Marvel’s wonderfully welcome Winter warmer reaches the halfway point – already! – in an episode that edges forward Hawkeye’s driving storyline but delivers a cinematically-thrilling extended action sequence, nimbly introduces a character who appears to be the show’s protagonist (via a touching flashback sequence) and adds more light and shade to our arrow-adept hero than we’ve seen across his numerous appearances in the wider MCU itself.
Battle-weary Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and bright-eyed, bushy-tailed Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) have been captured by the comically-incompetent Tracksuit Mafia commanded, it appears, by the agile, wily Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) who is living with a hearing impairment, not unlike Clint’s. Clint deftly slips his bonds and a good twenty minutes of the episode are lustily devoured by a frenetic, imaginative and beautifully-choreographed fight sequence that leads into a dynamic and dazzling car chase that, in all honesty, would be more at home in a big-budget feature film rather than in a six-part TV series. It’s a breathtakingly confident scene, balancing the show’s generally lighter tone with some tough and visceral – and pure comic book – action and violence. The sequence where Kate, leaning out of the window of Clint’s car and loosing off an array of arrows, each of which has an entirely random and unexpected outcome on impact – is pretty much the dictionary definition of joyous and the whole scene is brought to a wonderful climax with a hilarious nod to Ant-Man and an insane leap from a bridge that seals the deal and puts this show in an entirely different league to its Disney+ forebears, possibly even including the mind-frying WandaVision.
But it’s not all action and comic-book spectacle. The second half of the episode sees Clint still trying to find a way out from under the shadow of his Blip-era alter ego Ronin and the fatherly bond between himself and Kate seems to be growing stronger despite his reluctant acceptance that it’s highly unlikely he will be able to spend the quality Christmas time with his family that he so craves. A standout scene in a standout episode sees Clint and Kate catching a break in a café; Kate is eagerly trying to rebrand Hawkeye by designing a proper superhero costume for him and Clint reminds her that he doesn’t want to be a role model, he doesn’t want to be a hero. It’s another example of the way Hawkeye can turn on a dime, switching from humour to high drama in the same scene. The episode also deals sympathetically with the issues arising from both Clint and Maya’s hearing impairment; in the opening sequence, we see young Maya struggling in a world of the hearing and her determination to rise above her disadvantages, nicely counterpointed with Clint who is now, thanks to his own past, dealing with the same thing but more keen to leave his troubled former life behind him even as it refuses to let him go. Hearts may break at the scene where Clint, his hearing aid smashed during the fight with Maya and not yet repaired, tries to communicate with his son Daniel on the phone; all he can hear is a muffled voice but Kate is on hand to write the messages down on a pad so he can read them, each message leaving him increasingly frustrated and helpless. It’s a credit to Marvel’s policy of diversity and awareness that the issue of deafness is being handled so even-handedly – two main characters have hearing issues – but the disability doesn’t stop them (or anyone else) enjoying a fulfilling life (even if most hearing-impaired people in the real world won’t find themselves jumping off bridges or commanding an army of idiotic thugs).
Echoes is a high octane episode book-ended by well-judged moments of quiet drama that add layers of humanity to our hero and our villain – and that’s still quite rare in superhero narratives. If we’ve any criticism at all it’s that there’s just so much going on here that we don’t get a chance to spend time with the wonderful Vera Farmiga as Kate’s mother Eleanor or her oily new fiancé Jack (Tony Dalton) so the mystery of the death of his uncle Armand (Simon Callow) in Episode One and what Jack’s real deal might be remain untouched and undeveloped this week. But it’s a small price to pay for a 43-minute instalment that is just so damned entertaining and unashamedly ballsy. Against all the odds and all reasonable expectations, Hawkeye is shaping up to be the best Marvel Disney+ series yet and we can’t wait to see where this utterly engaging roller-coaster ride of a series will take us next.
Hawkeye streams on Disney+ with new episodes every Wednesday.
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