Well, Hawkeye kicked off in about the only way that makes sense, as Kate Bishop was introduced quickly and without as much exposition as one might have expected. Not only did watching Clint Barton during the battle of New York inspired her to become a master archer, fencer, and even martial artist, but it put her on course to become the next sharp-shooting hero in the MCU. Unfortunately, as it’s seen early on, Kate is a little impetuous and doesn’t really have the experience or the desire to take things slow when it comes to entering the superhero ring. This becomes a problem early on in the first episode, Never Meet Your Heroes, as it’s established that Kate’s mother is in charge of a sizeable security company, and her engagement to another man is upsetting Kate’s existence as she makes it somewhat clear how she feels to her mother. Of course, Kate isn’t exactly an exemplary student or individual since she’s managed to earn a great deal in her life, but she’s had her mother there to clean up her messes quite often as well.
On the flip side, we get to see Clint with his children in New York, having fun and taking in a show based on Steve Rogers and the Avengers, which is utterly ridiculous as the story is, as expected, kind of exaggerated and even features Ant-Man, who wasn’t there, to begin with as Clint notes. But it’s easy to see that the act bothers him a bit since he was one of those that was deep in the middle of it and, unlike all but one of his fellow Avengers, was woefully ill-equipped to deal with the overall threat, despite the fact that he did quite well with what he had at hand. It’s also established that his kids know very well what their father went through, and are likely to understand why he might have an issue with the play.
But it’s also clear that while their mother and father are still married, the vacation to New York was for Clint and his kids while their mother stayed home to take care of matters. When the story moves back to Kate, we see her attending a gala of some sort but also finding a reason to follow an old man named Armand that has serious issues with her mother. When she follows him to an underground auction that is taking place she takes note of the fact that the sword and suit of Ronin, Hawkeye’s alter-ego that was shown in Endgame, are being auctioned off, along with several other items. After the auction is broken up by the Track Suit Mafia, who appear to be the first established villains in this series, Kate dons the Ronin costume in the confusion, while her soon-to-be stepfather, Jack, makes off with the sword of Ronin. Kate is set upon by several members of the Track Suit Mafia, who manage to deliver a suitable amount of damage to her even as she dishes out a good amount of pain, making it obvious that she’s skilled, but not entirely experienced as of yet. She is seen and filmed while running away in the Ronin costume and is even followed to her apartment by both the TSM and Clint, who wants to know where she found the suit.
When the TSM fire-bomb Kate’s apartment, however, she and Clint have to find another place to lay low and recover, as the flames that are spread by several Molotov cocktails that are tossed into the apartment keep them from retrieving the suit. Later, when Clint returns to the apartment and masquerades as a firefighter, he finds that the suit is gone, though he does find that it has been claimed by a LARPer, and after surrendering a bit of his dignity, he retrieves the outfit from the LARPer and checks in at home, as his children have flown back to the ranch home. His wife, Laura, is fully on board with what he has to do to find out how many people might be coming after Ronin thanks to his ‘reappearance’, showing that she is completely understanding of the risks that Clint has to take.
Kate, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to fully understand the ramifications of her actions and goes in search of Hawkeye upon finding out that he’s been taken by the TSM, as he intended. But when she seeks to rescue him, she only ends up complicating matters as the TSM truss her and Clint up as one of them goes to tell the boss that they’ve been subdued. The boss in question would appear to be Echo, who many fans have been hoping to see for a while, and who will be getting her own spinoff eventually. It’s going to be interesting to see what will happen next week.
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