Hawkeye Episode 1 Review
Credit to: Disney and Marvel StudiosTaking Aim At the Latest Marvel Series
Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at the brand new Hawkeye series, which just recently drop two back to back episodes on November 24th. You’ll notice that we’re only doing the first episode, and the reason why is because while we’ve been getting mostly positive feedback on our reviews, we have noticed an increase of people wanting the reviews to be more frequent while cutting down on the size. This is understandable, you guys are busy and don’t always have time to read a bunch, so we completely get it. So, from now on, we’ll do one episode each week, while having more discussion articles on the second article day of the week. Hopefully you guys do appreciate the change! So now, without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.
Episode 1: Never Meet Your Heroes
After the usual Marvel Studios intro, we cut to a nice shot of a tall apartment building in New York City, with “2012” on the screen. For those of you who know why that year is important, then I’m sure you can imagine what’s next. We see a young Kate Bishop listening to her parents argue, but when she drops one of her toys, the two immediately calm down. Her father checks in on her, as she lies down in bed with her back turned towards him. He sits on her bed, calming her down, assuring her that things are going to be okay, and that no matter what, he’ll be there. A bit later, Kate is having lunch with her mom, Eleanor, who makes Kate laugh and smile. She tells Kate to go grab her Checkers board so they can have some fun, but when Kate gets to her room, a shadow passes the window. Then, a thud. Then, a small explosion, which knocks down her lamp. She runs out of her room to look for her parents, but stops to look at the ceiling window, only to see a Leviathan flying slowly over their home. She runs downstairs to find her dad, but just can’t. Suddenly, the side of their apartment blows open, and Kate is almost attacked by some Chitauri until an arrow takes out the attackers. When the dust clears, Kate gets a clear view at Hawkeye defending himself on top of a building like we saw in the first Avengers film, before shooting a grapple arrow and swinging into a window. Kate’s mom eventually runs to Kate and grabs her, running out of the apartment. Kate calls for her dad, but still, no answer, and it all cuts to black. We eventually see that her father met his unfortunate demise, and Kate asks her mother during the burial for a bow and arrow, wanting to learn how to protect herself and her mother. We get some cool animated shots of Kate growing up, becoming an award winning archer, gymnast, martial artist, and even a fencer. Long story short, she’s quite capable.
Jumping ahead quite a bit, cause, you know, spoilers, we see that Kate and her mother are now super rich, as they’re now the owners of a company called Bishop Security, and her mother is now with a super rich, super suspicious man named Jack Duquesne. Yeah, try pronouncing that without looking it up. Over on Hawkeye’s side, we see Hawkeye watching a Broadway musical with his children, but blanks out at the sight of a singer playing as Natasha. He steps outside for a breather, and his kids eventually come out to meet him and check on him. Jumping ahead, we’re back with Kate, who’s forced to attend a party with her mother and Jack. She finds out from a man named Armand, Jack’s uncle, that her mother and he are getting married. Without telling her. Ouch. She takes a moment outside Jumping ahead even further, Kate grows very suspicious of Armand when she eavesdrops on him and Eleanor arguing, hearing Armand actually threaten her. Kate questions her mom about it, but Eleanor just deflects. Jumping ahead, Kate follows Armand to a secret auction, where she sees Armand and Jack bidding on Hawkeye’s old Ronin suit and katana. Before the bids can finish, there’s a sudden explosion, where we see a mob of Russian gangsters infiltrate the area. Jack takes the sword and escapes, while Kate takes the Ronin suit and fights off the Russians. Let’s wrap up here, y’all. So, Kate is caught in the Ronin suit and has to fight off more Russians, but is saved by Hawkeye, who then pins her against her a wall to rip off the mask, getting surprised when he realizes she’s a young girl. End of episode.
Well, well, well. That was quite the episode. I do have a couple of things to say about it. The first is that I enjoy the feel of this show, I do, however, I personally feel that it’s a bit too similar to the Netflix Daredevil series, with the Russian mob, the uncovering of the villain’s identity, the masked vigilante on the news, etc etc. It’s a bit too similar. I believe that this is their way for setting up Daredevil’s return, and that would be great, buuut it’s not too great when it feels like it’s just a slightly different version of something else. I do enjoy Kate Bishop and the relationship she shares with her mother Eleanor and her stepfather Jack, but the writing makes her far too jokey at times that really don’t need it. Clint himself doesn’t really feel like he fits with the tone of the series either, though as usual, he’s portrayed quite well. Overall, I enjoy this pilot episode, but the writing is a bit off-putting at times. The jokes are almost always a fail, but even with these flaws, I did have a pretty alright time.
Final Thoughts
As I said before, this first episode was a fairly rocky one. I am interested to see where it goes from here, but the similarities to Daredevil stand out a bit too much for me, and the writing could definitely be tuned up a bit. The jokes were also a bit much, but other than those issues, I did enjoy this first episode. But what did you all think? Let me know on my Instagram and Twitter, and make sure you’re following them both to stay up to date with the news and reviews on your favorite entertainment topics. But that’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den.
