*WARNING* This Review Contains Spoilers For Hawkeye Episode Three

Hawkeye is a breath of fresh air. With the majority of the MCU shows on Disney+, we’re given massive stakes as an audience. This time around, especially from the first two episodes, the stakes are much lower here. Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision all had wide-ranging stakes from universal collapse to the imminent destruction of the Earth. Either way, it’s nice to see Hawkeye continue in the third episode with stakes of “how does Clint get home for the holidays”.

This time around, we get a fantastic sub-5 minute introduction to the new character, Maya. For those in the know, this is the lead character for the upcoming series Echo. Her introduction follows the cliffhanger from episode two. Also, so we’ll just get it out of the way, Maya’s uncle is Kingpin. If it isn’t, then it’s a strange bit of subversion by Marvel again, after the physicist WandaVision fiasco, let’s hope they don’t mess it up.

After a large bit of introduction in the first two episodes, we’re dropped straight into the action with Kate and Clint tied up by the Tracksuits. This scene was a perfect example of why their relationship works so well. Clint is cool, calm, and collected, while Kate is manic, and talking way too much. This episode might have been lighter on the story-bits but was full of action and development for the characters.

A Different Side Of Clint Barton On Hawkeye Plus Maya

Any good character has to have a wound. Whether that’s hearing loss, losing your best friend, missing the holidays with your family, or something else. It just turns out that Clint Barton has all of those wounds and then some. This episode exposed many of those wounds for us all to see. The scene with Clint on the phone with his son was truly heartbreaking. No matter what Hawkeye does, it’s a great showcase for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Maya is also a great character to represent multiple groups. Between Eternals and this show, Marvel is showing that being deaf or hard of hearing isn’t just a debilitating condition and that people can be heroes regardless of their physical condition.

Whatever the path Hawkeye taKes, this is on the way to being one of the best Marvel shows out there. The action, especially the episode central car chase through New York City was breathtaking. From the onset, this episode was filled with great action and stunts. It’s incredibly refreshing to see normal, gifted heroes fighting for once.

The big revelation from this episode is in the first five minutes and it’s likely what most people will talk about, but it shouldn’t get lost just how much this episode did for the characters of Clint, Maya, and Kate. They got their due, and now we’ll see what the mystery involving Jack has to offer.

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of Hawkeye?

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