Ronin first debuted in New Avengers #11. The character was a mysterious ninja who helped the team against the Hand and was originally supposed to be Daredevil in disguise, but readers figured it out and it was changed to Echo, a deaf former assassin that had debuted in Daredevil a few years earlier.
However, eventually the role would be taken over by a much bigger hero- Hawkeye. Both he and Echo would be members of the underground Avengers team fighting against first Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. and then Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R., but it was Hawkeye that would be Ronin. After a while, the mantle faded into obscurity a bit before being resurrected for Avengers: Endgame, with a new version recently introduced in Hawkeye: Freefall. So, with all of that in mind, who's the best Ronin- Hawkeye or Echo?
10 Hawkeye: Brings New Skills To The Table
Hawkeye was a superhero for a long time before he became Ronin, while Echo was just an assassin. She was pretty skilled but Hawkeye brought skills to the table that she just didn't have. His marksmanship was just way better, for starters, and he was more used to fighting superpowered opponents, something that would come in handy as their team of Avengers faced off against various government sponsored superteams.
Hawkeye brought new skills to being Ronin that Echo just didn't have or wasn't as good with and that made a lot of difference.
9 Echo: More Suited To Being A Ninja
Hawkeye is way more skilled than people realize but as far as it goes, being a sneaky ninja type isn't exactly his forte. Echo, as a former assassin, is more used to sneaking around and such, which is why she became Ronin in the first place- Daredevil sent her to Japan to watch the Hand.
Echo is a much better choice to be a superhero ninja than Hawkeye because it's basically what she had been doing for most of her life before she became Ronin.
8 Hawkeye: A Changed Man
After being resurrected, Hawkeye was a very different man and needed a change. This would be compounded by the events of the superhero civil war. He just didn't feel right being Hawkeye anymore and becoming someone else made more sense.
He became Ronin to get a change in his life and completely embraced this new life. It would especially fit later when he found out that Bullseye was calling himself Hawkeye on the Dark Avengers and Hawkeye wanted revenge.
7 Echo: It Was Her Ticket To The Big Time
Echo wasn't really on anyone but Daredevil's radar before she became Ronin. However, becoming Ronin gave her an in to the greatest superteam around. She worked on her own, fighting against the Hand, making a name for herself and giving the team a reason to respect her.
Her time as Ronin set her apart from the crowd of ex-assassins trying to go good in the Marvel Universe (which is a pretty large contingent when it comes right down to it) and she worked extremely hard as Ronin.
6 Hawkeye: Experience
Echo may have been better as a ninja but Hawkeye has way more experience than her as a superhero in general. This makes a lot of difference because ninjas in the Marvel Universe, be they good or bad, often get involved in the superpowered hijinks of all kinds.
Hawkeye's breadth of experience makes him better suited to deal with more situations than Echo and that makes a lot of difference, especially on a team like the Avengers.
5 Echo: Willing To Go To Extremes
Hawkeye, as much as he likes to talk a big game, isn't going to kill anyone. It's just not in his DNA, even though he's a guy who shoots arrows at people. However, sometimes, killing needs to be done and if anyone is going to do it, someone dressed like a ninja should be the one to do it.
Echo, as a former assassin, is much more willing to do the hard things that need to be done. She doesn't enjoy killing but she knows that sometimes it needs to get done. Ronin doesn't carry a sword just for show; there's a reason she chose that weapon when creating the mantle.
4 Hawkeye: He Fits In Better With The Avengers
While no one says that Ronin has to be an Avenger, the concept and the team has been inextricably linked. So, if Ronin is going to be on the Avengers, it makes more sense for it to be someone the rest of the team knows very well and that's Hawkeye.
Echo fits in okay with the Avengers but she eventually left the team when they stopped being an underground team. She's more suited to that kind of work than being an out and out superhero, while Hawkeye excels in that environment.
3 Echo: Photographic Reflexes
Much like Taskmaster, Echo has photographic reflexes that allow her to mimic anything she sees. For example, she's a great concert pianist, despite being deaf, because she's watched concert pianists. She's a great ballerina because she watches ballet. She can fight just as well as Daredevil because she's studied him.
While in Japan, she was fighting Hand ninjas constantly. This gives Echo as Ronin a massive amount of skill and flexibility, as she can learn anything just about instantaneously.
2 Hawkeye: Clout
Hawkeye put Ronin on the map. He wasn't the first one to be Ronin but he's the one that everyone thinks of when they think of Ronin. It's not that he was better as Ronin, but he did spend more time as Ronin and was more popular and well known than Echo to begin with.
Without Hawkeye becoming Ronin, it's pretty doubtful that anyone would actually care about Ronin and that the character would have been featured in the biggest movie ever made.
1 Echo: She Needs The Gimmick
Echo is a pretty forgettable character who borrows from other characters- she was an assassin sent after Daredevil that he ended up sleeping with (there are way too many of those to count) and she has Taskmaster's photographic reflexes. She needs something to set her apart from others and Ronin is that thing.
Echo as Ronin was willing to undertake a dangerous solo mission with no hope of back-up at all just so she could work with the Avengers. Hawkeye just decided to be Ronin because he was angry at the world and wanted to use a sword. Echo used the gimmick to prove herself and became a bigger hero because of it.