Avengers: Endgame Reveals How Hawkeye Became Ronin

Even before Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters, it had been reported that Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) would be switching from his traditional Hawkeye persona to the gritty Ronin mantle he picked up eventually up in the comics. As the first Avengers: Endgame teaser trailer showed, Barton did indeed switch mantles and here’s why.

Obligatory spoiler warning: this post has major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. If you have yet to see the movie, proceed with caution. You’ve been warned!

Avengers: Endgame actually opens up with the situation that causes Barton’s downward spiral. Barton is having a picnic with his family outside, in a scene shown in one of the last trailers prior to the film’s release, where Clint is teaching his daughter Lila (Ava Russo) how to shoot her bow.

Lila shoots one arrow straight through the target’s bullseye and she goes to collect it from the target. As Clint looks off to his wife Laura (Linda Cardinelli) and sons off in the distance, viewers see Lila dust away. Clint begins turning around frantically, and his wife and sons have also disappeared.

At some point in the time jump between the snap and the five years later in which the majority of the movie takes place, Barton picks up the Ronin mantle and starts hunting down crime families across the globe for hire. It’s in this time he uses his accuracy skills to hone his hand-to-hand combat and sword skills, providing for plenty of bloody murders.

As seen in toys and the like leading up to the film’s movie, Barton’s Ronin costume is pretty comic-accurate, down to the gold piping on the facemask. The only major difference is that the MCU’s Ronin has no fabric covering his eyes while the comic Ronin has a full-face mask.

Avengers: Endgame is now in theaters.

What was your favorite part of Endgame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation on Twitter by hitting me up at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things MCU!

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