Marvel Rivals’ Hawkeye is a Long Overdue Makeover

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 30, 2024 36 Views 6 Min Read
Marvel Rivals’ Hawkeye is a Long Overdue Makeover



The MCU has been Marvel’s enduring source of popular iconography for the better part of two decades. This has been terrific in bolstering characters like Iron Man or Ant-Man who may not have ever been as entertaining or alluring as they are when portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. and Paul Rudd respectively, and it surely put the Guardians of the Galaxy on the map in ways hitherto undreamt of. In other cases, the MCU has given general audiences an alternative depiction of a character, setting, or event that would be jarring for some people to learn how inaccurate it is when compared to the source material.




Civil War is truncated to just six characters on each side of the Sokovia Accords registration debate, for example, as opposed to having a diverse and wide chunk of Marvel’s whole pantheon present. Likewise, while characters such as Black Widow or Hawkeye have been significant and engaging in comic books, they’ve been more or less the laughingstock of the MCU. Marvel Rivals recently revealed Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, who was leaked beforehand, and he already seems poised to be a fantastic character. With any luck, Marvel Rivals can be the outlet Hawkeye needs to be perceived as a significant figure in the Marvel universe.

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Hawkeye Suffers from Being an Archer Among Superheroes


Every Marvel character has their die-hard fans regardless of whether they’re the most basic archetype or the most extravagant super-powered being. It may take a bit more effort to make their exploits immediately interesting, and yet even characters with the simplest gimmicks can be exciting if written and depicted well.

Hawkeye is never going to be the most interesting character in the room when gods, symbiotes, and land sharks are around, but that was made painfully clear in the MCU, which was already relatively grounded and realistic as is. It was salt in the wound that Clint Barton would never wear a proper costume, which could’ve at least given him a distinguishing silhouette. Instead, he wears forgettable tactical gear that only subtly has a purple hue.

Hawkeye’s titular Disney Plus show is genuinely decent as it delivers a dedicated glance at Clint’s personal experiences and how he’s reeling from the aftermath of multiple Avengers-scale endeavors as an ordinary human being (fun trick arrows also helped make his quiver more thrilling and cinematic). Unfortunately, Hawkeye also makes Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye more endearing than Clint in the same breath, and thus he’s arguably more redundant than he was before the series aired.


Marvel Rivals is a New Lease on Life for Hawkeye

Marvel Rivals’ Hawkeye not only has a great default design but his move set and abilities already make him one of the 6v6 hero shooter’s most interesting characters. The skill ceiling seems impressively high with Hawkeye, whether capitalizing on his Ultimate, Hunter’s Sight, or his Skyward Leap double jump.

Hawkeye’s kit could’ve easily been elementary in its design, though adding elements like an Archer’s Focus passive increasing damage on aiming rather than hip-firing is a subtle bit of nuance that enhances the character and makes him multi-dimensional.


Hawkeye needed to have a blade as every character has some form of melee option in Marvel Rivals, but the katana goes a long way in adding to his move set as it knocks enemies airborne with Crescent Slash and deflects incoming projectiles with Ronin Slash. It’ll be exciting to see what additional skins are associated with Hawkeye beyond his recently announced Galactic Fangs skin, debuting in Marvel Rivals’ upcoming Season 0, with a dedicated Ronin skin or even an Old Man Hawkeye skin possibly on the table.

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