For years, Clint Barton has been the forgotten Avenger, arguably the least favorite of the founding lineup of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But the just-concluded Hawkeye TV series has helped redeem the character and transform him into more of a fan favorite. Much as WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did for their respective heroes, the Disney Plus show gave Jeremy Renner more room to flesh out what makes Clint tick.
Case in point, fans are agreeing that an underrated scene from the series is one of Clint’s best-ever moments in the whole MCU. As posted by u/DoctorateInRhythm on the u/MarvelStudios subreddit, the scene that’s getting the love comes from episode 5. It sees Clint visiting the Avengers memorial, where he takes his hearing aid out to speak with Natasha. “Talk about an emotional moment,” the fan wrote. “This stole the show for me!”
Others agreed that this moment deserves more appreciation.
One pointed out that all of the scenes that dug into Clint’s grief over Nat’s death were strong and voiced their excitement that Hawkeye’s finally “getting the spotlight.”
Meanwhile, others started debating exactly what Clint was apologizing to Nat for.
It could be that he said that because he was about to don the Ronin suit again, for the first time since Nat helped him retire the mantle in Avengers: Endgame.
An alternate interpretation is that Clint was prepared to kill Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), though thankfully she ended up surrendering.
Natasha’s demise in Endgame was a hugely controversial moment due to how it was given short shrift amid everything else that happened. Thanks to Black Widow and Hawkeye, though, the aftermath of Agent Romanoff’s loss has now been much further explored, bringing closure to her selfless sacrifice. At the same time, this underrated scene added some extra depth to Clint’s character.
Find all six episodes of Marvel’s Hawkeye on Disney Plus now.