Hawkeye is coming soon on Disney+, as the Avengers archer makes his way back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) will not arrive alone, though. He has two other major Marvel heroes making their MCU debuts in the series as well.
Both the female Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, will make her debut as will the antihero known as Echo, a character who at one time shared the same role Hawkeye took on in the comics as well.
Here is what you need to know.
Echo is coming to Hawkeye and has an X-Men connection
Echo is Maya Lopez, a woman trained as an assassin who eventually made her way into becoming a hero.
Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, used Echo to try to destroy Daredevil, and she had an interesting connection to the Man Without Fear. While Daredevil is blind and has to use his other senses to become a better fighter, Echo is deaf and similarly has to use her other senses to fight as well.
She eventually moved on and became Ronin, which is the same identity that Hawkeye took on after he returned from his death in Avengers: Disassembled. Hawkeye also took on the role of Ronin in the MCU in Avengers: Endgame when he became an assassin.
However, Echo now is known for something bigger in Marvel Comics.
In this past week’s finale of The Avengers storyline, Enter the Phoenix, Maya became the new host for the Phoenix Force.
This is something that has historically been associated with the X-Men, as it was Jean Grey and later Rachel Summers who took on the Phoenix Force.
Now, the Phoenix is in the body of Echo and she has become one of the most powerful heroes on Earth as a result.
Who is Kate Bishop in Hawkeye?
One thing that the Hawkeye Disney+ series will likely do is write Clint Barton out of the MCU storylines.
Kate Bishop is Hawkeye in the comics, and both heroes use the same name. This is because Clint helped train Kate and granted her permission to keep using his name even after he returned to the role after his stint as Ronin.
Kate Bishop is also a founding member of the Young Avengers, and there are a lot of hints that the team is coming to the MCU, with characters introduced in WandaVision (Wiccan and Speed), Ant-Man (Stature), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Patriot), and the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (America Chavez).
Hawkeye will hit Disney+ later in 2021.