Despite his high-profile status as an Avenger, the MCU’s Clint Barton is an underrated protagonist in terms of character depth. The Hawkeye Disney+ series is set to feature him as the main lead, which should fully explore his origins and how he came to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.
However, his decade-long stint in the MCU has already delivered quite a few emotional aspects to the character. From watching his best friend and family disappear to transforming into a violent vigilante, a deeper analysis of Hawkeye shows that he is a far more tragic figure than he initially appears to be.
He Had To Cope With The Knowledge That Loki Made Him Kill People
As a superhero who has always been emotionally vulnerable, Clint was distraught with the knowledge of the evil acts Loki made him do in The Avengers. More than the comic book version of Hawkeye, the MCU incarnation tends to carry a greater sense of guilt, and he was still haunted by the number of people he unintentionally killed while doing Loki’s bidding.
Despite Black Widow’s reassurance that it wasn’t Hawkeye’s fault as he had been mind-controlled, Clint claimed he could still remember what he’d done and had to live with it. For a man who had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to help people, this was a particularly heavy burden weight to carry.
His Survival Was At The Expense Of Pietro's Death
Hawkeye was the one who encouraged Wanda and Pietro to fight against Ultron, claiming that if he could be a hero, then they could be too. He’d never intended for either to perish and was about to die while protecting a child when Pietro intervened to save them.
Clint realized that he had inadvertently caused Pietro’s demise. That split second where his eyes met Pietro’s right before the latter passed showed just how shattered Hawkeye was over losing his new friend, as he would have definitely taken Pietro’s place if he could. As a tribute to the fallen Avenger, Clint would later name his son Pietro.
He Had No Choice But To Fight His Own Friends
Since he wasn’t involved in the process of the Sokovia Accords’ implementation, Hawkeye’s point of view of Civil War’s events is sadder than others. He was called right when the situation escalated, leading to him having to fight his friends without any prior interaction.
Had he been given a chance beforehand, then Hawkeye may have been able to curb tensions. However, he was forced to battle his Avengers teammates when he didn’t really want to. Considering that his involvement made him an enemy of the government, Hawkeye also had no choice but to fight Iron Man to avoid imprisonment.
He Was Outlawed For Believing In Captain America's Cause
Like the rest of Captain America’s faction, Hawkeye was branded as a villain to the public. This is particularly damaging to Clint considering he wasn’t involved in the conflict and was called in by Steve at the last minute. Clint could have declined, but he was a staunch believer in his friend’s belief that the Sokovia Accords were wrong.
Despite Clint clearly not intending to harm Iron Man’s team, he was deemed a criminal and imprisoned in the Raft. Tony’s involvement hurt Clint the most, as he realized his friend was siding with the people who were holding him in prison.
The Avengers Didn't Stay In Touch With Him During His House Arrest
One of the most pressing questions about Hawkeye from fans is why he even had to become a vigilante. After all, he had the option to go to Avengers, yet was estranged from them for five years. The sad truth is that his teammates simply didn’t look for him until his exploits as Ronin became known.
Moreover, Clint wasn't contacted by anyone following his house arrest after the Sokovia Accords debacle and he was completely in the dark over the fight against Thanos. As a result of the alienation he experienced from his friends, Hawkeye was lost and confused without the necessary support needed to cope with the death of his family.
He Had No Idea What Killed His Family For A Long Time
While all the characters had to suffer a personal loss, Hawkeye’s was perhaps the most tragic of all the Avengers. Because he was not involved in the Infinity War, Hawkeye was clueless over how his family vanished since he never saw them disintegrate.
The world was in chaos straight after the Snap occurred, which means that Hawkeye wouldn’t have known about Thanos for a long time. It would’ve been a while before he even heard of what transpired and it was this sadness and confusion that manifested into anger, turning him into the merciless vigilante Ronin.
His Haunted Past As Ronin
Exactly what he was up to as Ronin is a question the Disney+ series Hawkeye promises to answer, but what is known is that Clint became a ruthless assassin with no regard for human life. On Vormir, one of the reasons why Hawkeye wanted to sacrifice himself was because he considered himself irredeemable.
According to him, he wasn’t the same person he was before, and for that, he deserved to die. His guilt was such that not even the prospect of seeing his family again made him reconsider, as Clint became convinced that his actions made him evil.
He Had A Death Wish During The Time Heist
What’s telling about Hawkeye’s behavior after he was recruited for the Time Heist is that he didn’t intend to live through it. This was evident when he volunteered to test if time travel worked, knowing full well that there was a good chance that he could die.
He carried this with him on Vormir as well, as it turned out that Hawkeye didn’t plan on making it this far and was mentally prepared to sacrifice himself even before it was an option. All this was due to the utter hopelessness he felt in the five-year period of the Blip, as Hawkeye couldn’t let himself believe even for a moment that he could be happy again without his family.
He Had To Watch His Best Friend Die
Black Widow and Hawkeye’s reunion was painfully short-lived, as they realized they had no choice but to sacrifice one of them to gain the Soul Stone. Hawkeye’s attempts to martyr himself were in vain when Natasha placed herself in an unsavable position by hanging to the side of the cliff without any way for Clint to pull her up and save her.
Sadly for Clint, he could do nothing but to see Natasha fall to her death. While he didn’t get to watch his family die, he had no choice but to witness his best friend’s demise.
He's Being Framed For Black Widow's Death
The ending of Black Widow has left fans already knowing things about the Disney+ Hawkeye series, in that Yelena Belova will be coming after Clint. If it wasn’t already tragic enough that he had to live with the memory of watching Natasha die, Clint’s involvement has now been skewed into framing him as her killer.
This is how Valentina manipulated Yelena into gunning for Clint, as it appears that the latter is being blamed for Natasha’s demise. Not only could Clint not make anyone understand the pain he went through, but he now has to contend with people thinking he could take his best friend’s life.