Hawkeye Repeats The Phase 1 Mistake That Almost Killed Iron Man

Warning: SPOILERS for Hawkeye Episode 3 - "Echoes."

As evidenced by Hawkeye, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) made the same mistake as Ronin that almost got Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) killed in Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both Avengers made powerful enemies, with both Clint and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) now targeted by the Tracksuit Mafia and their leader, Maya "Echo" Lopez (Alaqua Cox), in Hawkeye. Like Stark, Barton thought he was creating a form of peace by massacring the criminal underworld as Ronin but it turned out he was very wrong about what he actually accomplished.

In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark testified before a Senate committee and boasted, "I've just successfully privatized world peace." The billionaire playboy claimed that because he was Iron Man, the United States was more secure from its enemies. Stark also believed that his technology was so far ahead of the game that he was 20 years ahead of his competitors, including Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). But Tony was dead wrong; Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) replicated Stark's ARC reactor tech to become Whiplash, and the Russian criminal also sold his services to Hammer, creating an army of drones that nearly killed Iron Man and War Machine (Don Cheadle). In fact, Iron Man destabilized world peace and there was now a great interest in creating weapons that could match Stark's technology.

In Hawkeye, Clint Barton's past as Ronin came back to haunt him. Distraught from the deaths of his entire family because of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) Infinity Gauntlet snap, Barton went on a years-long rampage as Ronin. Clint wiped out international criminals, including the Mafia in New York, the drug lords of Mexico, and the Yakuza in Japan before Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) brought Barton home to the Avengers, with Black Widow effectively "killing" Ronin. But Hawkeye now makes it clear that Clint's accomplishments aren't what he thought they were. True, Ronin did wipe out a large segment of global bad guys, but others simply rose up to fill the void of the dead, and this likely included people Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) resurrected with the Avengers' Infinity Gauntlet. By Hawkeye's present-day of Christmas 2024, the Tracksuit Mafia are fully back and, presumably, so are most, if not all, of the organizations Ronin thought he ended.

Hawkeye makes it clear that Ronin only briefly destabilized organized crime worldwide and, now that the various underworld factions are back, Ronin is a target for their revenge. Further, there are even more criminal enterprises in the MCU following Avengers: Endgame, as evidenced by Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) rising up in Madripoor to become the Power Broker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Like Iron Man's early successes in Phase 1, what Ronin accomplished during his bloody killing spree turned out to be temporary and now, the Tracksuit Mafia want both Clint and Kate to pay for Ronin's sins.

Clint Barton and Tony Stark are wildly different in their personalities and approaches. Iron Man was flashy, egotistical, and self-aggrandizing while Hawkeye was an Agent of SHIELD before he was an Avenger so that Clint was trained to not call attention to himself. Becoming Ronin was Barton's version of acting like Tony Stark; it was a dramatic turn for the archer into a one-man murder spree against criminals worldwide. But Hawkeye shows that Ronin ultimately failed to accomplish his goal of a world without criminals because no matter how many bad guys Barton murdered, more would rise up to take their place. Tony Stark almost got killed over his hubris in Iron Man 2 and in Hawkeye, Clint Barton has to keep Kate Bishop and himself alive from the mistakes he made as Ronin.

Next: Kate Bishop Finally Equaled Iron Man's Darkest MCU Record

Hawkeye streams Wednesdays on Disney+.