With the Avengers game recently releasing its first of two Hawkeye DLCs, the first focusing on Kate Bishop and the second on the underrated Clint Barton, there's a number of ways that the game has been impacted by both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the comics themselves.
Square Enix has been known to take its inspiration from a variety of places. It's not that unusual to see some of the most famous versions of these characters play a part in a new interpretation. But how exactly have these two variants of the source material affected the Avengers game? From the costume to the character designs and the personalities themselves, there's a great deal of work on this game that was taken from elsewhere.
Comic Book Impact: ing The Mantle
The comic books saw Clint Barton on the mantle to Kate Bishop in a number of highly praised stories. The MCU will be following this narrative, with the Disney+ Hawkeye series casting Hailee Steinfeld as the new purple archer.
The game has taken inspiration from this relationship and moved it along a little. With a significant time jump, Kate's DLC starts with her becoming a very experienced vigilante, with Clint himself having disappeared from active superhero life.
MCU Impact: Time As Ronin
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made a big deal out of Clint Barton's time as a completely different character, Ronin. With the Avengers game having Clint go on a dark path of his own making a number of mistakes, Ronin could be the end result of this.
After all, the game will likely want to vary the character selection and since there's already a Hawkeye available in Kate, it wouldn't be too surprising to see Ronin return to his full glory, as a playable character for fans to embrace.
Comic Book Impact: Developing Abilities
The comics see the younger Hawkeye Kate Bishop and indeed Clint himself, develop their abilities over time. They continue to enhance their accuracy and bring in new and different powers or skills into the arsenal. Hawkeye for instance once suited up as Goliath!
For Kate Bishop, the game sees her latching on to new teleporting technology that she has stolen from AIM. The comics see her utilize equipment from fallen enemies and this is no different; featuring a signature purple flare whenever she jumps.
MCU Impact: The Old Guard
While there are elements of this in the comics, the MCU really paints Hawkeye as one of the old guard. The movie version of the Avengers starts out with the core six of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.
The game follows this exact same pattern, but Hawkeye isn't around for their reunion. This veteran of the universe status is something that Kate and other younger heroes like Ms. Marvel, looks up to. It's a dynamic that is based in part on the direction of MCU Clint.
Comic Book Impact: The Costumes
The costumes for both Kate and Clint are taken directly from the comics. There's a huge variety to choose from when it comes to variations of their iconic looks. Right now there's a great number of Kate Bishop suits available.
From an early version of Mockinghawk, to more casual attire and even her iconic hero look, there's a huge variety of costumes that will only continue to grow. It's likely that Square Enix could update the game to reflect recent art changes too.
MCU Impact: Soul Of The Team
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Clint Barton is often portrayed as the soul of the team. During the slightly-comics-inaccurate battle with Ultron especially he was shown to be the glue that held the team together; the human element amongst a lot of chaos.
The video game seems to follow this same idea. With Clint gone there really is something missing. Ms. Marvel fills in this role for the majority of the game, becoming the catalyst to bring them all together. But it's interesting that it would have been Hawkeye if he was still around.
Comic Book Impact: Time Travel
While the MCU has gotten their foot wet in regards to time travel, the comics have really immersed themselves in the concept of jumping to different points in the time stream. Future Avengers DLC looks to take advantage of that.
In fact, Hawkeye will be traveling to the far future, where Maestro Hulk has rule over the domain. Of course, it's also possible the Multiverse is involved in this, but this is all heavy comic book territory.
MCU Impact: Use Of Character
The way the character has been created has a number of nods to the MCU version. The comic book iteration of Clint Barton started off as a criminal before going on a redemptive arc and becoming an Avenger.
For the MCU, Clint has always been a member of SHIELD and then becomes an Avenger as one of the most experienced vigilantes in the group. The video game iteration of the character seems to be following that same pattern.
Comic Book Impact: Weapons
The weapons of the game have been taken from throughout the comics. For instance, many of the teleportation and arrow modifications are inspired by different characters and weapons from the source material.
The sword that Kate uses is reminiscent of the Swordsman sword she had early on into her career and is also reflective of the weaponry used by Ronin in the comics. There's a lot of great nods in of the gameplay, therefore.
MCU Impact: Character Design
The actual physical design of the character is largely influenced by the MCU version. In fact, every character in the game seems to take a lot of inspiration from the actors who portray these heroes on film.
This was initially met with some criticism, with some people claiming that the game was a poor version of those designs. The new Hawkeye might have a hair cut, but a lot of the features of the character are similar to that of Jeremy Renner.