The first two episodes of Hawkeye landed on Disney Plus on Wednesday, and the initial moments of the show were a fun nostalgia trip for MCU fans.
The scene is set in a high-rise New York penthouse moments prior to the Chitauri invasion and the Avengers assembling to fight back. What follows is effectively a civilian’s eye view of The Avengers‘ Battle of New York, showing exactly how terrifying this was for normal people (with definite inspiration from the opening of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).
The key event comes when the young Kate watches Hawkeye fighting off Chitauri on a rooftop, saves her life from one of the invaders, and acrobatically leaps down into an office building. It’s a key scene for Kate Bishop, showing us why she’s a Hawkeye fan and what first drove her to pick up a bow and arrow.
It also turns out to be perfectly synced to what we saw in the Avengers, as proven by this fan video:
Getting the timing right on this must have taken some doing, and it’s interesting how they’ve seamlessly recycled and reframed The Avengers footage that’s nearly a decade old for Hawkeye.
Kate Bishop’s fangirling over Hawkeye was in full display in the opening two episodes, with the pair forming an uneasy duo as Clint both struggles to stop the situation with the Tracksuit Mafia spinning out of control and tries to keep Kate out of it.
As episode two wraps up, he’s failed on both counts, with them both in the clutches of the crime gang and about to meet Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez/Echo. This character has key similarities with both Clint and Kate, and in the comics is the adoptive daughter of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin.
That’s inevitably fuelled gossip about Marvel Studios beginning to incorporate characters from the Netflix shows, with fans desperate to see more of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin.
We may get our answers on Wednesday when the third episode of Hawkeye airs on Disney Plus.
