Hawkeye finally landed on Disney Plus this morning. The opening episode – “Never Meet Your Heroes” – is primarily an introduction to Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop. We see why she was inspired to pick up a bow and arrow, learn about her suspicious high-society family, and see her putting her skills to use in an awesome fight scene against a team of goons.
Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton is only in a handful of scenes in the debut episode, but one of them is destined to go down as an all-time MCU humdinger. As teased in the trailer, he’s attending ‘Rogers: The Musical’, a Broadway tribute to Captain America. We watch a seriously uncomfortable Clint in the audience, shrinking back into his seat as he cringes at the all-singing, all-dancing version of the Battle of New York.
Here’s how it’s being received on social media:
But as the cast bring down the house with the toe-tapping “Save the City” (which Marvel Studios needs to release in full as soon as possible) there’s also an element of sadness. Throughout the show, Clint can’t stop staring at the actor playing Natasha Romanoff, with Renner giving a fantastic performance as he tries to suppress his grief.
During this scene, we also see that Clint has suffered severe hearing damage: going as far as turning off his hearing aid in order to block out the show. The bad vibes continue when he heads to the bathroom, where someone has written “Thanos Was Right” in Sharpie on the urinal. Eventually, he can’t take any more and leaves the theater.
This combination of comedy and tragedy works beautifully, and Rogers: The Musical is full of hilarious little details that require multiple rewatches. Like most people watching this, I want more – so c’mon Marvel, what about releasing more of the show as a Hamilton-style bonus feature on Disney Plus?
The first two episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney Plus.