The Avengers: Age of Ultron opens May 1, and if you're one of those eager beavers or early birds who saw it right out of the gate — aka, at midnight — you likely haven't been able to stop talking about one of the Avengers: Age of Ultron plot twists involving Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner. And if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to clear out of here, because — full disclosure — I'm about to talk about the plot twist, at length, and, specifically, whether it was inspired by a similar plot line in the Marvel comic books that Age of Ultron is based on.
SPOILER WARNING: Unless you want a big part of Avengers: Age of Ultron ruined for you, I'll repeat that you should close this window immediately. (And buy your ticket to see it in theaters immediately.)
Are you gone? Because here come the spoilers — Hawkeye's alter ego, Clint Barton, has a secret family that the rest of the Avengers didn't know about. Whaaaaaaa? That's right, he's happily married, with two kids, and a third on the way, which is about as mainstream as you can get.
So when I found all this out, my first instinct was to wonder if this detail was true to the original comic series, or whether they'd invented it for the movie. It's a far thing to wonder: After all, The Avengers franchise has departed from the comics before (Black Widow and The Hulk, anyone?), and this was such a shocker in the film that it might really be original to the film.
And, as it turns out, that's exactly the case: In the comic series, Hawkeye has been romantically linked to everyone from Black Widow to Mockingbird to the Wasp — but those women all have powers of some sort. In Age of Ultron, his romantic partner is a regular (albeit, extremely lucky) human lady. And that's not all.
Even though there was an arc in the comics that found Hawkeye married to Mockingbird (which is the name taken by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bobbi Morse), the two of them never had children, and their marriage eventually dissolved — so she definitely can't be the inspiration for the happy marriage described in Age of Ultron, or the kids on the way.
Bottom line, it sounds like our boy Clint Barton found that work-life balance that we all crave only in the films, which is pretty much ample evidence we should keep on our toes when it comes to future films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If Hawkeye can have a family no one expected or knew about, who knows what other surprises might be waiting for us in the future?
Images: Marvel; Giphy (1)
