Someone should make a game about: Hawkeye (2012) Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Someone should make a game about: Hawkeye (2012) The archers. Feature by Joel Franey Contributor Published on 9 Sep 2020 33 comments Matt Fraction's run on the Hawkeye comics famously started with a brief text preamble: "Clint Barton, a.k.a Hawkeye, became the greatest sharpshooter known to man. He then joined the Avengers. "This is what he does when he's not being an Avenger." It was a good pitch reinforced by an even better execution. And no, it's certainly not the first or last time that a superhero comic focused on a protagonist's personal life instead of world-saving escapades, but Fraction took the archer Avenger and managed to place him in a lovable everyman context. Whether it's dealing with shitty landlords, with relationship troubles, with injured pets, with the strange half-fame of being one of the world's lesser-known heroes, Clint muddles through it all with a bow, his bestie Kate Bishop, and a selection of ill-fitting T-shirts. Make no mistake, the good stuff in Hawkeye (2012) isn't in the action, it's in our protagonist. Under Fraction's eye, Clint is a character filled with a deep sense of ennui, seemingly at a loss for what to do with himself whenever he's not shooting at supervillains. He somehow manages to feel out of place everywhere, looking uncomfortable in expensive galas, dirty alleyways, or even among other heroes. The first time you finally see him looking confident is when he's part of a frantic car chase, firing bizarre trick arrows at gangsters. It's an important distinction: Hawkeye is the character who knows what he's doing, but Clint Barton is barely able to cope on a day-to-day basis. However, the comics also don't make a complete mockery of Clint, which is a nice change. Too many stories that try to deconstruct characters end up descending into meanness and cruelty, tearing them to shreds so the audience can get a brief sneer. Instead, Fraction doesn't hate Barton, he sympathises with him. Too heroic for the normal world, too normal for the heroic world, and overshadowed in the public eye by the larger-than-life vigilantes he stands with. In a way, I can't help but get flavours of Persona 5 or the Yakuza games. The street-level issues overlap with sci-fi wildness, seen through the perspective of one man struggling to balance normality with the fact that his office is a flying aircraft carrier filled with colourful demigods. Even as the character prepares to appear in Marvel's Avengers, I know deep down it won't be the character we love. It'll be too much super, and not enough human. Because the fact of the matter is that Hawkeye (2012) takes all the things about the character that everybody makes fun of and just turns them into reasons to love him. His weakness adds humanity, his low self-esteem makes him worthy of respect, and everything normal about him makes him just stand out that much more. If a game captures that right, it'll do it through storytelling, not frantic action and loot farming, allowing us to live the peculiar life of one man trying to balance two very different worlds. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 12 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 59 Modder dives into Demon's Souls files following PS5 jailbreak, discovers fabled Ring of the Chieftain Who knows what's nexus? 4 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store