WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Hawkeye: Freefall #4 by Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt and VC's Joe Sabino.
Hawkeye has existed in the Marvel Universe since 1964, with the character transitioning from villain to hero when he joined the Avengers. Clint Barton earned the codename "Hawkeye" for his mastery of archery. Decades after his first comic book appearance, Jeremy Renner portrayed the archer in a cameo appearance in 2011's Thor before officially debuting the following year in The Avengers.
The opening sequence of the ensemble movie saw Dr. Erik Selvig refer to Clint as "The Hawk" when Hawkeye was shown sitting in an elevated perch guarding the Tesseract at a top-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. Hawkeye would later become mind-controlled by Loki's scepter and used as a tool by the trickster god in his attempt to take over the Earth.
Many fans probably hadn't taken the time to give Hawkeye's codename much thought, aside from it meaning the hero was a good shot with a bow and arrow. However, The Avengers put a new spin on the title during the climactic battle against the invading Chitauri army. Cap ordered Hawkeye to stakeout on top of a high-rise building in order to call out patterns and strays only his "hawk's eye" would notice. This meant Clint Barton's eyesight and ability to notice the small details were his own form of a superpower, not unlike Daredevil's enhanced senses.
Speaking of Daredevil, he has recently shown up in the Hawkeye: Freefall miniseries, which sees the titular character investigating the reemergence of Ronin. The samurai warrior is one of Hawkeye's former aliases, but Clint has repeatedly denied that he is behind the mask. Hawkeye, Falcon and Winter Soldier were even attacked by Ronin, which should have put the Clint/Ronin debate to rest. However, Hawkeye: Freefall #2 revealed Hawkeye really is masquerading as Ronin, using time travel technology to pull off the deception.
After Clint (dressed as Ronin) discovers a Hood safe house filled with dead henchmen, he is surprised to see Daredevil on-hand, seemingly ready to bust his cover. But as a preview for Hawkeye: Freefall #4 reveals, not only is Daredevil unaware that Hawkeye is Ronin, but Hawkeye's heralded vision from the MCU has been unable to tell that Daredevil is a blind man.
Just as it appears Daredevil is going to confront Clint for dressing up as Ronin again, Daredevil takes the conversation in a different direction. This stuns Clint, who begins to question whether Daredevil can see out of his mask. Of course, this being Hawkeye, he takes things too far by wildly waving his hands in Daredevil's face to see if the street vigilante notices. Daredevil eventually reacts by grabbing Hawkeye's hand and asking him why he's doing that. So just as Hawkeye was about to believe that Daredevil is blind, he now has evidence this is factually incorrect.
Readers and fans know Daredevil is legally blind, but the accident that caused him to lose his vision also enhanced all of his other senses, providing him a new method of sight. Though if Hawkeye had this renowned vision like the MCU would have you believe, he should have already figured out that while Daredevil is blind, he can still see -- just not in the traditional sense.
Perhaps Hawkeye should stick to using his eyesight to shoot bow and arrows and leave the special powers to the other hundred heroes that make up the Marvel U. Though it would be fun to watch Daredevil teach Hawkeye how to use his heightened vision to fight crime.
Hawkeye: Freefall #4 goes on sale March 11 from Marvel Comics.