Warning: Contains spoilers for Hawkeye.

The Kingpin’s goal of obtaining Laura Barton’s SHIELD watch in Hawkeye hints that she was extremely formidable as Agent 19. Hawkeye brought many exciting characters from the comics into the MCU, such as Maya Lopez (Echo), the Tracksuit Mafia, and Clint Barton’s successor, Kate Bishop. The Hawkeye finale also revealed that Clint Barton’s wife, Laura Barton, is a former SHIELD agent, previously holding the title of Agent 19, a reference to Marvel’s mainstream comics. By having Kingpin so intent on obtaining the watch (and thus learning the identity of Agent 19), the series also reveals that Laura Barton was a significant threat to Wilson Fisk during her time as a SHIELD agent.

Laura Barton originated in Marvel’s alternate universe Ultimates comics, but like Clint Barton, the MCU version of her blends elements of both the mainstream Marvel universe and the Ultimate Marvel continuity. Agent 19 was a title used by Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird) in the mainstream Marvel universe. Morse is already part of the MCU, thanks to Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, but she never went by Agent 19, leaving the moniker vacant. Laura Barton was never stated to be a SHIELD agent in the Ultimates, but the MCU gave her elements of Mockingbird through her marriage to Clint Barton and Morse’s SHIELD title.

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Hawkeye makes a vintage watch a season-long MacGuffin, hinting that perhaps it belonged to an Avengers member, possibly hiding advanced gadgetry. Clint Barton eventually recovers the watch, returning it to Laura Barton, revealing that the watch is tied to her SHIELD days and can be traced back to her. With this new context, Hawkeye shows that the normally-reclusive Wilson Fisk came out of hiding to acquire the watch and discover the identity of its owner, meaning that the MCU's Laura Barton must have been as dangerous to Fisk’s criminal empire as Clint Barton was during his stint as the vengeful Ronin.

Hawkeye Finale Avengers Watch Laura Barton Agent 19 Mockingbird SR

The Kingpin made his MCU debut in Marvel’s Daredevil, the first of the franchise’s Netflix shows. Wilson Fisk kept a relatively low profile for much of the show’s earliest episodes, building his criminal empire anonymously and using proxies to represent him. His few underlings who knew his identity, such as John Healy, knew that they (and those they cared about) were doomed if they so much as spoke his name aloud. In following seasons, Fisk’s criminal activities became far less discrete, yet his actions in Hawkeye lacked any sort of subtlety, indicating that he took the threat of Barton particularly seriously.

Considering that Laura Barton was no longer a SHIELD agent by the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which took place in 2015 - the same year as Daredevil season 1 - it seems unlikely that Agent 19 directly interfered with Kingpin’s up-and-coming syndicate, but she may have had a reputation within New York’s criminal underworld for being one of SHIELD’s top operatives. With Wilson Fisk rebuilding his forces in the aftermath of The Blip, discovering the identity of the formidable former SHIELD agent may have been intended to eliminate a potential threat to his power.

Laura Barton’s history with Clint Barton before the events of Age of Ultron is largely unknown, but Hawkeye has provided some fascinating hints regarding her past. Combining elements of Ultimate Marvel’s Laura Barton with the mainstream version of Bobbi Morse, the MCU has established that she, like Clint, was a member of SHIELD who now seeks a normal, quieter, life. Laura Barton’s watch, and Kingpin’s interest in it in Hawkeye, indicate that she was a particularly powerful operative who threatened even the MCU’s most notorious criminals.

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