.

For starters, there’s the idea of taking on the Chitauri being “just like Budapest,” when there is absolutely nothing to link the two scenarios. Hawkeye, of course, disagreed with that view anyway, and Black Widow proves him right, but it also impacts his story. The Budapest event, and mentions of “Dreykov’s daughter” by Loki, all formed a part of Black Widow’s supposedly dark past. So much of her arc was about being better than she was before, and trying to make up for that red in her ledger, of which Budapest was a huge part. It’s understandable why Nat was so haunted by her past, and by the killing of a child in particular, but why wasn’t Hawkeye too? It seems unjust that Nat suffered so much more than he did, and it also robbed Clint of some potentially fascinating character dynamics and backstory.

Black Widow Budapest Dreykov daughter bomb

The simple answer, of course, is that Marvel did not know the answer to the Budapest question until Black Widow was put into development. And yet, the issue with a prequel that dives into the MCU’s past is that it colours things differently, and so it doesn’t feel right that Black Widow was so plagued by her own history while Hawkeye apparently had no issue with what they did. It’s true that Nat’s crimes ran further because of her time as a Red Room operative, but nonetheless there’s a great disparity between the presentation of the two characters through the MCU, even when both were involved of such a brutal act. You can argue that the call to kill Antonia came from Nat, and that Clint may have been totally unaware at the time, but it seems unlikely he never at least learned the truth, given how big the news would be and how long they spent together afterwards..

Hawkeye did eventually begin to seek a sense of penance, having transformed into Ronin following the loss of his family in Thanos’ Snap. That was a driving factor in his desire to sacrifice himself in Avengers: Endgame, leading to a fight with Natasha that felt somewhat arbitrary at the time, and even more so after Black Widow. Nat sacrificed herself because Hawkeye had a family, but also because of how much she had done in the past that this would seemingly make up for. It was always hard to argue that Nat’s sacrifice was the right choice, but seeing it back now then it feels worse, given Hawkeye too had more to atone for than previously revealed.

Indeed, it’s something a shame that Hawkeye’s darker past was never explored. His pivot to Ronin was something with a lot of potential, but was wasted in Endgame. The reveal of Budapest could feat neatly with a harsher edge to his character; in Thor, he was more than willing to shoot the God of Thunder; there's very much a sense of "get the job done" to him, but the extent of his methods and deeds aren't covered (though it's something his solo show could tackle more of). His history is darker still after Black Widow, but with no hint that was ever the case. It could’ve given Jeremy Renner more to play with, bringing new depths to one of the least developed original Avengers. Instead, the guy with a bow and arrow has no real connection to the reveals of Black Widow and what happened in Budapest, despite being key in them alongside Natasha. It’s a continuation of the MCU’s failure of Nat, and it’s failure to deliver a Black Widow movie when it really mattered, but of Hawkeyes story as well.

Next: Black Widow Ending Explained: How It Connects To The Wider MCU