Hawkeye - so are we 616 or Ultimate based?
So now that I have seen Movieverse Hawkeye ( and my rant on that is in the other post), the question is what is his backstory?
Are we dealing with the traditional Marvel backstory, which is grim enough, or are we going for the Ultimate Verse background, which is so horrifc it makes your head hurt?
The Movieverse, in regards to other characters, seem to be an amalgam of both, with the more mature feel of the Ultimate universe, but not going as dark as that universe does.
The Hawkeye we see in the movie is a soldier. He's a senior SHEILD agent. You can see that in the way Fury talks and deals with him. He's not a grunt. He's one of the top dogs. He's smart. He figures out the Tessaract is opening from the other side before the Squints do. He's highly capable. Loki-influenced Hawkeye takes out SHEILD. While he is controlled by Loki, that is still all his skills. He's an absolute swathe of destruction on the Helicarrier.
Later on in the finale battle scene, he's directing the others from on-high, calling out positions.
So we have a highly skilled, high-level SHEILD agent, who Fury trusts. But he's also an assassin and a killer. Natasha and Loki both comment on that. He has done bad things. But he has a conscience. His first reaction on being freed from Loki's control is how many did he kill? He saves Natasha in the past, offers her a second chance, and whatever it is between them, she cares for him so much that she will drop everything and fight for him.
So far a lot of what we have seen shares similarities with Ultimate Hawkeye. UH is one of Fury's top agents. He starts the series married happily with three kids and a wife he rings before every mission, just in case it is his last. However, his background is grim. He's a convicted murderer, although we dont know the details of his crime, and a former Olympic archer, pulled from prison by Fury to be be SHEILD's pet assassin. He's had a previous relationship with the Black Widow and he is a ruthless Black Ops killer. In the Ultimate verse, his wife and children are murdered, one of them in his arms. He takes brutal vengeance on their killer, the Black Widow, and loses it a bit. When he finally regains some sanity, he's one of the more sane members of the team, at least compared to the others and Fury really trusts him.
In the original Marvel verse (616) Hawkeye is an ex-circus carnie/petty thief who accidentally ends up in the Avengers. He comes from an abusive background and well is a bit emotionally screwed and as sarcastic as frak. He's been married and divorced and married again to Mockingbird. He's had affairs with half the female Marvel verse, including the Black Widow. He's died, resurrected and died again. However, he's always been a good man, fighting on the side of the underdog, and despite the fact, no powers whatsoever, apart from being a good shot, one of the longest serving Avengers. But he can be a bit thick at times and insecure.
Of the two verses, movie Hawkeye is more in keeping with Ultimate Hawkeye. We have no backstory at all, but RDJ mentioned in an interview that they know his origin story and it's "horrific", so am assuming, just as the others are a mix of both verses, Hawkeye's background has elements of both. Either way, it's not pretty. I am really curious which they use.
OTOH, I am now fic-plotting a whole Clint/Natasha epic of doom with Clint backstory and angst, involving the whole team working in elements of both verses.
Are we dealing with the traditional Marvel backstory, which is grim enough, or are we going for the Ultimate Verse background, which is so horrifc it makes your head hurt?
The Movieverse, in regards to other characters, seem to be an amalgam of both, with the more mature feel of the Ultimate universe, but not going as dark as that universe does.
The Hawkeye we see in the movie is a soldier. He's a senior SHEILD agent. You can see that in the way Fury talks and deals with him. He's not a grunt. He's one of the top dogs. He's smart. He figures out the Tessaract is opening from the other side before the Squints do. He's highly capable. Loki-influenced Hawkeye takes out SHEILD. While he is controlled by Loki, that is still all his skills. He's an absolute swathe of destruction on the Helicarrier.
Later on in the finale battle scene, he's directing the others from on-high, calling out positions.
So we have a highly skilled, high-level SHEILD agent, who Fury trusts. But he's also an assassin and a killer. Natasha and Loki both comment on that. He has done bad things. But he has a conscience. His first reaction on being freed from Loki's control is how many did he kill? He saves Natasha in the past, offers her a second chance, and whatever it is between them, she cares for him so much that she will drop everything and fight for him.
So far a lot of what we have seen shares similarities with Ultimate Hawkeye. UH is one of Fury's top agents. He starts the series married happily with three kids and a wife he rings before every mission, just in case it is his last. However, his background is grim. He's a convicted murderer, although we dont know the details of his crime, and a former Olympic archer, pulled from prison by Fury to be be SHEILD's pet assassin. He's had a previous relationship with the Black Widow and he is a ruthless Black Ops killer. In the Ultimate verse, his wife and children are murdered, one of them in his arms. He takes brutal vengeance on their killer, the Black Widow, and loses it a bit. When he finally regains some sanity, he's one of the more sane members of the team, at least compared to the others and Fury really trusts him.
In the original Marvel verse (616) Hawkeye is an ex-circus carnie/petty thief who accidentally ends up in the Avengers. He comes from an abusive background and well is a bit emotionally screwed and as sarcastic as frak. He's been married and divorced and married again to Mockingbird. He's had affairs with half the female Marvel verse, including the Black Widow. He's died, resurrected and died again. However, he's always been a good man, fighting on the side of the underdog, and despite the fact, no powers whatsoever, apart from being a good shot, one of the longest serving Avengers. But he can be a bit thick at times and insecure.
Of the two verses, movie Hawkeye is more in keeping with Ultimate Hawkeye. We have no backstory at all, but RDJ mentioned in an interview that they know his origin story and it's "horrific", so am assuming, just as the others are a mix of both verses, Hawkeye's background has elements of both. Either way, it's not pretty. I am really curious which they use.
OTOH, I am now fic-plotting a whole Clint/Natasha epic of doom with Clint backstory and angst, involving the whole team working in elements of both verses.