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Why was Hawkeye so cool suddenly in Avengers: Endgame?
Hawkeye has always been cool. Endgame just showed us what he looks like broken and unhinged, and for some people, that’s what it takes for a character to be “cool.”
Here’s what’s cool about Hawkeye: he forges meaningful bonds with the women around him and goes out of his way to be a strong, compassionate role model in their lives. First, he did that with Black Widow, rescuing her from a life of Soviet lies. He could have killed her, but he chose to help. And she spent the rest of her life trying to pay that forward and be there for him as well.
No sexual tension, no other motivating factors, just a sincere care for Nat’s wellbeing.
Later, we see that Hawkeye also has a family. He manages to balance being a superhero with supporting his wife and kids as a loving husband and father. I appreciate, too, that Nat is a part of the dynamic, she’s an “adopted” member and gets to finally experience a healthy family.
Later in Age of Ultron, Hawkeye does it again: after knocking Wanda out, he proves to be the critical influence in her life, convincing her to ditch Hydra and fight alongside the Avengers. Turns out he can give Cap a run for his money in motivational speeches, when necessary.
And it doesn’t end there, Clint proves to be a strong father figure for Wanda in later movies, too. When Cap’s team needs to rescue Wanda from house arrest, they send Clint to talk to her because she trusts him, and rightly so. That man was willing to fight with Vision to help her out, after all.
You have to admire the guy for his willingness to help out Cap in the first place, too. Sure, he stands to benefit from keeping himself off the grid and off registration, but putting himself at risk like that was not an easy decision.
It’s only in Endgame that everything comes crashing down. After enjoying the work of a full-time husband, father, and farmer, one day he finds his family snapped. Gone. All his greatest loves ripped away in a heartbeat without so much as a chance to say goodbye. And once they were snapped, Hawkeye snapped. No more playing nice, no more teamwork, he began a solitary quest to exact vengeance on all those taking advantage of the Blip.
Sure, for some people, that’s really “cool” that Hawkeye stopped being an upright family man and descended into a self-destructive killing spree. But that’s not the cool part.
The cool part is when Nat does for Clint what Clint did for Nat so many years before. She rescues him, brings him back, and helps him move forward. It brings Nat full circle. Finally, she’s not the broken one. She’s the rescuer who gets to extend a helping hand to someone living the life she had.
Until Clint lost her too.
But Clint understands and he remembers. In the final battle, he’s invaluable to keeping the Infinity Gauntlet safe as the Avengers collect themselves and wage war against Thanos’ forces.
And in the end, his grief gives him another opportunity to be that role model to Wanda. They mourn together. He was there for her when she needed him, when she needed comfort.
If only he could have kept her close like Nat, before she fell so far.
Now, most recently, Hawkeye continues to connect with impressionable young heroes who need male role models in their life. This time, it’s Kate Bishop, who lost her father at a very young age and looked up to Hawkeye for years. Certainly he was reluctant, but he was there for her in the end.
And much like with Nat, he’s made her a part of the family so that she too can finally experience a healthy family firsthand. For the first time since losing Nat, he fully put his Blip years behind him, burning the Ronin suit and inviting another hero to be a part of his family.
Hawkeye has always been cool. Seeing him stumble and become a violent vigilante doesn’t make him cooler. It just adds to his incredible compassion and character as he continues to be the male role model so many of the heroes around him need.