Hawkeye Episode 3: MCU Easter Eggs and Marvel Comics References

By Mike Cecchini, Kirsten Howard, Gavin Jasper | December 1, 2021 | | 0

This article contains spoilers for Marvel’s HAWKEYE episode 3, as well as potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU.

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…

Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin

Several times in the episode, Echo’s “uncle” is brought up and we very briefly see a big man in a suit touching her face when she’s a child. Every arrow (heh) points to this being Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. This is an interesting inclusion, as he has only been used for the Netflix Marvel shows, namely Daredevil. Especially with the introduction of the Disney+ Marvel shows, the events on the Netflix shows have been mostly swept under the rug and have been more or less considered non-canon to the core MCU, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

In fact, the conversation between Echo and her father about being deaf in a regular school and the existence of dragons seems to have a double meaning about how Netflix Marvel fits in. Echo exists in two worlds. How does that work? You’ll just have to watch and go with it. The discussion about dragons being stronger if they exist in “our world” could also tie into how the Kingpin is canonically more dangerous if he can hold power in a world where even the Avengers are aware he exists (as we see from Clint’s conversation with Kate in Washington Square Park).

When Ronin kills Echo’s father, the Tracksuit Mafia is shown to run a business called “Fat Man Auto Repair,” which sounds as much like a front for a Wilson Fisk business as we’re ever likely to hear.

We even briefly hear the mysterious man chuckle, and he sounds an awful lot like Vincent D’Onofrio. Basically, this looks like it’s happening.

The Car Chase

The broad strokes of this amazing car chase are taken straight out of the pages of Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth’s 2012 Hawkeye series, Hawkeye #3 to be exact. All the basics are there, the two Hawkeyes (although there, it’s Kate driving, not Clint…like he wanted here), the poorly labeled trick arrows, Kate shooting an arrow into the air on the bridge, etc. It’s a classic issue of a classic series, and it’s translated beautifully to the screen here.

The vintage Dodge Challenger was also there (and also got totalled)…except that’s what the Hawkeyes were driving, as it was the vehicle of one of Clint’s (who isn’t married in the comics) lady friends. Here, the car is Echo’s.

And, of course, any time there’s a massive car chase involving a Dodge Challenger, we have to think of Steve McQueen’s classic Bullitt. But the fact that this is taking place through the streets of New York City in the dead of winter calls to mind the similarly badass The French Connection.

Speaking of those trick arrows…

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.

Surprise, it’s Jack!

Jacques Duquesne surprises Clint in the Bishop home, and…well…let’s see if there’s any interesting revelations about these two coming next week.

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!

Miscellaneous Trick Arrows

Of course, the costume that Kate “designs” for Clint looks very much like his classic comics look.

It’s interesting to know that Clint has been a SHIELD agent and/or Avenger for 20 years on this show. He must have been doing something BEFORE that, right? Maybe that’s something this show will explore a little in future episodes.

On the list of names as Kate and Clint are looking for info on Kazi we see a T. Kadlec. This is probably a coincidence, but Kadlec is an Inhuman known as “the Seeker.” Considering how far Marvel Studios wants to stay away from too much Inhumans-related stuff after that ABC TV debacle, this is probably a coincidence.

There’s also an M. Kemp. This, like the Wilson Fisk teases above, is another potential Daredevil connection. Appearing in one episode of Daredevil season 3, Michael Kemp was a member of the Albanian mob who Matt Murdock had to question while imprisoned on Ryker’s Island.