Ever since it was confirmed that Clint Barton would be abandoning his Hawkeye persona in favor of something new, fans had assumed that he would don the alias of Ronin. That’s what happens in the comics after a traumatic experience leads him to feel he cannot continue as Hawkeye, and the set pictures and promotional shots of Jeremy Renner had a definite inspiration from the comic costume. But while it looked like a dead cert what persona Clint would take on, the question remained as to why he would do so? Well, those answers will soon be revealed in Avengers: Endgame.
After all, post-Age of Ultron and Civil War it seemed that he’d retired from being a superhero in order to spend time with his family, so what could bring him back into the fray? Once we saw Infinity War, all the pieces began to fall into place. What else would make Clint so furious that he’d adopt more brutal methods than his family being dusted in Thanos’ Decimation of Earth?
While the trailer didn’t confirm that this had happened for certain, Clint looks extremely miserable when Black Widow encounters him. She reacts with shock, as if she knows full well what’s occurred and is worried by how much he appears to have changed. Either way, his appearance should mollify fans who were dismayed that he didn’t feature in Infinity War (which resulted in many hilarious posters placing him into the lineup).
At the time, Joe Russo explained the following about why he was left out:
“We have two movies that we’re working with, Avengers 3 and Avengers 4. That’s a lot of story real estate. I think last week we released 22 character posters. There’s only so many people that you can put in one film. And we have a really interesting story cooked up for Hawkeye. But I would say that patience is a virtue, and it’s a long play, not a short play.”
Well, that patience looks like it’s going to pay off on April 26th, when Avengers: Endgame shows us precisely what made Hawkeye become Ronin. Perhaps he and Drax might suddenly have a lot in common…
