Hawkeye’s Ultimate Origin Should Have Been Used in the MCU

When it came time for Hawkeye‘s MCU debut, Marvel should have used his Ultimate origin instead of the version seen in Avengers. In the 2012 film, Clint Barton was a loyal SHIELD agent turned into a mindless zombie helping Loki’s effort to conquer Earth for Thanos. In the Ultimate universe, Clint was a former Olympian turned criminal who was drafted to work for Nick Fury and the upcoming SHIELD organization. In this case, his place in the Avengers would have not only referenced his comic book origin but also explained his abilities as a result of super-soldier experimentation similar to Captain America.

Ultimate Hawkeye was introduced in Ultimates #7 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch as a member of SHIELD’s Black Ops division, a man who proved his claim that he never misses were not just for show. Clint Barton was a master archer with extraordinary reflexes, dexterity, and nearly perfect aim. He joined the Ultimates alongside Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver and proved essential in helping to stop the Chitauri invasion or defeating their international metahuman opposites, the Liberators. Although he was capable of stopping the Hulk, Clint was the only member of the Ultimates who had a family, with their death in Ultimates 2 traumatizing him. While working through his issues, Hawkeye worked with the Ultimates and later the Avengers in stopping all manner of extraordinary threats.

Although Hawkeye’s past was hinted at in sporadic conversation, Ultimate Hawkeye #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Rafa Sandoval provided his actual origin. Clint Barton was a former Olympic archer who fell from grace and was incarcerated for murder. A visit from SHIELD revealed that Clint’s impeccable aim was due to “the Program”, an American super-soldier initiative that modified the “cones” and “rods” in his eyes. While a normal person has one hundred and fifty million rod cells in their eyes, Clint has about four hundred million. Despite having less than average cone cells which meant his vision is now black and white, this apparently helps improve his visual contrast along with the enhanced muscles around his eyes that allow orb distortion and help him change focal length.

The Ultimate universe became the blueprint that much of the MCU took inspiration from and this origin could have been a cooler introduction to Hawkeye.  Clint’s skill set and lack of superpowers have been a criticism of the character, especially compared to the power or abilities of his teammates in the Avengers. The Ultimate Hawkeye was another super-soldier experiment resulting in an operative who could not miss, that every weapon in his hands could be a lethal weapon if he desired it. MCU’s Hawkeye appeared to be a loyal SHIELD agent whose dark past was barely hinted at while Ultimate Hawkeye was a lethal criminal with impressive abilities and nothing to lose. This would have been a much deeper edge to the character that’d create some interesting friction off of his more heroic teammates especially considering Nick Fury has more skeletons in his closet than Clint ever did.

Although he didn’t realize it, Clint Barton was auditioning for Nick Fury and his clever use of a pen impressed Fury so much that he buried Clint’s charges and had him released into his custody, molding him into an ideal operative and later famous superhero. Although Hawkeye wasn’t opposed to bumping heads with Fury, it would have been interesting to see that kind of relationship when they both made their MCU debut. Although the upcoming Hawkeye series may shed some light on Clint’s background, it seems ironic that Marvel missed the mark to portray a different, possibly richer origin story to one of its underrated characters.

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