When Hawkeye appears as a playable character in Marvel’s Avengers from Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics, it appears that the character might wear hearing aids, as he does in the comics. During yesterday’s Avengers War Table stream, Hawkeye was revealed as a playable character coming to the game after launch. In addition to a teaser trailer, multiple pieces of concept art were revealed. One image of the character appears to show Hawkeye wearing a pair of hearing aids, though it’s not completely clear from the image. ComicBook.com reached out to Crystal Dynamics for confirmation, and was given the following response:
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“While this is our unique take on Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, his character and story-arc is absolutely inspired by some of the best-known Hawkeye moments in the comics. We look forward to providing more information on our version of Clint Barton’s Hawkeye soon.”
It will be interesting to see if Crystal Dynamics plans on incorporating this aspect of Hawkeye’s history into the game! The character lost his hearing following an encounter with a villain during Matt Fraction and David Aja’s run on the Hawkeye solo comic. It’s impossible to say for certain if this aspect will be included in the game, but with the DLC seemingly referencing other elements of Fraction and Aja’s run, it seems like it could be a distinct possibility!
Crystal Dynamics has shown a lot of interest in making Marvel’s Avengers an inclusive game. The title will offer multiple interfaces for players with low-vision, as well as remappable controls. Last but not least, the game is also introducing a new Inhuman character named Cerise, that happens to be in a wheelchair. In order to make the character’s movements authentic, the team even brought on accessibility specialist Cherry Thompson to provide motion capture for Cerise. Given the effort Crystal Dynamics seems to be putting into making the game more representative of the real-world, it seems that Clint being deaf would fit in well with the game that the developer is building.
Marvel’s Avengers will release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Microsoft Windows, and Google Stadia. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Marvel’s Avengers right here.
Do you plan on checking out Marvel’s Avengers? Are you happy to see Hawkeye in the game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
