Marvel's Avengers had its second War Table presentation this week, which brought more details about the game's beta launch next week, and the reveal that Clint Barton aka Hawkeye would be a playable character after launch. Fans have noticed a unique detail about the Hawkeye character shown in the announcement trailer that could point to a particular characteristic from the hero's comic origins.
Marvel's Avengers allows players to take control of Earth's mightiest heroes in both co-op and solo missions. Some of the major announced characters include Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Ms. Marvel and Captain America. Like all the other playable Avengers in the new game, Hawkeye bears little resemblance to Jeremy Renner's portrayal of the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the developers may be taking advantage of this to make one important change to the character.
Hawkeye in Marvel comics has had a history of being deaf or hard of hearing. In the Marvel's Avengers reveal trailer of Hawkeye, Clint appears to be wearing hearing aids, suggesting that his hearing issues will be canon in the game. The choice that the studio has made to stick closer to the comic book origins for the game rather than the big screen renditions brings much needed diversity to Marvel's Avengers' world.
The team at Crystal Dynamics is drawing from the "My Life As A Weapon" comic book run from Matt Fraction and David Aja for their design of Hawkeye. In the comic series, Hawkeye was stabbed in the ear drums by the Clown, leading to him needing special hearing aids that Tony Stark provided. However, in later runs of Hawkeye comics, the hero's deafness stemmed back to his childhood. It's unknown which origin story Marvel's Avengers will take for Hawkeye's hearing, or whether it will just be a natural part of his character design.
With a large array of playable characters available in Marvel's Avengers, it's reassuring to see that the devs aren't shying away from making changes to the classic characters in order to bring diversity to the game. Both Hawkeye as a disabled character and Ms. Marvel as a POC signal further representation for playable gaming characters. Marvel's Avengers is set to reveal more characters for post-launch which will hopefully continue to bring more diverse heroes to the game.
Marvel's Avengers releases September 4 on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X to follow.
Source: Polygon