The MCU Can’t Stop Insulting Marvel Character Names Even In Phase 4

Warning! SPOILERS for Hawkeye episode 4

The latest episode of Hawkeye continues the longstanding MCU tradition of mocking Marvel’s character nicknames. The classic monikers that the heroes and villains of Marvel comics choose to go by are often insultingly criticized throughout the MCU to humor the audience — and to offer a bit of in-joke fanservice to the original comic book readers. While the cause of this trend is probably the team at Marvel Studios attempting to ground their universe and make it feel more realistic, it ceases to make sense once one considers that this is a universe shared by sorcerers, aliens, and walking trees.

The tendency to taunt Marvel characters for their nicknames dates back to the first-ever MCU release, Iron Man, when Tony Stark criticized the “Iron Man” name given to him by the press due to its inaccuracy. However, some characters’ names are taken at face value and are not criticized, such as Captain America and Black Panther. This is usually due to the circumstances under which the MCU’s superheroes get their nicknames. In Captain America’s case, Captain is an already existing military rank, and the name Captain America was given to him by the American government, while the Black Panther alias is a reference to Bast, the Panther God worshipped by four of the five tribes of Wakanda. On the other hand, even the most iconic Marvel names, like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, serve as the punchline of other characters’ satirical remarks.

Hawkeye episode 4, “Partners, Am I Right?” continued the custom of slandering character names when Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) called Jacques Duquesne’s (Tony Dalton) character “Sword Boy,“ as opposed to Swordsman, the actual sobriquet that Hawkeye‘s Duquesne goes by in the source material. It seems as if this is a conscious decision by Marvel Studios, as their goal seems to be adapting the classic Marvel characters and storylines into a world that’s grounded and realistic, where such nicknames would come off as goofy and ridiculous. However, a name such as Swordsman, which relates to an actual sport and recreational pastime, would be a natural title given to a male character with an affinity for blades.

While Duquesne has not been called Swordsman in the show as of yet, Clint referring to him as Sword Boy seems like an intentional jab towards the character’s actual name. This is particularly off-putting given that Swordsman was one of Hawkeye’s two mentors in the comics, and was the first person to teach him how to properly fight with blades. It has always taken time for the characters of the MCU to grow into their monikers, but with a name as clear-cut as Swordsman, it is especially peculiar why Marvel Studios are electing to avoid the name four episodes into the Hawkeye series.

As the events and characters in the MCU continue to get more extravagant, the tradition of insulting the classic character nicknames is becoming increasingly pointless. The writers of the show mocking the Swordsman name through Clint Barton does not make a lot of sense, keeping in mind that Clint is a member of the Avengers, a team composed of superpowered characters, that faced off against two alien armies and an android one. It remains to be seen whether Jacques Duquesne will be dubbed “Swordsman” or not by the end of Hawkeye, and whether or not this libelous tradition will persist throughout the rest of Phase 4 and what lies beyond that for the MCU.

Hawkeye airs every Wednesday on Disney+.