Hawkeye’s Into The Spider-Verse Connection Explained

Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Hawkeye.

Hawkeye’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse connection is by way of Sloan Limited, the shell company that launders money for the Tracksuit Mafia. The MCU is known for connecting its movies, series, and comics through minute but salient details that can both surprise fans and pay homage to the source material. Sloan Limited is one example of how the MCU pulls this off.

As of Hawkeye season 1, episode 5, “Ronin,” the show has established certain key facts about Sloan Limited. Apart from the company’s money laundering activities, it’s been revealed that Jack Duquesne is the CEO of Sloan Limited, which led to his arrest. And although it was Kate Bishop’s mother Eleanor who tipped off the police to Jack’s criminal activities, Black Widow assassin Yelena Belova later reveals to Kate that Eleanor not only ordered Clint’s death but is also working with the Kingpin, who turns out to be the “uncle” being referred to by both Echo and her Tracksuit Mafia lieutenant Kazi. This means that Sloan Limited is owned by Kingpin himself and that Jack’s arrest was meant to fool Kate – who tells Clint everything – into thinking that Eleanor isn’t involved at all.

Hawkeye’s Sloan Limited is also a reference to Walker Sloan, a scientist that works for a megacorporation called Alchemax, which first appeared in Spider-Man 2099 back in 1992. In the 2011 video game Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Walker Sloan builds a time portal for Alchemax, which allows the company to travel from 2099 to the 1970s in order to establish early roots and essentially take over New York City. In the version of Alchemax from 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Walker Sloan’s role as the head scientist is instead given to Olivia Octavius, who builds a Super-Collider for accessing alternate realities across the multiverse – at the behest of Alchemax’s real owner, Kingpin. All this could mean that either Walker Sloan or Alchemax – through Sloan Limited – also exist within the MCU, and could later become part of Kingpin’s larger plans in Hawkeye. This is further supported by how 2099 Spider-Man, whose universe is where Alchemax originated, appears in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2. In short, Sloan Limited refers to Walker Sloan, the head scientist for Alchemax, a company owned by Kingpin, the classic Spider-Man villain who’s been revealed to be behind the events in Hawkeye.

The way Sloan Limited connects Hawkeye and the Spider-Verse reflects the convoluted ways in which real-life corporations acquire, create, and develop smaller businesses to expand their activities. Alongside other private Marvel companies such as Oscorp, Roxxon, Alchemax, and even Stark Industries, Sloan Limited allows the MCU to tackle the repercussions of unchecked corporate power and influence. While Kingpin serves as the MCU’s mafia boss analog, Sloan Limited is part of the complex system that allows Kingpin to appear legitimate and commit crimes with impunity.

Hawkeye’s Sloan Limited is likely not the only connection it has with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Given what’s been revealed about Sloan Limited, the company will no doubt play a larger role in Hawkeye. In turn, this could mean that Sloan Limited will be involved in more events throughout Phase 4 of the MCU.

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