Hawkeye Episode 3
Hawkeye episode 3, “Echoes” is an action-packed romp, and handily the best episode of the series so far. Hell, it’s one of the best episodes of Marvel TV we’ve seen all year. And while it’s a lot more low key with it’s Marvel Comics references and MCU Easter eggs, there’s lots of holiday gifts, big and small, peppered throughout. Here’s everything we found…
Echo
In the montage of Echo’s life, we see her easily defeat a male boxer. The same scene happens in her first comic book appearance in Daredevil #9, albeit in a more public spectacle.
In the comics, Echo’s father Willie “Crazy Horse” Lincoln, was killed by Wilson Fisk and not Ronin. That part about him leaving a bloody handprint on her face as he died was loyal to the source material, albeit in a different spot. The blue “hand turkey” we spot in Maya’s childhood bedroom when she talks to her father kind of foreshadows that bloody handprint, doesn’t it?
Willie refers to Maya as his “little dragon,” which not only speaks to his talk with her earlier in the episode, but also to her fighting prowess: “the little dragon” was one of Bruce Lee’s nicknames.
Now, let’s talk about Maya’s “Uncle” for a minute…
Hawkeye’s Trick Arrows
The takes on the arrows here are yet another switch between Hawkeyes from the comics to the MCU (this show loves to do that, and we’re cool with it). In the comics, Clint was very into the whole trick arrow concept and defensive about it. Kate found the whole thing to be incredibly stupid, gradually learning to respect them over time…
Here’s all the arrows deployed in this car chase: putty arrow, plunger arrow, exploding arrow, a bola-arrow, acid arrow, smoke bomb arrow (this and the putty arrow look extremely cool), the Pym arrow (this is awesome), and the USB arrow. For contrast, in the comic this scene was based on we had the bola-arrow, acid arrow, putty arrow (which is ultimately what he used to defeat the Tracksuits), sonic arrow, explosive arrow, cable arrow, smoke bomb arrow, rocket arrow, plunger arrow, electro arrow, and the boomerang arrow. A net arrow was mentioned, but didn’t get used.
In the Fraction run, Kate especially found the USB arrow to be a waste. Keep in mind, she didn’t have to shoot it, but just manually insert it into a computer. It’s pretty funny that the USB arrow is considered to be the weakest and most pointless weapon in Hawkeye’s arsenal when in What If…?, it actually saved the multiverse by subduing Infinity Ultron.
Pizza Dog
Kate finally names her adopted dog Pizza Dog. That’s more of a fan nickname for the comics version, whose original name was Arrow before Clint changed it to Lucky. Just call him “very good boy” and we’re happy.
The Tracksuit Mafia
The Tracksuit Mafia’s hideout was an abandoned former KB Toys. Whoever owned that property must have really let that go to waste, as KB Toys has been out of business since 2009. Granted, there was an attempt at a revival back in 2018, but that never found the funding to go anywhere. I suppose in the MCU, that revival did happen, only for the business to crumble yet again.
It’s pretty funny that one of the Tracksuit Mafia goons is into Imagine Dragons when one of the earlier scenes is about Echo and her father imagining dragons? Similarly, their moving business slogan of “Smile! You’re moving!” is basically how they acted to the two Hawkeyes in the warehouse.
Who is Kazi?
Kazimierz Kazimierczak (played by Fra Fee) is known as “the Clown” in the pages of Marvel Comics. He’s a mercenary hitman who came to the United States after a traumatic childhood in an Eastern European country. So far, he’s being played as a pretty reasonable lieutenant of Maya’s, but we’ll be interested to see if they take him down any darker paths. In the comics, he puts on some full-blown Mime makeup when he goes out to do his business, but you can probably understand why Marvel Studios might shy away from that imagery in live action.
Ronin
When Clint says that Black Widow killed Ronin, he’s not entirely lying, “from a certain point of view” as noted liar Obi-Wan Kenobi might say about this situation. It was Natasha who brought Clint back from the brink during his Ronin killing spree.
Christmas Songs
The episode features two relatively deep cut Christmas tracks, which this show has been great at. We get a snippet of The Kinks’ spectacularly angry “Father Christmas” about midway through the episode, but the real winner is Sammy Davis Jr.’s swingin’, kickass version of “Sweet Gingerbread Man” over those gorgeous closing credits. The Hawkeye soundtrack is looking like the Christmas playlist of the year, folks!
